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78-469: A desert town mostly inhabited by nomads, Yubbe is home to numerous old archaeological structures. While visiting the locality in the 19th century, the British explorer John Hanning Speke described having seen various tumuli . Of these, he reported that one contained "a hollow compartment propped up by beams of timber, at the bottom of which, buried in the ground, were several earthenware pots, some leaden coins,

156-587: A lieutenant-colonel and were divided into 10 companies , each assigned 2 British officers and 2 native officers. Each regiment was assigned an adjutant , an interpreter and a quartermaster . The majority of recruits for the Bengal Native Infantry in the years leading up to the Mutiny were from the districts of Bengal, Oudh ( Awadh ) and the surrounding areas – around three quarters of the total numbers. Mutinying regiments officially ceased to exist following

234-584: A better reconnaissance of the Lake after Speke returned to base camp in Kazeh is unclear. Burton was incapacitated and had to be carried by bearers but this had been true for a great deal of the trip. While Speke and Burton were instrumental in bringing the source of the Nile to the wider world and were the first to record and map this section of Africa, the efforts and labours of Sidi Mubarak Bombay and Mabruki were instrumental in

312-448: A breach of promise for publicly claiming that the source of the Nile was found on their trip. Burton now turned against the theory that Lake Victoria was the source of the Nile (and now said the river flowing out of the north side of Lake Tanganyika was the source) and thus also reversed himself from the position he took in the letter to Norton Shaw. In that same letter to Shaw, Burton had also stated that Speke would present his findings to

390-760: A ceasefire and boundary agreement between the Warsangali and Habar Yoonis clans. In June 1993, a meeting of the Warsangari in Hadaftimo and Habar Yoonis clans was held in Yubbe (Yubbe 3), and it was resolved that the Habar Yoonis clan would hold a meeting in Erigavo to which all clan assemblies of the Sanag, including the rival Habr Je'lo and Dhulbahante clans, would be invited. In 2006,

468-524: A facial punch; this gave him an opportunity to escape, albeit he was followed by a group of Somalis and had to dodge spears as he ran for his life. Rejoining Burton and Herne, the trio eventually managed to escape with a boat passing along the coast. The expedition was a severe financial loss, and Speke's natural history specimens from his earlier leg were used to make up for some of it. Speke handed Burton his diaries, which Burton used as an appendix in his own book on his travels to Harrar. It seemed unlikely that

546-401: A greater role as an explorer and co-discoverer of the Nile. Speke, via Baker's ship, then continued to Khartoum from which he sent a celebrated telegram to London: "The Nile is settled." Speke's expedition did not resolve the issue, however. Burton claimed that because Speke had not followed the Nile from the place it flowed out of Lake Victoria to Gondokoro, he could not be sure they were

624-611: A group of al-Shabaab members in the neighborhood Ga'an-Marodi. In February 2020, Somaliland troops from Yubbe fought Puntland troops in Kadhada village, 18 kilometers away. After the battle, Puntland forces claimed victory over Somaliland forces, capturing prisoners and military vehicles. In March 2021, the Somaliland-appointed governor of the Sanaag region, who lives in Erigavo, called on

702-412: A larger vessel from an Arab who, they were told, had a large boat and lived on the west side of the lake. (Lake Tanganyika is over 400 miles long on the north–south axis but only about 30 miles wide.) During this trip Speke, marooned on an island, suffered severely when he became temporarily deaf after a beetle crawled into his ear and he tried to remove it with a knife. Unable to rent the larger vessel from

780-522: A more likely candidate for the source of the Nile. ) From the beginning, the relationship of Speke and Burton was one of opposites; Burton considered Speke inferior linguistically and a less experienced traveller in remote regions (which was partially true), but Burton himself appears to have been jealous and far less able to relate to the safari caravan to keep the expedition motivated and moving (a vital factor as they were completely dependent on their safari crew). While Speke enjoyed hunting and thus provided

858-566: A public dispute with the Pethericks who had by and large acted according to their RGS instructions but Speke had felt they had not. All this led Roderick Murchison , president of the Royal Geographical Society , to start disliking Speke and a third expedition, led by Speke, was becoming less likely as it would have to be funded by the people Speke was now not on good terms with. It appears that just as Burton had overplayed his hand after

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936-563: A ring of gold such as the Indian Mussulman women wear in their noses, and various other miscellaneous property." On June 18, 1991, just after the start of the Somali civil war , an inter-clan meeting was held in Yubbe at the call from Warsangali clan chief Aaqil Bashir to Habar Yoonis clan chief Warsame Hersi (Yubbe 1). At the meeting, a resolution was passed to end hostilities and share grazing land. The October 6–9 rally (Yubbe 2) resulted in

1014-500: A second lake to the north-east, and in May 1858, they decided to explore it on the way back to the coast. But Burton was too weak to make the trip and thus stayed in base camp when the main caravan halted again at Kazeh. Speke went on a 47-day side trip that was 452 miles up and down in which he took 34 men with Bombay and Mabruki as his captains and on 30 July 1858 became the first European to see Lake Victoria , known to locals as Nam Lolwe in

1092-740: A severe water shortage hit Sanag, and a well in the village of Yubbe was found to be failing. In 2007, the conflict between Puntland and Somaliland sharpened when the Somaliland army took advantage of internal conflicts within Puntland to occupy Las Anod ( Puntland–Somaliland dispute .) In October 2015, the chairman of the Somaliland Election Commission in Sanaag region was abducted in Yubbe and taken to Puntland-controlled Badhan . In March 2019, Somaliland troops blocked traffic between Yubbe and Hadaftimo . Local residents demonstrated against

1170-616: The 7th Regiment of Punjab Infantry became the 19th Bengal Native Infantry). In addition, soldiers who did not mutiny when the rest of their regiment did so joined units such as The Lucknow Regiment or The Loyal Purbiah Regiment . During the Indian Mutiny all but twelve of the seventy-four regular Bengal Native Infantry regiments either mutinied, were disarmed, or disbanded peacefully and returned to their homes. Those that mutinied engaged in armed conflict with their officers, other East India Company forces or British Army units. The men of

1248-550: The Dholuo language and Nnalubaale or Ukerewe in the Luganda language. Speke renamed the lake after the British monarch, Queen Victoria , and was one of the first persons to map it. It was this lake that eventually proved to be the source of the River Nile. However, much of the expedition's survey equipment had been lost at this point and thus vital questions about the height and extent of

1326-733: The Government of India Act 1858 which established the British Raj , bringing to an end Company rule in India by stripping the East India Company of all its administrative powers and handing over control of its Indian territories and armed forces to the British Crown. Section 56 of the Government of India Act stated: "LVI. The military and naval forces of the East India Company shall be deemed to be

1404-506: The Great Lakes , which were rumoured to exist in the centre of the continent. It was hoped that the expedition would locate the source of the Nile. The journey, which started from Zanzibar Island in June 1857, where they stayed at the residence of Atkins Hamerton , the British consul, was extremely strenuous and both men fell ill from a variety of tropical diseases once they went inland. Most of

1482-554: The Gulf of Aden and collect specimens in Somalia for his family's natural history museum in Somerset . This was refused as Somalia was considered rather dangerous. Speke then asked to join an expedition about to leave for Somalia led by the already famous Richard Burton who had Lt William Stroyan and Lt. Herne recruited to come along, but a recent death left the expedition one person short. Speke

1560-451: The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was to find the source of the Nile. The expedition had lost a great many people through desertions, disease and hostilities, but in Kazeh, on the return journey, Mabruki had recruited local porters. Again Speke and Burton suffered from severe illnesses and had to be carried in a litter (machilla) by the porters some of the way. Once Speke and Burton were back on

1638-596: The Tutsi ethnic group were descendants of the biblical figure Ham , and had lighter skin and more Hamitic features than the Bantu Hutu over whom they ruled. 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 of Bengal Native Infantry under Sir Hugh Gough during

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1716-483: The Yao tribe like Bombay. Because of Speke's recommendations, both Bombay and Mabruki served on Henry Stanley's 1871 expedition to find Livingstone . On 26 September 1858 the return journey from Kazeh was started with 152 porters; both men had to return as their military leaves were coming to an end, although Jeal contends that they could have extended the trip by asking for an extension, as their clear mission statement of

1794-489: The sitatunga , Tragelaphus spekii ; Speke's gazelle , Gazella spekei ; and Speke's pectinator , Pectinator spekei . Some streets and Avenues in South Africa and Zimbabwe were named after him. William Boyd presents a portrait of Speke in a fictional reimagining of the search for the source of the Nile in his 2022 novel, The Romantic. Bengal Native Infantry The regiments of Bengal Native Infantry , alongside

1872-566: The 34th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry which was disbanded on 6 May 1857 at Barrackpore following the actions of Mangal Pandey and his execution for mutiny shortly before the main outbreak. Two regiments of BNI (the 65th and 70th) were serving in China at the time of the outbreak and remained unaffected by the disturbances in Bengal. During the Mutiny the United Kingdom Government passed

1950-438: The 52nd Regiment of Foot and covered by the guns of the artillery. Brigadier General Nicholson then informed Colonel Younghusband, the commanding officer, that his men "must give up their arms!" – this order was complied with peacefully. The scene was repeated a short time later when the 33rd BNI arrived at the camping ground. Sepoys from those regiments that were disbanded peacefully, generally returned to their homes, including

2028-451: The Arab, Speke returned. The pair were unable to explore Lake Tanganyika properly and they initially misunderstood that a river flowed out of it from the north side. A few weeks later the explorer and guide Sidi Mubarak Bombay confirmed via locals that the river flowed into the lake; however, since neither man actually saw this river, this remained a source of speculation. They had also heard of

2106-625: The Army of Pakistan. The first locally recruited unit of the East India Company's forces in Bengal, raised in 1757 and present at the Battle of Plassey , was known as the Galliez Battalion (named after one of its first Captains) and called the Lal Pultan (Red Battalion) by its locally recruited members. The Bengal Native Infantry regiments underwent frequent changes of numbering during their existence, with

2184-475: The Bengal Army was taken by another unit. Those BNI units that were disbanded without violence, were disarmed either by their officers, other East India Company forces or by British Army units using threat of force and then either remained under discipline but weaponless in their cantonments or were allowed to disperse. For example, the 33rd and 35th regiments of Bengal Native Infantry were disarmed at Phillour on

2262-854: The Bengal Infantry regiments ceased to exist when the three separate Presidency armies were absorbed into the British Indian Army in 1903. There are units currently serving in the armies of India , Pakistan and the United Kingdom who can trace their lineage directly to units of the Bengal Native Infantry, for example the Jat Regiment in the Indian Army, the Royal Gurkha Rifles in the British Army and 6th Battalion, The Punjab Regiment in

2340-570: The Bengal Native Infantry were professional soldiers and "Mutiny" was a specific criminal offence under the Articles of War and the Mutiny Acts , carrying the death penalty following a conviction after trial by court-martial. The executions were carried out either by hanging, by firing squad or by blowing from a gun . Mutinying regiments officially ceased to exist and their place in the Order of precedence of

2418-542: The Delhi Field Force. Brigadier General Nicholson was doubtful of their loyalty and was therefore unwilling to take these regiments to Delhi. As the Moveable Column made its way to Phillour the 52nd Regiment of Foot and the artillery were ordered to press on ahead, arriving at the camping ground before the other regiments. When the 35th BNI arrived at the camping ground they found themselves surrounded on three sides by

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2496-568: The Discovery of the Source of the Nile is a description of the physical features of Africa's races, in whose condition he found "a strikingly existing proof of the Holy Scriptures." Living alongside the locals, Speke claimed to have found a "superior race" of "men who were as unlike as they could be from the common order of the natives" due to their "fine oval faces, large eyes, and high noses, denoting

2574-473: The Indian military and naval forces of Her Majesty, and shall be under the same obligations to serve Her Majesty as they would have been under to serve the said Company, and shall be liable to serve within the same territorial limits only, for the same terms only, and be entitled to the like pay, pensions, allowances, and privileges, and the like advantages as regards promotion and otherwise, as if they had continued in

2652-521: The Mutiny and in 1861 the twelve surviving Bengal Native Infantry regiments (units that did not mutiny, units that were disarmed and later considered to be free of mutineers or units that were disbanded peacefully & were later reformed) were joined by a mix of hastily raised units (for example, the Allahabad Levy became the 33rd Bengal Native Infantry ) or newly created units from the Punjab (for example,

2730-730: The Punjab campaign and under Sir Colin Campbell during the First Anglo-Sikh War . He was promoted lieutenant in 1850 and captain in 1852. He spent his leave exploring the Himalayan Mountains and Mount Everest and once crossed into Tibet . In 1854 he made his first voyage to Africa , first arriving in Aden to ask permission of the Political Resident of this British Outpost to cross

2808-526: The RGS, as he was prevented from traveling because of poor health and would be in England a short time after Speke. Jeal concludes that Burton's claim of a promise from Speke not to go to the RGS was improbable. The jealousies and accusations between the two men got ever greater, further inflamed by their respective circles of friends and people who stood to gain from the feud such as book publishers and newspapers. Burton

2886-472: The Somaliland army's advance. The elders of Erigavo met secretly to demand the withdrawal of the Somaliland army from Yubbe. In August 2019, the Puntland-appointed governor of the Sanaag region announced that "the Somaliland army has withdrawn from the Sanaag region, with the exception of Yubbe, and the militias on the Puntland side have been nationalized." In November 2019, residents of Yubbe witnessed

2964-500: The ancestral home of the Speke family. 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 headwaters of Lake Edward . It was now proven that Speke had been right all along, and that the Nile flowed from Lake Victoria via Ripon Falls and Murchison Falls to Lake Albert and from there to Gondokoro. According to other theories,

3042-660: The best blood of Abyssinia " –; that is, Ethiopia. This "race" comprised many tribes, including the Watusi ( Tutsi ). Speke described their physical appearances as having retained – despite the hair-curling and skin-darkening effects of intermarriage – "a high stamp of Asiatic feature, of which a marked characteristic is a bridged instead of bridgeless nose". Two species of African reptiles are named in his honour: Speke's hinge-back tortoise , Kinixys spekii ; and Speke's sand lizard, Heliobolus spekii . Three species of African mammals are named in his honour:

3120-443: The caravan with meat, Burton was not much interested in such pursuits. Burton was appointed the head of the expedition and considered Speke the second in command, although the pair seemed to have shared the hardships and labours of the journey pretty much evenly. Once it became clear that Speke might have found the source of the Nile the relationship deteriorated further. Why Burton did not journey back to Lake Victoria with Speke to make

3198-765: The coast they went by ship to Zanzibar and then travelled to Aden . When back at the coast Burton had written a letter to Norton Shaw of the Royal Geographical Society (which had partially sponsored the journey) in which Burton enclosed a map of Lake Victoria made by Speke and wrote "there are grave reasons for believing it (the lake) to be the source of the principal feeder of the White Nile." Now further disagreements developed; Burton maintained that they had promised each other in Aden not to make public announcements till they both were back in England and Burton accused Speke of

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3276-465: The day to day work of exploration was carried out by a large, diverse, and changing labour force of porters, soldiers, and guides, and cooks. By 7 November 1857, they had traveled over 600 miles on foot and donkey and reached Kazeh ( Tabora ), where they rested and recuperated among Arab slave traders who had a settlement there. In Kazeh Burton became gravely ill and Speke went temporarily blind as they travelled further west. After an arduous journey,

3354-437: The discovery of the lake. Bombay was captured as a child near Lake Nyasa by slave traders and was sold to Indian merchants on the coast of Africa who took him to Sindh . Thus he spoke Hindustani, and after his master's death he sailed back to Zanzibar, where Speke and Burton met and hired him. Both spoke Hindustani, which greatly facilitated the travel in the interior as Bombay spoke several native languages beside Swahili. Speke

3432-525: The events surrounding his death appeared in The Times : At about 2.30 p.m. on the same day [15 September 1864] Speke set out from his uncle's house in company with his cousin, George Fuller, and a gamekeeper, Daniel Davis, for an afternoon's shooting in Neston Park. He fired both barrels in the course of the afternoon and about 4 p.m. Davis was marking birds for the two guns who were about 60 yards apart. Speke

3510-606: The first trip Speke now did the same. Now the RGS asked that a public debate should be held between Speke and Burton to try and settle the Nile. 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 gunshot wound while shooting at Neston Park in Wiltshire . A contemporary account of

3588-551: The following engagements: The Bengal Army was absorbed into the British Indian Army in 1903 with a large number of infantry units passing into the newly organised force. As shown by the following examples, there are a number of military units active today that can trace their lineage directly to regiments of Bengal Native Infantry in the armies of India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom. In many cases these units maintain

3666-477: The guide was punished, jailed and killed. This incident probably led to larger troubles later on. Then all four men traveled to Berbera on the coast of Somalia, from where they wanted to trek inland towards the Ogaden . While camped outside Berbera, they were attacked at night by 200 spear-wielding Somalis . During this fracas Speke ducked under the flap of a tent to get a clearer view of the scene, and Burton thought he

3744-450: The idea of suicide has appealed to some. Bearing in mind, however, that the fatal wound was just below Speke's armpit, suicide seems most unlikely. Burton, however, could not set aside his own strong dislike of Speke and was vocal in spreading the idea of a suicide, claiming that Speke feared the debate. Speke was buried in St Andrew's Church, Dowlish Wake in Somerset , five miles away from

3822-431: The individual seniority of their commanding officers. The regiments were reorganised and renumbered (or renamed) twice in 1861, in 1864, again in 1885 and finally in 1903 the Bengal Army was absorbed into the British Indian Army and the Bengal Infantry ceased to exist. The inclusion of the word "Native" in the titles of the Bengal Native Infantry regiments and throughout the Bengal, Bombay and Madras Armies indicated that

3900-446: The lake could not be answered easily. Speke's eyes were still bothering him and he only saw a small part of the southern end of the lake and his view was blocked by islands in the lake so he could not judge the size of the lake well. However, Speke did estimate the elevation of Lake Victoria at 4000 feet by observing the temperature at which water boiled at that level. (This lake's being substantially higher than Lake Tanganyika did make it

3978-433: The lake from the south west but Grant was often sick and was not able to travel with Speke much of the time. As during the first trip, in this period of history, Arab slave traders had created an atmosphere of great distrust towards any foreigners entering central Africa, and most tribes either fled or fought when encountering them as they assumed all outsiders to be potential slavers. Lacking a great deal of guns and soldiers,

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4056-647: The lake, Speke found the Nile flowing out of it and discovered the Ripon Falls . Local Church Missionary Society records indicate that Speke fathered a daughter whilst staying at the court of Muteesa I the Kabaka (or King) of Buganda . Whilst staying at the court Speke was given two girls aged about 12 and 18 from the entourage of the Queen Mother. Speke appears to have had sexual relations with both of them, before handing over

4134-484: The local chieftains, slave raiding parties, tribal wars and the difficulty of the terrain, Speke was not able to map the entire flow of the Nile from Lake Victoria north. Why he did not make more efforts to do so is not clear, but the enormous hardships of the journey must have played a large role. By January 1863 Speke and Grant reached Gondokoro in Southern Sudan , where he met Samuel Baker and his "wife". (Her name

4212-428: The morning of 25 June 1857 by the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (around 800 men) under the command of Brigadier General John Nicholson with the support of the 17th Light Field Battery, Bengal Horse Artillery (12 guns). The 33rd and 35th BNI, around 1500 men, were part of the Punjab Moveable Column, a brigade that was formed to quash outbreaks of mutiny in the Punjab and that was eventually ordered to Delhi to join

4290-400: The numbers assigned following a reorganisation bearing little or no connection to the regiments that held the pre-existing numbers. The traditional formation of British and Presidency armies' regiments was by a hierarchy in which the "1st Regiment" was the oldest and the highest number was given to the youngest. In 1764 however, the Bengal Native Infantry regiments were renumbered in the order of

4368-403: The only thing the expedition could do was make peace offerings to locals, and both men were severely delayed and their supplies depleted by demands for gifts and passage fees by smaller local chieftains. After numerous months of delays Speke reached Lake Victoria on 28 July 1862, and then travelled on the west side around Lake Victoria but only seeing it from time to time; but on the north side of

4446-437: The regiments of Bengal European Infantry , were the regular infantry components of the East India Company 's Bengal Army from the raising of the first Native battalion in 1757 to the passing into law of the Government of India Act 1858 (as a direct result of the Indian Mutiny ). At this latter point control of the East India Company's Bengal Presidency passed to the British Government. The first locally recruited battalion

4524-403: The residents of Yubbe to cooperate with him, as a planned maternity hospital and other development projects in Yubbe have been suspended. In January 2023, Somaliland army withdraws from Yubbe. The town is inhabited by the Mahmoud Harti clans of Nuh Omar(Warsangeli) and Hinjiye(Mahmoud Harti) . John Hanning Speke Captain John Hanning Speke (4 May 1827 – 15 September 1864)

4602-402: The said Company; and the pay and expenses of and incident to Her Majesty's Indian military and naval forces shall be defrayed out of the revenues of India." The twelve "old regiments" that did not mutiny, continued to serve after the Mutiny and were allowed to retain traditions such as red uniforms. and existing battle honours. Following the completion of a widespread reform of the army in what

4680-511: The same river. Baker and Florence, meanwhile, stayed in Gondokoro and tried to settle the flow of the river from there to Lake Victoria by traveling south. They eventually, after tremendous hardships, such as being wracked by fevers and held up by rulers for months on end, found Lake Albert and the Murchison Falls . 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

4758-552: The service of the said Company: such forces, and all persons hereafter enlisting in or entering the same, shall continue and be subject to all Acts of Parliament, laws of the Governor-General of India in Council, and articles of war, and all other laws, regulations, and provisions relating to the East India Company's military and naval forces respectively, as if Her Majesty's Indian military and naval forces respectively had throughout such acts, laws, articles, regulations; and provisions been mentioned or referred to, instead of such forces of

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4836-434: The source of the White Nile, even after centuries of exploration, remains in dispute. The most remote source that is indisputably a source for the White Nile is the Kagera River , which was discovered by German explorer Oscar Baumann , and geographically determined in 1937 by Burkhart Waldecker ; however, the Kagera has tributaries that are in contention for the farthest source of the White Nile. Much of Speke's Journal of

4914-456: The spot" in April 1862 after she defied his orders regarding the sacrifice of a goat. Whilst Meri visited Speke several times after this incident, the couple did not reconcile. Speke claimed to have tried to arrange a better relationship for Meri with another man, without success it seems. Finally, given permission by Muteesa in June 1862 to leave, Speke then travelled down the Nile now reunited with Grant. Because of travel restrictions placed by

4992-784: The troops were locally recruited in India (or neighbouring areas), in contrast with the Bengal European Infantry which recruited personnel in the United Kingdom. In 1885, the word "Native" was dropped from the titles of all military units in the Bengal Army. The 1st Brahmans was the first infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. It was raised at Oudh by Captain T Naylor in 1776 The Bengal army mostly recruited upper-caste elements like Kanyakubja Brahmins , Rajputs, from Awadh. Bengal Native Infantry regiments typically consisted of 800 privates ( sepoys ), 120 non-commissioned officers ( havildars and naiks ), 20 native commissioned officers ( subedars and jemadars ), 2 British sergeants and 26 British commissioned officers. Regiments were commanded by

5070-408: The two arrived in Ujiji in February 1858 and became the first Europeans to reach Lake Tanganyika (although Speke was partially blind at this point and could not properly see the lake). They decided to explore the lake, but it was vast and they could get only small canoes from the locals. Burton was too ill to journey, and thus Speke crossed the lake with a small crew and some canoes to try to rent

5148-415: The two would join again and Burton believed that he would never lead an expedition to the interior of Africa, his fervent hope, after this failed journey. Once in Aden, Burton was not granted a medical certificate to travel and thus Speke left on HMS Furious and arrived in England on 8 May 1859. Burton was not far behind and he arrived on 21 May 1859. In 1856, Speke and Burton went to East Africa to find

5226-409: The youngest (whom he named 'Kahala') to another man. Speke fell in love with the elder girl, 'Meri', according to his diaries (which were redacted when they were published as books later). While Meri proved loyal to Speke and fulfilled her task at being a "wife" to him as commanded by the Queen Mother, Speke was distressed because he thought she had no love or deep attachment to him. He "divorced her on

5304-519: Was Florence von Sass and she had been rescued by Baker from a slave market in Vidin during a hunting trip in Bulgaria.) Speke had expected to meet John Petherick and his wife Katherine at Gondokoro, as they had been sent by the RGS south along the Nile to meet Speke and Grant. However the Pethericks were not there but on a side expedition to trade ivory, as they had run out of funds for their expedition. This caused some hard feelings between Petherick and Speke, and Baker played into this so he could assume

5382-435: Was accepted because he had traveled in remote regions alone before, had experience collecting and preserving natural history specimens and had done astronomical surveying. Initially the party split with Burton going to Harrar , Abyssinia , and Speke going to Wadi Nogal in Somalia. During this trip Speke experienced trouble with the local guide, who cheated him; after they returned to Aden, Burton, who had also returned, saw that

5460-457: Was already dead. There was a single wound in his left side such as would be made by a cartridge if the muzzle of the gun—a Lancaster breech-loader without a safety guard—were close to the body; the charge had passed upwards through the lungs dividing all the large blood vessels over the heart, though missing the heart itself. An inquest concluded that the death was accidental, a conclusion supported by his only biographer Alexander Maitland, though

5538-400: Was an English explorer and military officer who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa . He is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile and was the first European to reach Lake Victoria (known to locals as Nam Lolwe in Dholuo and Nnalubaale or Ukerewe in Luganda ). Speke is also known for propounding the Hamitic hypothesis in 1863, in which he supposed that

5616-402: Was much attached to Bombay and spoke highly of his honesty and conscientiousness. Bombay's efforts in dealing with hostile tribes, interpreting and keeping the safari crew on track, was a great help to the expedition. Less is known of Mabruki, the other caravan leader, but he was later known as Mabruki Speke, and like Bombay became one of East Africa's great caravan leaders and was also a member of

5694-639: Was now the British Raj, the Bengal Native Infantry was reduced in size and renumbered in 1861. The "loyal" regiments took the first places in the order of precedence, starting with the 21st Regiment of BNI becoming the 1st BNI. There was then a second renumbering of the regiments the same year as a result of transferring four regiments to the Goorkha list. The post-1861 Bengal Native Infantry therefore consisted of 45 regiments. The Bengal Native Infantry has participated in major battles and wars that include, among others,

5772-485: Was raised by the East India Company in 1757 and by the start of 1857 there were 74 regiments of Bengal Native Infantry in the Bengal Army. Following the Mutiny the Presidency armies came under the direct control of the United Kingdom Government and there was a widespread reorganisation of the Bengal Army that saw the Bengal Native Infantry regiments reduced to 45. The title "Bengal Native Infantry" fell out of use in 1885 and

5850-441: Was relentless in his criticisms and a very compelling public speaker and gifted writer, left Speke's discoveries in less than an ideal light. Speke had also committed to write a book for John Blackwood which he found hard and time-consuming as he was not naturally a gifted writer. He failed to give a good and full report to the RGS for many months and thus in effect was not defending his positions of discovery. In addition Speke had

5928-574: Was retreating and called for Speke to stand firm. Speke did so and then charged forward with great courage, shooting several attackers. The misunderstanding laid the foundation of their later disputes and dislikes. Stroyan was killed by a spear, Burton was seriously wounded by a javelin impaling both cheeks and Speke was wounded and captured; Herne came away unwounded. Speke was tied up and stabbed several times with spears, one thrust cutting through his thigh along his femur and exiting. Showing tremendous determination, he used his bound fists to give his attacker

6006-572: Was seen to climb onto a stone wall about 2 feet high: for the moment he was without his gun. A few seconds later there was a report and when George Fuller rushed up Speke's gun was found behind the wall in the field into which Speke had jumped. The right barrel was at half-cock: only the left barrel was discharged. Speke who was bleeding seriously was sensible for a few minutes and said feebly, "Don't move me." George Fuller went for assistance leaving Davis to attend him; but Speke survived for only about 15 minutes, and when Mr. Snow, surgeon of Box , arrived he

6084-646: Was still extremely weak, and once he appeared in front of a committee of the RGS he was not able to make a convincing case for his leading a second expedition to settle the outstanding matters about the Nile. The rift widened, and perhaps became irreversible, when Speke was chosen to lead a subsequent expedition instead of Burton. The two presented joint papers concerning the expedition to the Royal Geographical Society on 13 June 1859. Together with James Augustus Grant , Speke left Portsmouth on 27 April 1860 and departed from Zanzibar in October 1860. The expedition approached

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