Major explorations after the Age of Discovery to locate the source of the River Nile. Expeditions by Burton and Speke (1857–1858) and Speke and Grant (1863) located Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria. It was eventually proved to be the latter from which the Nile flowed. Explorers were also active in other parts of the continent. Southern Morocco, the Sahara and the Sudan were traversed in many directions between 1860 and 1875 by Georg Schweinfurth and Gustav Nachtigal. These travellers not only added considerably to geographical knowledge, but obtained invaluable information concerning the people, languages and natural history of the countries in which they sojourned. Among the discoveries
George Speke brother, William, was descended the explorer John Hanning Speke George Speke George Speke (1623–1689) was an English politician. A Royalist during the English Civil War, after the Restoration (England) he became an early Whig supporter in Parliament. Speke was from Whitelackington, near Ilminster in Somerset; his parents were George Speke, and Joan, daughter of Sir John Portman. He became a ward of Sir Robert Pye, and later married his daughter. Speke gave financial support to Prince Rupert at Bridgwater; and when the town surrendered to Thomas Fairfax in July 1645 he was taken as a hostage and his goods sequestrated.