Henry Morton Stanley's first trans-Africa exploration for and successfully found the missionary and explorer Livingstone, greeting him with the famous (though disputed) words: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Stanley's journey had four principal aims, to: There was controversy among earlier explorers as to whether these lakes and rivers were connected to each other and the Nile. Richard Burton thought that Lake Victoria might have a southern inlet, possibly from Lake Albert, meaning that the source of the Nile was not Lake Victoria as Speke had argued. Samuel Baker thought that Lake Albert might have an inlet from Lake Tanganyika. Livingstone thought that Lualaba was the source of
The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack and explorer John Hanning Speke. It includes actual historical events, namely the Spring-heeled Jack case, the assassination attempt on Queen Victoria in 1840, the search for the source of the Nile and the development of Darwin's theory of Evolution. A time-traveller from the distant future returns to 1840 to prevent an ancestor from attempting to commit an act of regicide. After failing in his mission, he returns to 1837 and recruits the 'Mad Marquess' to find his ancestor and correct the error. The result of his interference is an altered timeline in which technological advances have given rise to two