The Heart of Burton’s Venomous Attack on Speke
BURTON, Richard Francis, and James MACQUEEN.
The Nile Basin. Part I. Showing Tanganyika to be Ptolemy’s western lake reservoir. A memoir read before the Royal Geographical Society, November 14, 1864. With prefatory remarks … Part II. Captain Speke’s discovery of the source of the Nile. A review. By James M’Queen … London, Tinsley Brothers, 1864.
8vo, pp. [4], 195, [1, blank], with 3 maps; a little foxing at end, a very good copy; bound in original maroon cloth, covers stamped in blind, spine lettered in gilt, yellow endpapers; spine slightly sunned, a little wear to extremities, a few small marks to boards, hinges neatly reinforced; partly erased ink inscription dated 1870 to head of half-title, embossed blind stamp of W.H. Smith & Son library to front free endpaper, bookseller’s ink stamp to front pastedown.
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The Nile Basin. Part I. Showing Tanganyika to be Ptolemy’s western lake reservoir. A memoir read before the Royal Geographical Society, November 14, 1864. With prefatory remarks … Part II. Captain Speke’s discovery of the source of the Nile. A review.
First edition, complete with the three maps. This work, ‘which absolutely exudes venom, was the heart of Burton’s frontal attack on [John Hanning] Speke’s geographical theories. Burton dedicated it, with a marked degree of sarcasm, to “those kind friends, especially to those members of the Royal Geographical Society, who have aided and encouraged me to come forward with this statement”’ (Casada). The second part comprises James MacQueen’s ‘scathing attack on John Speke through a lengthy review of the latter’s Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile’ (ibid.).
Francis Galton’s 1864 review of The Nile Basin for The Reader (vol. IV, p. 728) suggests that Burton and MacQueen are far too harsh in their criticisms of Speke.
Casada 49; Penzer pp. 74–75.