Ripon Falls Ripon Falls Ripon Falls at the northern end of Lake Victoria in Uganda was formerly considered the source of the river Nile. In 1862–3 John Hanning Speke was the first European to follow the course of the Nile downstream after discovering the falls that his intuition had marked as the source of the Nile. The water from Ripon Falls falls into a narrow opening and that is where some people believe the River Nile starts. He named the falls after George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon. The Falls functioned as a natural outlet for Lake Victoria, until in 1954 the
Sidi Mubarak Bombay slave in India many years and learned Hindi. He was emancipated after his owner died, and returned to Africa. In Africa, Bombay met John Hanning Speke, who asked him to join his expedition to find the source of the Nile River. Bombay and Speke communicated with each other in Hindi, as it was the only language both of them understood. Bombay was well regarded by the British explorers; in the words of Burton, "The gem of the party, however, is one Sidi Mubarak, who has taken to himself the agnomen of 'Bombay.'" Between 1856 and 1876, Bombay participated in expeditions