John Hanning Speke to Lake Victoria by travelling south. They eventually, after tremendous hardships, such as being racked by fevers and held up by rulers for months on end, found Lake Albert and the Murchison Falls. Speke and Grant now returned to England where they arrived in June 1863 and were welcomed as genuine heroes. This did not last long in Speke’s case however; disputes with Burton, who was relentless in his criticisms and a very compelling public speaker and gifted writer, left Speke’s discoveries in less than an ideal light. Speke had also committed to write a book for John Blackwood which
John Hanning Speke gain from the feud such as book publishers and newspapers. Burton was still extremely weak and once he appeared in front of a committee of the RGS he was not able to make a convincing case for his leading a second expedition to settle the outstanding matters about the Nile. The rift widened, and perhaps became irreversible, when Speke was chosen to lead a subsequent expedition instead of Burton. The two presented joint papers concerning the expedition to the Royal Geographical Society on 13 June 1859. Together with James Augustus Grant, Speke left Portsmouth on 27 April 1860 and departed