River of the Gods by Candice Millard

First Line: As he walked through the storied gates of Alexandria in the fall of 1801, a young British officer named William Richard Hamilton found himself in the middle of a stunning tableau-- abject misery set against the lost grandeur of the Pharaohs.

 

The source of the Nile River had been shrouded in mystery for thousands of years until a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt inspired European powers to send out waves of expeditions to map the unknown corners of the world and extend their empires. 

Two explorers were sent out by England's Royal Geographical Society to find the Nile's headwaters: Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke. Burton spoke twenty-nine languages, was a decorated soldier, and an atheist. Speke was a young aristocrat and Army officer, passionate about hunting and determined to make his mark on the world.

The two men clashed from the beginning on a journey of tremendous hardships, illness, and one setback after another. After two years, Burton became too ill to continue, but Speke did and ultimately claimed he'd found the source of the Nile. Speke rushed to take credit for his discovery, and when Burton disputed it, Speke launched another expedition to prove his claim. The two became venomous enemies.

Yet there was a third man on both expeditions, his name obscured, whose exploits were even more extraordinary. Without a former slave named Sidi Mubarak Bombay, neither Burton nor Speke would have come close to the headwaters of the Nile. In fact, neither one of them would probably have survived.

~

Candice Millard is a Must-Read author for me. All of her books have been fascinating. In River of the Gods, the two main characters, Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, were so diametrically opposed that I found it easy to take sides. 

 

Richard Burton spoke several languages, believed in traveling as a native in whichever country he found himself in, didn't believe in converting anyone to Christianity, and only killed animals when it was necessary.  His main problem was that he could be much too blunt for the delicate sensibilities of others.

John Hanning Speke was a young aristocrat who was pompous, sloppy with details, and-- as an editor found out later to his horror-- was a total nightmare as a writer. He joined Burton in the expedition to the headwaters of the Nile for the glory, and he was completely capable of lying to get what he felt he deserved. On top of that, he loved to go hunting and blast away at anything that moved whether the men on the expedition needed the meat or not.

Sidi Mubarak Bombay was even more exceptional than Richard Burton. He was captured, enslaved, and shipped from his East African home to India. When his owner died, he joined the army and eventually traveled back to Africa. There he used his resourcefulness, linguistic powers, and courage to become a guide. There is no doubt that, without men like Bombay to lead, carry supplies, and protect these European expeditions, none of them would have been a success. 

Once again, Millard has crafted a fascinating history of the exploits of extraordinary people. Although slow-paced at times, River of the Gods is riveting.

 

River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile

by Candice Millard

eISBN: 9780385543118

Knopf Doubelday © 2022

eBook, 424 pages

 

Non-Fiction

Rating: A-

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

Jungleland by Christopher S. Stewart

First Line: The man called himself Rana, or Frog.

Armed with a World War II spy's personal notebooks and the mysterious coordinates carved into the man's walking stick, journalist Christopher S. Stewart goes to Honduras to see if he can do what the spy (Theodore Morde) claimed he did in 1940: find the Ciudad Blanca-- the white city of gold hidden deep in the rain forest of the Mosquito Coast, one of the wildest places on Earth. What the journalist would learn is that the journey itself oftentimes is more important than reaching a destination.

Alternating chapters tell us of Stewart, a New Yorker with a bad back and no fondness for camping or hiking, who decides to go off on this adventure even though there's political unrest in the area. Compared with the chapters on him, the ones about Theodore Morde sound like Indiana Jones. Morde was a seasoned amateur when he set out through the jungle in 1940. He'd already circled the globe five times and covered the Spanish Civil War with Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell. After claiming that he had found Ciudad Blanca, Morde would go on to become a spy during World War II and attempt to assassinate Hitler.

I found this book to be uneven. As long as the author focused on Morde and Morde's expedition or on the facts of his own, I found it very interesting. However, Stewart's attempt to show The More Sensitive Side of Explorer Man sounded too much like whining. Blisters, rain, heat, missing his family, listening to his wife whine about things she should have been able to take care of in his absence... these things all brought the enjoyment factor down further and further for me.

If you like finite results in books like this, you may want to rethink reading this book. There are no real results to either man's journey into the jungle unless you count what Stewart learned about himself. However, as uneven as I think the book is, it is worth reading if you enjoy the search for lost civilizations. As wired and modern as most of us are, it makes me smile to think that there are still lots of adventures like this to be had on this planet.   

Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure 
 by Christopher S. Stewart

ISBN:  9780061802546

Harper © 2013

Hardcover, 288 pages

Non-Fiction

Rating: C+

Source: Amazon Vine

REVIEW: The Lost City of Z

Title: The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
Author: David Grann
ISBN: 9780385513531/ Doubleday
History
Rating: B+

First Line: On a cold January day in 1925, a tall, distinguished gentleman hurried across the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey, toward the S.S. Vauban, a five-hundred-and-eleven-foot ocean liner bound for Rio de Janeiro.


Author David Grann admits that he's not the spontaneous Indiana Jones type:

Let me be clear: I am not an explorer or an adventurer. I don't climb mountains or hunt. I don't even like to camp. I stand less than five feet nine inches tall and am nearly forty years old, with a blossoming waistline, and thinning black hair.... I have a terrible sense of direction and tend to forget where I am on the subway and miss my stop in Brooklyn.

Why on earth would someone like this decide to find out what happened to a world-renowned explorer who disappeared in the Amazon over eighty years ago? Because when he's working on a story, it's a completely different ball game. When he was young, Grann was drawn to mystery and adventure tales, and the story of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, an explorer who vanished in 1925 while searching for a fabled lost civilization in the Amazon, is certainly filled with both.

In 2004, Grann was researching the mysterious death of a Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes expert when he came across a reference to Fawcett's role in inspiring Conan Doyle's The Lost World. As he read more about Fawcett, he became intrigued with the idea of a sophisticated civilization with monumental architecture existing in the Amazon since many experts have always believed the area could never support one. This led to more research on Fawcett. When he was given access to Fawcett's papers, Grann found clues that made him believe he could not only find out what happened to Fawcett--he could find what he had dubbed the Lost City of Z. Once he had those clues, there was no turning back.

The Lost City of Z tells us of the life and adventures of Fawcett, and how his family coped while he was off exploring. The sections taking place in the Amazon are vivid and fascinating. More than once I found myself doing a self-check for parasites and wanting to place an order for massive quantities of mosquito netting. Instead of the usual birdsong, I was hearing the howls and screeches of monkeys. If I have any quibble about this book, it's the fact that the focus is almost entirely on Fawcett; Grann doesn't spend enough time telling us about his own experiences as an explorer. The differences between Fawcett's Amazon and Grann's is often startling. I usually finish a book wondering what happened to the editor--a hundred pages could have been axed without hurting the story one bit. This is one instance where I feel like Oliver. Please Mr. Grann, may I have some more?

The Lost City of Z will be published in February. You can pre-order a copy from Amazon now. If you enjoy armchair exploration and the answer to an eighty-year-old mystery, that pre-order sounds like a good plan!

Read Alyce's review on At Home With Books.
Read Fyrefly's review on Fyrefly's Book Blog.