John Hanning Speke 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 the lake, Speke found the Nile flowing out of it and discovered the Ripon Falls. Whilst being at the court of Muteesa I, the Kabaka (or King) of Buganda, the local kingdom, who treated Speke with kindness, he was given two girls of about 12
Richard Francis Burton (commonly called "The Arabian Nights" in English after early translations of Antoine Galland's French version); the publication of the "Kama Sutra" in English; and a journey with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. His works and letters extensively criticized colonial policies of the British Empire, even to the detriment of his career. Although he aborted his university studies, he became a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices and ethnography.