Search for the Nile's Source

John Humphries

Description

The source of the Nile had long eluded and tormented explorers, and John Hanning Speke's discovery of Lake Victoria in 1858 elevated him to the pantheon of heroes of African exploration, alongside Livingstone and Stanley. But the part played by the Welsh mining engineer John Petherick in the discovery was ignored after he was branded a slave trader by Speke, and the controversy that followed ended with Petherick ruined and Speke dead. This first biography of Petherick places him at the centre of one of the great discoveries in African exploration - and as the focus of a dispute that rocked the geographical establishment. Was Petherick a rogue, as portrayed by some, or the victim of a conspiracy that destroyed his reputation and denied him a share of the credit for his part in one of the greatest feats in African exploration?
Chapter 1: From Merthyr to the Pyramids. Chapter 2: Egypt and the search for coal. Chapter 3: The Missing Years. Chapter 4: Khartoum, Ivory and Slaves. Chapter 5: Exploration and Trade. Chapter 6: The Promise. Chapter 7: The Journey. Chapter 8: The Race. Chapter 9: The Succour Dodge. Chapter 10: A Very Public Quarrel. Chapter 11: Unfinished Business. Conclusion

Sujets

• Egypt
• Travel
• North Africa
• Middle East

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780708326787
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Search for Nile's source_prelims.indd 6 18/07/2013 14:36Search for the Nile’ S Source
Search for Nile's source_prelims.indd 1 18/07/2013 14:36Search
for the
Nile’S Source
The Ruined RepuT a Tion of John peTheRick,
nineTeenTh-cenTuR y Welsh exploReR
John Humphries
uniVeRsiTy of W ales pRess
caRdiff
2013
Search for Nile's source_prelims.indd 2 18/07/2013 14:36Search
for the
Nile’ S Sour ce
The Ruined Repu Ta Tion of John pe The Rick,
n ine Teen Th- c en Tu Ry Welsh e xplo Re R
John Humphries
uni Ve Rsi Ty of Wales pRess
ca Rdiff
2013
Search for Nile's source_prelims.indd 3 18/07/2013 14:36© John h umphries, 2013
a ll rights reserved. n o part of this book may be reproduced in any material
form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic
means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this
publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except
in accordance with the provisions of the c opyright, d esigns and patents a ct
1988. a pplications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce
any part of this publication should be addressed to the u niversity of Wales
press, 10 c olumbus Walk, Brigantine place, c ardiff cf 10 4up.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British l ibrary.
is Bn 978-0-7083-2673-2
e-is Bn 978-0-7083-2678-7
The right of John h umphries to be identifed as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the c opyright, d esigns
and patents a ct 1988.
The publisher acknowledges the fnancial support of the W elsh Books c ouncil.
Typeset by c hris Bell, cbdesign
printed by cpi a ntony Rowe, c hippenham, Wiltshire
Search for Nile's source_prelims.indd 4 18/07/2013 14:36Contents
l ist of illustrations vii
index to persons in n arrative ix
chronology xi
introduction 1
1 f rom Merthyr to the pyramids 5
2 e gypt and the search for c oal 11
3 The Missing years 27
4 khartoum, ivory and slaves 37
5 e xploration and Trade 49
6 The promise 63
7 The Journey 75
8 The Race 85
9 The succour d odge 101
10 a Very public Quarrel 123
11 u nfnished Business 135
conclusion 141
notes 149
appendices 159
select Bibliography 171
index 175
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f rontispiece John petherick, White n ile trader and explorer. ii
1 katherine, petherick’s wife and companion on the disastrous
trek through the c entral a frican wilderness to assist the n ile
explorers speke and Grant. 2
2 John h anning speke (1827–1864), frst e uropean to discover
l ake Victoria, which he claimed was the fountain of the River
n ile. 3
3 sir Richard f rancis Burton who after the frst expedition to
c entral a frica repudiated speke’s claim that l ake Victoria was
the source of the n ile. 3
4 a felucca, the workboat of the river n ile. 14
5 The c itadel in c airo where petherick received instructions
from the Viceroy, Muhammad a li pasha, on where to search for
coal in e gypt. 16
6 st c atherine’s Monastery in the sinai d esert, petherick’s base
during his search for coal. 18
7 petherick was hoisted up the wall in a wicker basket to the
entrance to st c atherine’s Monastery, thirty feet above the ground. 19
8 The Burning Bush at st c atherine’s Monastery from where God,
according to the o ld Testament, spoke to Moses. Reputedly, the
monastery is built on the site of the biblical burning bush. 20
9 petherick’s route through the sinai desert. 22
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10 p etherick’s rough sketch map showing the separate routes taken
by himself and speke/Grant to Gondokoro in 1863. 35
11 The sudd and the White n ile basin. 41
12 c attle swim the n ile at the beginning of the sudd swamp
somewhere below l ake n o, driven by natives in dugout canoes. 42
13 n uer porters cross the sudd carrying loads on their heads. 43
14 n uer youths with spears and shields hunting hippopotamus in
one of the sudd’s many papyrus-flled lagoons. 44
15 d inka tribesmen at a funeral dance. 44
16 n ative families in the sudan on their way to a circumcision
lodge. 58
17The a zande (meaning ‘great eaters’) were believed to be
cannibals, but petherick found no evidence of this. 69
18 sir samuel Baker, hunter/explorer, who provided support for
speke and Grant when the pethericks were reported murdered. 87
19 l ady f lorence Baker (née f lorenz sass), the teenager who
became sir samuel’s mistress, then wife after he rescued her
from a Transylvanian slave market. 87
Search for Nile's source_prelims.indd 8 18/07/2013 14:36Index to Persons in Narrative
Abil il-Majid: petherick’s most trusted agent, caught traffcking slaves.
Baker, Sir Samuel: wealthy big game hunter, explorer, and frst e uropean
to sight a lbert n yanza.
Brownell, James: a merican doctor who joined the petherick e xpedition
to Gondokoro.
Burton, Sir Richard Francis: linguist, explorer, diplomat, and leader of
the frst e uropean expedition to the c entral a frican lakes region.
De Malzac, Alphonse: f rench slave trader.
De Bono, Andrea: Maltese slave trader.
De Bono, Amabile (also Muso): Maltese slave trader.
Florence, Lady Baker: wife of sir samuel Baker and formerly a slave.
Kamrasi: king of the u nyoro (Western u ganda).
Kurshid Aga: slave trader accused by petherick.
Muhammad Wad-el-Mek: mercenary commander at f alaro zeriba jointly
owned by petherick and a mabile de Bono.
Muhammad Ali Pasha: Viceroy of e gypt and the sudan.
Murchison, Sir Rodney: president of the Royal Geographical society and
proponent of the Geological Timescale for calculating the age of the earth.
Mussaad: petherick agent at n eambara zariba sent to fnd speke and Grant.
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Mutesa: king of Buganda (u ganda), where speke spent four and a half
months before discovering Ripon f alls only forty miles away.
Natterer, Josef: a ustrian Vice-c onsul in khartoum.
Petherick, John: Welsh mining engineer, White n ile trader and explorer.
Petherick, Katherine: wife of John petherick who accompanied him on
his travels.
Rumanika: king of karagwé (present day Tanzania) at whose palace speke
cavorted with fat native princesses.
Speke, John Hanning: wealthy big game hunter, explorer, and frst
e uropean to sight Victoria n yanza which he claimed was the source of
the n ile.
Search for Nile's source_prelims.indd 10 18/07/2013 14:36Chronology
1813 13 June, John petherick christened at st Tydfl’s parish c hurch,
Merthyr.
1821 21 March, Richard f rancis Burton born in Torquay, d evon.
8 June, samuel White Baker born in l ondon.
1827 4 May, John h anning speke born in o rleigh c ourt, somerset.
1828 16 a ugust, katherine petherick (née edelmann) christened at
st Matthews c hurch, d ouglas, isle of Man (not Malvern as she
stated in census returns).
1845 petherick leaves for egypt.
1849 petherick appointed British Vice-c onsul in the sudan.
1857–59 Burton/speke expedition to the lake regions.
1858 3 a ugust, speke reaches southern shore of Victoria n yanza.
1859 petherick returns to Britain after fourteen years in egypt and the
sudan.
1860–63 speke/Grant expedition to l ake Victoria; leave for Zanzibar
27 a pril 1860.
1860 petherick appointed British c onsul in the sudan.
31 o ctober, petherick marries widow katherine h arriet Walshe
(née e delmann) at Brighton.
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1861 f ebruary, petherick publishes Egypt, the Sudan and Central Africa.
March, samuel Baker arrives egypt to ‘commence an expedition
to discover the source of the n ile with the hope of meeting the
east a frican expedition of c aptains speke and Grant’.
15 a pril, Bakers leave c airo to explore Blue n ile.
2 May, pethericks arrive in a lexandria, egypt.
15 o ctober, pkhartoum by n ile barge.
d ecember, petherick relief boats arrive in Gondokoro to await
speke/Grant.
1862 28 March, pethericks leave khartoum for Gondokoro.
11 June, Bakers arrive in khartoum.
2 July, pethericks abandon boats to proceed overland when
only 150 miles from Gondokoro.
18 d ecember, Bakers sail for Gondokoro; pethericks reported
dead.
1863 20 January, another three petherick boats arrive at Gondokoro
from khartoum.
25 January, pethericks reach station at Wayo; collect elephant
tusks.
2 f ebruary, Bakers arrive at Gondokoro.
20 f ebruary, pethericks reach Gondokoro eleven months after
leaving khartoum; dine with speke, Grant and Baker.
26 f ebruary, speke/Grant leave Gondokoro to return to
england.
s peke publishes Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile.
1864 Burton and James McQueen publish The Nile Basin.
15 september, speke dies in a shooting accident.
16 september, Murchison announces speke’s death at Royal
Geographical society meeting, Bath.
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1866 Baker publishes The Albert N’yanza: Great Basin of the Nile and
Explorations of the Nile Sources.
1869 John and katherine petherick publish Travels in Central Africa.
1877 March, katherine petherick dies at st a ustell, c ornwall,
aged 49.
1882 15 July, John petherick dies in lodging house in kensington,
aged 69.
Search for Nile's source_prelims.indd 13 18/07/2013 14:36Search for Nile's source_prelims.indd 14 18/07/2013 14:36Introduction
he main outlines of the classical age of heroic a frican
exploration are well-known and can be clicked through like a set of Tlecture slides: from c aptain John h anning speke’s frst glimpse of
l ake Victoria, acclaimed as the ‘source’ of the n ile to h enry morton s tanley’s
immortal w