Africa, exploration of the next river or mountain range Still, as in the era of Mungo Park, one of the greatest challenges to exploration was the ancient city of Timbuktu; this and the source of the Nile formed two of the Holy Grails for generations of explorers In May 1825 Alexander Gordon Laing landed in Tripoli, determined to find his way to Timbuktu Finally, after a year of incredible hardship in the desert, on August 13, 1826, he arrived at Timbuktu Although the city disappointed him, Laing was impressed by the Mosque of Sankore, built by the great Muslim West African ruler Mansa Musa Although Laing had achieved his goal, his exploration ended in tragedy On September 21, 1826, Laing was told he was not safe and left the city to walk into a trap set by Sheikh Ahmadu El Abeyd, who had promised him protection On September 22 El Abeyd demanded Laing accept Islam, but the Scotsman refused He was killed and his head cut off ZANZIBAR The chapter in the history of African exploration concerning Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke is the most tragic of all In 1856 Richard Burton, perhaps the greatest British adventurer of his generation, was commissioned by the Royal Geographic Society to find the source of the Nile He decided to take with him a companion from an earlier expedition, John Hanning Speke Burton was already an accomplished traveler, proficient in Arabic, and able to carry off pretending to be a Muslim On December 19, 1856, Burton and Speke arrived at Zanzibar from Bombay, where Burton held a commission in the army of the East India Company Both men took ample time in Zanzibar preparing for their expedition They set off on their quest after years of travels and squabbles Burton was convinced that Lake Tanganyika was the source of the White Nile, whereas Speke believed it was Lake Ukewere, which he renamed Lake Victoria The rivalry that began in their prior expedition came to a head, and when Burton stopped to rest in Aden, Speke went on to England, promising to wait for his return to reveal the results of their journeys He broke that promise, and by the time Burton arrived in England on May 21, 1858, Speke had convinced the Royal Geographic Society that Lake Victoria was the source This accomplishment earned him another commission by the society, and he did not invite Burton to join him on his return to Africa to verify the claim Instead, Speke chose an army companion, James Augustus Grant They arrived in Zanzi- 11 bar from England in August 1860 They retraced the route that Speke had taken with Burton After several months in Uganda, Speke and Grant continued their trip Because Grant had a severely infected leg, Speke tended to forge ahead on his own On July 21, 1862, Speke found himself on the Nile and on July 28 came to Rippon Falls, where the White Nile flows out of Lake Victoria It was during Speke’s second trip that he and Grant met two of the period’s most colorful explorers, Samuel Baker and his redoubtable wife, Florence They met Speke at Gondokoro on the White Nile, whose source the Bakers were pursuing A question remained about another lake, known as the Luta N’zige Speke believed that the White Nile flowed into it from Lake Victoria and then out of Luta N’zige Speke suggested to Baker that he take up the investigation, and Baker was pleased to so On February 26, Speke and Grant resumed their journey down the Nile to Khartoum, and from there to Cairo and England LAKE ALBERT The Bakers continued with their exploration and on January 31, 1864, they struck out on the final march toward Luta N’zige On March 15, 1864, they found the lake, which they renamed Lake Albert Samuel explored the surrounding area and saw that the Nile flowed through it He and Florence returned to England in October, and Samuel was given a gold medal by the Royal Geographic Society The following August he was knighted Meanwhile Speke returned to England without any convincing evidence that his theory was correct The British Association for the Advancement of Science set up a meeting between Burton and Speke to make their cases At a preliminary meeting Burton triumphed over Speke On September 15, one day before the final confrontation, Speke was shot dead while hunting Many claimed he had shot himself by accident, but others felt he had taken his own life Throughout this entire period the name David Livingstone seemed to dominate Livingstone was a Scotsman born on May 1, 1813 He first visited Africa as a missionary, having gained a degree in medicine at the age of 25 at the University of Glasgow Livingstone soon realized that the exploration of this virtually unknown continent was more to his heart than laboring at a missionary station and devoted himself to exploration, often with his wife On June 1, 1849, with two companions, Orwell and Murray, he traveled to find Lake Ngami, and on August Livingstone and his party sailed down the