One of 12 family copies with extra text. One of 12 special copies printed for the author with 8 additional pages of text suppressed by the publisher, this copy presented by the author's brother, Ben speke to John Pine Coffin (1842-1890), who married speke's sister, Matilda (1845-1928), in 1865.

Of the 12 copies, only 5 are accounted for: the present copy; one which was recently acquired by the National Library of Scotland; one which was sold by us in 2018; and 2 which are in private collections.

An account of Speke's first journey to Central Africa as part of Richard Burton's expedition, during which Speke claimed to have discovered the source of the Nile, a claim vigourously disputed by Richard Burton.

The additional pages in this copy begin on page 373 with the sentence: 'In a few words more I shall briefly describe how the expedition came out of Africa, and what became of the men who brought us safely to the end of our journey'. Speke relates disagreements with Burton over where they should proceed next, and the payment of their guides and porters; the generosity of Colonel Rigby, and the Sultan of Zanzibar who 'saved our honour by giving the Béluches a present of 2300 dollars'; writing to Rigby 'on behalf of the men who had brought us through the journey, and begged him to see them righted [as Burton had refused to pay them]'; the unexpected arrival of Burton to England, and their lectures at the Royal Geographical Society, at which Speke records 'To show how the Nile drained the Victoria N'yanza, I got Mr Findlay (the Society's mapper) to draw my a diagram, and with that hanging over our heads, I, for the first time, pro-pounded in public my opinion that the Victoria N'yanza would eventually prove to be the source of the Nile.'

The book is in two parts, the first Journal of adventures in Somali-Land, the second Journal of a cruise on the Tanganyika Lake.

First edition; 8vo, x, [1], 380 pp., 32 pages with ads at end, frontispiece (spotted), 1 double-page and 1 folding map, page 188 clumsily opened with a long tear mainly marginal but going into the text (no loss), original brown cloth gilt, light wear, couple of pieces of ephemera tipped in with remains of old glue marks to front free endpaper where previously attached, a very good copy.

Hilmy II, p255.