Speke was born on 4 May 1827 at Orleigh Court, Buckland Brewer, near Bideford, North Devon. In 1844 he was commissioned into the Bengal Army and posted to British India, where he served in the 46th Regiment o… See more

Speke and Grant now returned to England, where they arrived in June 1863 and were welcomed as genuine heroes. This did not last long in Speke's case however; disputes with Burton, who was relentless in his criticisms a… See more

A debate was planned between Speke and Burton before the geographical section of the British Association in Bath on 16 September 1864, but Speke had died the previous afternoon from a possibly self-inflicted gu… See more

In 1874–1877, Henry Stanley mounted a new expedition and took a boat along the entire shore of Lake Victoria; he established that Lake Tanganyika and the Nile were not connected in any way, and he explored the headwater… See more