River of the Gods - Candice Millard

River of the Gods

By Candice Millard

  • Release Date: 2022-05-17
  • Genre: History
Score: 4
4
From 234 Ratings

Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The harrowing story of one of the great feats of exploration of all time and its complicated legacy—from the New York Times bestselling author of The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE WASHINGTON POST • GOODREADS

"A lean, fast-paced account of the almost absurdly dangerous quest by [Richard Burton and John Speke] to solve the geographic riddle of their era." —The New York Times Book Review

For millennia the location of the Nile River’s headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was  a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe – and extend their colonial empires.

Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke were sent by the Royal Geographical Society to claim the prize for England. Burton spoke twenty-nine languages, and was a decorated soldier. He was also mercurial, subtle, and an iconoclastic atheist. Speke was a young aristocrat and Army officer determined to make his mark, passionate about hunting, Burton’s opposite in temperament and beliefs.

From the start the two men clashed. They would endure tremendous hardships, illness, and constant setbacks. Two years in, deep in the African interior, Burton became too sick to press on, but Speke did, and claimed he found the source in a great lake that he christened Lake Victoria. When they returned to England, Speke rushed to take credit, disparaging Burton. Burton disputed his claim, and Speke launched another expedition to Africa to prove it. The two became venomous enemies, with the public siding with the more charismatic Burton, to Speke’s great envy. The day before they were to publicly debate,Speke shot himself.

Yet there was a third man on both expeditions, his name obscured by imperial annals, whose exploits were even more extraordinary. This was Sidi Mubarak Bombay, who was enslaved and shipped from his home village in East Africa to India. When the man who purchased him died, he made his way into the local Sultan’s army, and eventually traveled back to Africa, where he used his resourcefulness, linguistic prowess and raw courage to forge a living as a guide. Without Bombay and men like him, who led, carried, and protected the expedition, neither Englishman would have come close to the headwaters of the Nile, or perhaps even survived.

In River of the Gods Candice Millard has written another peerless story of courage and adventure, set against the backdrop of the race to exploit Africa by the colonial powers.

Reviews

  • Gripping, Dramatic and Tragic

    5
    By Steve Kriston
    This is the story of the discovery of the source of the Nile, one of the great vexing riddles of the 19th Century. Millard does an amazing job developing these historical characters and telling their stories in a gripping way that keeps the reader turning the pages. Writing about history in a way that reads like a novel is a mark of great talent. Millard is in the company of such great historical authors as Erik Larson and Nathaniel Philbrick.
  • Looking forward to travel across Africa and instead…

    2
    By 111exploradores
    I enjoy reading books about early explorers because I enjoy the journey and greatly admire the courage and determination it takes. However, this book took me instead through the petty in-fighting of these early English explorers and gave so little detail about the journey itself. So disappointing and I was completely un-inspired. Bleh
  • Drove me crazy

    2
    By highlander198
    Enough! So much detail it was exhausting to read. So I stopped

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