At the time, however, Speke’s theory was not sufficiently supported by evidence, and was certainly open to attack, the more so because he had blundered by giving the Victoria Nyanza so many outlets. The two great men were to meet and discuss their differences, and every one knew that underneath a mere dispute on geographical theories lay deep-seated bitterness of feeling. It was said that Speke, who hated quarrelling, and perhaps felt some compunction as to the frankness of his remarks concerning Burton, looked forward to this public meeting with great dislike, the more so as he was a poor and unready public speaker. But the intended conference was never to come off; on the 21st of September, 1864, Speke, whilst out partridge-shooting on his father’s land at Jordans, near Ilminster, was scrambling over a stile with his gun at full-cock. It was just one of those little imprudences that even the wariest of African travellers commits when he returns to civilisation. Both barrels of the gun were discharged into his body, and he died within a few hours. The news was received by the British Association at Bath just as the meeting was about to commence, and as Burton was seated awaiting the arrival of his old comrade. This terrible event hushed the difference between them. Burton’s wife, a gifted woman, who sometimes wrote very good poetry, inscribed some very beautiful lines to the memory of Speke. [Illustration: SPEKE’S HANDWRITING. (Letter to Laurence Oliphant.)] We take leave here of one of the greatest of African explorers, the second greatest only, if Stanley is to be accounted the first. Only a man of extraordinary energy, determination, bravery, tact, and of iron constitution could have struggled through the difficulties which beset Speke on his route from Zanzibar to the Victoria Nyanza, and from the Victoria Nyanza to the navigable Nile. The purport of the expedition was wellnigh wrecked between Unyamwezi and the Victoria Nyanza; it ran many risks from the caprices of Mutesa; several times Kamurasi threatened it with failure in Unyoro; other dangers awaited it in the Madi and Bari countries, but it finally resulted in affording us the main solution of the Nile Quest. As the outcome of Speke’s journey, the Victoria Nyanza was placed on the map with some approximate correctness as to shape and area; the shape and size of Lake Albert Nyanza were guessed at with extraordinary accuracy, and the course of the White and Mountain Nile was foreshadowed with the same amount of truth as in the case of the Albert Nyanza. The remarkable Hima aristocracy of equatorial Africa and the barbaric court of Uganda were revealed to the world. Speke broke the back of the Nile mystery, just as Stanley did that of the Congo. It only remained henceforth to fill up the minor details of the map. CHAPTER XV SAMUEL BAKER AND THE ALBERT NYANZA