Speke, Jeal believes, should be in the pantheon of the world's greatest explorers. Apart from fighting off spear-wielding Somalis, he saved a wife of a Bagandan king from being beaten to death. Speke had, in fact, fallen hopelessly in love with an African woman in Uganda and showed astonishing frankness in giving tribesmen and women sexual advice. Tim Jeal, author of a new book Explorers of the Nile, has unearthed evidence that has convinced him Speke's achievements were 'diminished by what a very skilful, clever but ultimately cynical person had done to him'.
