River of the Gods: Genius, Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile

Burton and Speke spent months in Zanzibar before they could start their expedition. Both men became extremely ill, suffering from typhoid fever. Speke once again recovered faster than Burton. Despite his own illness, Hamerton did everything in his power to help the men regain their strength and prepare for the expedition.

While in Zanzibar, the expedition needed to purchase supplies. Gifts, known as kuhonga, were of particular importance. The expedition would use these gifts to help them on their journey, including as bribery for locals. As Speke learned the hard way in Somaliland, locals only accepted certain kinds of gifts, such as some cloth and beads. Unfortunately, Burton’s expedition was severely underfunded, making his ability to purchase the necessary gifts (which he viewed as blackmail) difficult. However, he also knew that failure to have these gifts would increase the chances that his second expedition would fail. Burton used most of the remaining funds to purchase supplies and gifts.

In doing so, Burton faced another challenge: He had little money to pay the men supporting his expedition. Luckily, Hamerton offered to help cover these expenses using public funds. Hamerton’s promise of payment, however, was conditional on the men performing satisfactorily.

After the rain ended in mid-June, Burton and his expedition team finally left for the mainland from Zanzibar. Hamerton, despite his declining health, accompanied the men to Wale Point, which is located on the coast of East Africa.

Burton was once again delayed in Wale Point. His expedition needed more men. Burton decided to hire donkeys as substitutes for men, but “finding good donkeys was almost as difficult as finding men” (115). Burton and his expedition team left behind goods and supplies. Burton hired a team of men to bring these additional goods and supplies.

After one week at Wale Point, Hamerton returned to Zanzibar on the behest of his apothecary. Hamerton gave Burton one final piece of advice: “‘[M]arch straight ahead,’ [Hamerton] said, ignoring ‘velvet-slipper men,’ who afford opinions” (116). Hamerton encouraged Burton to ignore the armchair geographers and trust his instincts. Burton worried this would be the last time he saw Hamerton. Hamerton remained unconcerned about his death, partly due to his religious nature. Burton’s men did not believe the expedition would succeed.

On June 27th, 1857, Burton’s expedition finally began to travel toward Lake Tanganyika. A medicine man that the expedition met along their route gave Burton and his men reassurance. The medicine man said the expedition would be successful with minimal death. Burton did not put much faith in the prophecy, but did receive some comfort from it. He was increasingly concerned that the expedition would be another failure. On the journey to the lake, Burton heard rumors of Hamerton’s death. Hamerton’s death meant Burton had no support in Zanzibar.

Despite the medicine man’s words, the expedition faced numerous challenges from the start, including navigating a land many of the expedition team (primarily those who were British) had never traveled through, the potential for the East Africa Expedition to run into hostile parties, desertions, difficult terrain, unruly donkeys, broken equipment, unpredictable weather, exhaustion, disease, and death. All these challenges meant the expedition moved slower than anticipated. In fact, Millard suggests that the expedition moved at “a dangerously slow pace” (127, emphasis added). Bombay helped soothe tensions that erupted within the expedition party and always remained a source of kindness and loyalty.

Speke was particularly plagued by illnesses, although he would later recount to friends that Burton was the one who was hit first and hardest by disease. Speke’s resentment toward Burton grew, partly because Burton initially remained healthy on the expedition.

The expedition finally reached the Rubeho Mountains, which Burton called the “Pass Terrible” (135), after three months. The expedition had to climb 7,000 feet to reach the summit. Both Speke and Burton were gravely ill. Speke had to be carried up the mountain in a hammock. Burton also realized at this point that the expedition was close to running out of supplies. He sent a letter with a trade caravan to the consulate in Zanzibar asking for help. Burton had written previous letters to Hamerton while on the expedition, but none had been thus far answered. For this reason, Burton was deeply concerned that his expedition would fail if this letter was also ignored. Burton’s letter did make it to the consulate, but no one had yet filled the post. It took an additional eight months for this to happen. Unfortunately, Burton’s nemesis, Colonel Christopher Palmer Rigby, replaced Hamerton.