John Hanning Speke But Burton was too weak to make the trip and thus stayed in base camp when the main caravan halted again at Kazeh. Speke went on a 47-day side trip that was 452 miles up and down in which he took 34 men with Bombay and Mabruki as his captains and on 30 July 1858 became the first European to see Lake Victoria and the first to map it. It was this lake that eventually proved to be the source of the River Nile. However, much of the expedition's survey equipment had been lost at this point and thus vital
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.