River of the Gods by Candice Millard

Book Summary

This is a comprehensive summary of “River of the Gods” by Candice Millard. The book explores genius, courage, and betrayal in the search for the source of the nile.

what’s in it for me? follow the fascinating story of how the biggest geographical question of the 1800s was solved.#

Introduction

candice millard, river of the gods, genius, courage and betrayal in the search for the source of the nile few bodies of water have as rich and ancient a history as the river nile.

yet, despite being one of the cradles of civilization, for inquiring europeans in the 19th century, it posed more questions than it gave answers.

for instance, where exactly did this legendary river begin?

european maps of east africa were checkered with huge blank splotches where its mountains, rivers, lakes and ravines should have been.

and, as two intrepid britons would find out, this seemingly primordial river guarded its secrets fiercely.

one a mercurial genius, the other a jealous but disciplined soldier, these two men found their relationship as hard to navigate as a continent's terrain.

in river of the gods, candice millard brings to life a true tale of grit, determination and rivalry.

along the way, she reveals how these explorers paid a high price for their ambition through betrayal, violence, starvation and life-threatening disease.

so, strap in, because in this chapter, we're about to follow these intrepid adventurers on their all-consuming quest to fill in the gaps in the map and claim the century's biggest exploratory prize.

a story rooted in colonialism#

a story rooted in colonialism it's 1801, and the egyptian city of alexandria is a smoldering ruin.

we're in the midst of the napoleonic wars.

hoping to deprive britain of its land route to india, napoleon invaded egypt.

yet, the french dictator didn't just bring soldiers, he brought scientists.

fascinated with the country's ancient history, legions of french scholars studied, measured, excavated and stole.

the biggest problem facing the first egyptologists is the cryptic markings on the grand monuments and tombs.

what do they mean?

cracking the code of the hieroglyphs promises to unlock the mystery of an ancient civilization.

but as french fortunes in egypt begin to wane, they withdraw.

and in the rubble of alexandria, the british have found the rosetta stone, excavated by french soldiers two years previously.

with the same passage of text written in three different scripts, one of which scholars know, the rosetta stone has finally unlocked the puzzle of hieroglyphs.

it's taken back to britain in triumph, and a frenzied wave of interest in ancient egypt grips europe.

but although its script has been deciphered, a bewildering array of mysteries remain.

and no question is more captivating than the source of the river nile.

the longest river in the world, the bedrock on which an old and grand civilization was built, the nile and its origins have confounded europeans for centuries.

hearsay and failure abound.

ancient writers like herodotus had speculated wildly about its source, while a greek trader had claimed it originated in two giant lakes fed by snow, from what he called the mountains of the moon.

two roman emperors had sent out failed expeditions to find it.

in fact, when faced with futility, ancient romans were likely to cry out that it'd be easier to find the source of the nile.

it's an age of exploration and colonialism for the europeans.

they believe the whole world is their playground, and discovering the source of the nile is the biggest geographical question of the age.

they already know that the nile has two main branches, the white and the blue.

and by 1770, scotsman james bruce has even reached the source of the shorter blue nile.

but the white nile source has remained a mystery.

it isn't as simple as sailing a boat upstream.

aside from the tangled webs of tributaries, there's a sude, a gigantic and congested swamp which is essentially unnavigable.

nearly 30 years later, when the royal geographical society is founded in london in 1830, it soon realizes someone will have to trek overland from the shores of east africa.

this will barely make the odyssey easier.

facing any hopeful explorer will be hundreds of miles of harsh and unforgiving territory, uncharted by europeans, along with the specters of deadly animals, debilitating disease, and potentially hostile communities.

they'll need to be skilled in all manner of scientific observation, from cartography to botany and ethnology.

they'll need to know a multitude of east african languages and cultural customs to boot.

the royal geographical society needs an exceptional person.

and they find one in richard burton.

the curious case of richard burton it's hard to fully understand the enigma that was richard burton.

the curious case of richard burton#

born in britain, but raised all around europe by an urbane and wealthy family, burton retained a lifelong interest in other cultures, languages, people, and places.

it was this cosmopolitanism and his respect for everything foreign, along with his atheism and rumored sexual escapades, that firmly placed him as an outsider in the stuffy climate of victorian britain.

everything seemed to come easy to burton.

his mind was like an intricate piece of machinery.

he mastered anything that he set to solve with complete ease.

he was a prolific and hauntingly beautiful writer, a fountain of knowledge on local cultures, one of the most gifted swordsmen of his day, and an expert operator of scientific equipment used for european exploration and mapping.

more than anything, though, he was a once-in-a-generation linguist.

by the end of his life, he could speak 25 languages, even writing books on their grammar and vocabulary systems.

working as an officer in the british army in colonial india, burton learned hindustani in just six months, placing him first in a language exam taken by some of britain's finest linguists.

back in 1830, burton has just returned from arabia, where he's learned arabic to fluency and disguised himself as a muslim in order to study their religious rites.

he proposes that the royal geographical society assign him their greatest expedition yet, to find the source of the nile.

the society accepts.

in truth, there are few better qualified for such an immense undertaking.

he's to begin in aden, a british port in what is today yemen, before sailing to east africa and landing in somaliland, a region mostly unexplored by europeans but believed to be highly dangerous.

just a few years previously, a french explorer was tortured and murdered there after trying to trek inland.

while preparing for the expedition in aden, burton decides he needs a second-in-command.

his first choice for the role has died suddenly, and so john speak will have to do.

in many ways, speak is the polar opposite of burton.

a man who prides himself on his discipline and masculinity, speak prefers hunting exotic animals to learning local languages or operating scientific equipment.

he isn't a gifted speaker or writer, and jealousy and resentment find a comfortable home in his head.

it's the relationship and tension between these two men that's a driving energy behind the rest of this story.

the best-laid plans of mice and men burton and speak set about organizing their expedition.

the best laid plans of mice and men#

first, the two men hire a small army.

from cooks and porters to guards and guides, most of the people who journey with them are skilled locals whose contributions will, ultimately, rarely be acknowledged.

yet, when the expedition reaches the east coast of africa, from where they'll begin their perilous march into the interior, burton and speak have just 40 people, a dangerously small number.

there are just eight inexperienced guards, decked out with swords and muskets.

once hired, these people all need to be paid.

most are promised about $5 per month for their service, to be paid when, and if, they return.

now, we say dollars, but we're not talking about green bits of paper with george washington on them.

these are silver bullion coins, which have been used in international trade for over a century.

this may be acceptable currency for locals living near the coast, where foreign trade is part and parcel of daily life, but essentially, it's useless further inland.

many interior communities have barter economies, and prefer payment in brass wire, cloth, or beads, which come in a kaleidoscope of different colors.

these are acceptable forms of something called kuhanga, an important cultural system of gift-giving, where foreign trespassers pay their respects to local rulers and communities.

aside from hired hands and various currencies, the expedition needs an eye-watering amount of gear and dozens of animals to carry it all.

clothes, tents, pillows and blankets, tables and chairs, scientific equipment, books, insect nets, ammunition, food supplies, and cooking utensils.

aside from weighing down the porter's backpacks, this is all loaded onto 50 camels and 6 mules.

sentries keep watch over the valuable animals at night, and somali archers guard them while they graze during the day.

with that, the expedition is finally ready.

then, not long after, disaster strikes.

while the expedition is camping on the somaliland coast, still preparing for its odyssey inland, burton and speak are jerked away by the cries of their sentries.

about 350 somali warriors are attacking the camp and have quickly overwhelmed the eight guards.

caught up in a pitch-black whirlwind of chaos and violence, burton and speak find themselves fighting for their dream and their lives.

the odds, though, are not too great.

both men eventually find refuge on board an arab ship off the coast, but not before a javelin has impaled burton from cheek to cheek, and speak has been captured, tortured, and repeatedly stabbed.

mamed and broken, they know their quest for geographical immortality is over before it's even begun.

burton and speak's rivalry physically and emotionally broken, the two men limp back to burton.

burton and speke’s rivalry#

although holding his tongue, speak holds nothing but resentment for burton.

he's bitter about some words shouted in the heat of battle.

burton, it seems to him, questioned his courage and masculinity.

but it isn't only burton's harsh words that have enraged speak.

it's his actions upon returning home as well.

believing that anything collected on a government-funded expedition is public property, burton has handed the hunting trophies and animal specimens speak managed to collect over to a zoologist.

speak had wanted them for his private collection on his aristocratic estate.

even more outrageous is burton's description of him in his book and the failed expedition.

he's called him ignorant of the islamic religion and highlighted his deficiency in local languages.

speak's heart burns for revenge, but he hides his fury.

clueless about speak's resentment, burton invites him on the next expedition to find the white nile's fabled source.

speak might be haughty and unsophisticated, but he prides himself on his determination and physical endurance.

for such a daunting feat, these aren't bad qualities in a companion.

the royal geographical society still believes there isn't a better person than burton to lead another complex and dangerous mission.

speak disagrees.

he thinks that he, not burton, should lead it.

at heart, though, he knows he has neither the contacts, support, nor expertise required.

accompanying burton is his only chance of returning to east africa.

so, he swallows his pride.

one year after their disaster in somaliland, speak and burton arrive at zanzibar, an island off the coast of modern-day tanzania, to prepare for their next journey.

they're to cross over the mainland and search for the rumored inland seas of east africa, what we know of today as the great lakes region.

there, they believe, they'll find the source of the white nile.

another failed expedition#

another failed expedition.

trying to calculate the supplies and equipment they'll need, and the danger they'll face, burton reasons they'll need at least 170 people.

but when the expedition departs from zanzibar, the party numbers are a mere 36.

as they get underway, hushed rumors begin circling the camp about the deadly animals and hostile communities they'll face.

porters at the back of the column begin quietly removing their packs and bolting for the treeline.

by july 1857, just a few weeks into the journey, burton and speak are down to only 27 people.

what's more, they're moving at a snail's pace, dangerous for an expedition with finite supplies.

in the first three weeks, they cover an average of 11 miles a day.

some days, wracked with fever or nursing injuries from insects, animals, or harsh terrain, they don't move at all.

yet, they keep plugging away, through blistering sun and monsoon torrents, through oppressive humidity which rusts their weapons, through deep ravines, dense jungle, murky swamps, and razor-sharp grass.

at each village, they stop to recruit more porters.

soon, they have over 100 people.

but as they struggle towards the mysterious inland sea, what we now know as lake tanganyika, things start to fall apart.

the supplies, meant to last for two years, are almost depleted.

this forces the men to hunt small birds and eat ants.

they desperately need to reach tanganyika.

maybe they can find a village there where they can purchase much-needed supplies.

starvation weakens the men.

a wave of deadly fever sweeps across the camp.

burton becomes so ill that he spends a year in almost total paralysis, painstakingly carried by exhausted porters over mountains and into canyons.

the group, or what's left of it, finally reaches the lake after eight months.

they're starving, sick, and broken.

with burton recovering, speak sets off on his own sub-expedition in search of another unknown inland sea called ujiji.

although he finds it, he's forced to turn back almost immediately due to a lack of supplies.

but not before he names it lake victoria, ignoring the fact locals already have a name for it and asserting, without any evidence, that it's the source of the nile.

when he returns to burton, both know the expedition is over.

their bodies are wrecked, and they're running out of supplies and things to purchase them with.

the only thing left to do is limp hundreds of miles back to the coast.

and that time, speak becomes so ill that he almost dies.

source of the white nile found – but at what cost?#

source of the white nile found, but at what cost?

burton and speak return to britain to lick their wounds.

despite speak insisting to anyone who will listen that he's found the nile's origin, he hasn't a scrap of evidence to prove it.

yet another expedition will be needed before europe can claim to have discovered it.

in london, the simmering tension between the two men, mostly down to speak's jealousy and resentment, boils over into open confrontation.

speak claims he single-handedly solved the world's greatest geographical mystery while burton lays sick in a tent.

a very public war of words erupts.

what's more, thanks to his boasting and some clever maneuvering, speak manages to secure the leadership of the next expedition.

burton knows he won't be invited, and besides, his body is now beginning to fail him.

burton will spend the rest of his life shuffling between dull diplomatic appointments, publishing books, and struggling for cash.

as burton's star is fading, speak's is rising.

the man burton had taken under his wing during his obsessive search has now hijacked and will ultimately complete his mentor's dream.

when speak returns from his third expedition, he's successfully proven that the nile's principal source is lake victoria.

he's an instant celebrity.

the ancient question has finally been solved.

and even better, speak has defeated his archrival.

but speak's fortunes don't last.

always more comfortable with a gun than a pen, his book on the expedition is written so poorly that his publisher has to hire a ghostwriter.

it's also attacked by scientists for its inaccurate measurements.

his triumphant attitude and obsession with slandering burton have also alienated him from his old allies.

in their run-up to the 34th annual meeting of the royal geographical society in 1864, the headline is to be a debate between the old enemies, burton and speak.

everyone knows burton to be a devastating speaker, and speak to be limp and incoherent.

it'll be a complete mismatch of oratory.

but the day before the debate, speak dies from a gunshot wound while hunting on a relative's aristocratic estate.

although the inquest rules that he accidentally shot himself, speak was always careful handling a gun, and many believe it was suicide.

since the first ancient roman expeditions, the european search for the nile's source had claimed many lives.

speak's might have been the last.

you've just listened to our chapter to river of the gods by candice millard.

final summary#

Conclusion

the key message here is that, in the 1800s, europeans thought the world belonged to them, and that they could go anywhere they pleased.

mostly this was for plunder, but occasionally it was for knowledge.

they'd wondered for centuries where the river nile began, and the royal geographical society sent the mercurial richard burton to find it.

enduring unimaginable hardship, burton ultimately failed in his mission.

however, his jealous apprentice succeeded, finding the nile's source in a giant lake which he called lake victoria.

okay, that's it for this chapter.

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see you in the next chapter.

River of the Gods

Table of Contents

Book Summary

what’s in it for me? follow the fascinating story of how the biggest geographical question of the 1800s was solved.#

a story rooted in colonialism#

the curious case of richard burton#

the best laid plans of mice and men#

burton and speke’s rivalry#

another failed expedition#

source of the white nile found – but at what cost?#

final summary#

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