Nile game such as buffalo. Lake Victoria was first sighted by Europeans in 1858 when the British explorer John Hanning Speke reached its southern shore while traveling with Richard Francis Burton to explore central Africa and locate the great lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this "vast expanse of open water" for the first time, Speke named the lake after the then Queen of the United Kingdom. Burton, recovering from illness and resting further south on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, was outraged that Speke claimed to have proved his discovery to be the true
Manor of Orleigh assumed the name Lee, as he was required to do under his uncle's will, and purchased as his residence Dillington Manor near Ilminster in Somerset. He let Orleigh to his brother-in-law William Speke of Jordans near Ilminster, Somerset. Speke had seven children, all but one daughter having been born at Orleigh, including his eldest son the famous explorer and discoverer of the source of the River Nile, John Hanning Speke (1827–1864). The Speke family gave up their tenancy of Orleigh in 1845 and Mr Lee next let the house to Col. Bayly from 1845 to 1856 and then to Capt.