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

While in the debate hall, Burton learned Speke had fatally shot himself. Speke’s death shocked Burton. Burton would never recover from Speke’s death. He (and others, including Speke’s family) blamed himself for Speke’s death.

Burton also believed that Speke’s “death had silenced them both” (259). Burton did not believe it was appropriate to continue questioning Speke’s assumption that the Nyanza represented the Nile’s source. Burton received consul appointments to Santos, Brazil, and Damascus, Syria. Despite talking about leading expeditions in both places, Burton never followed through on these ideas. Burton’s body was ravaged from his expeditions to East Africa. Moreover, he also became more irritable.

Burton continued to write throughout the rest of his life, although he focused more on translating books about sex than his expeditions. For example, Burton and a friend were the first to translate a fifth-century book on the art of love, known as the Kama Sutra, from Sanskrit to English. The works attracted notoriety and attention because Victorian society found them crude and obscene.

In the Epilogue, Millard documents what happened to Speke, Bombay, and Burton. Despite having found the source of the Nile, the British public forgot about Speke. In fact, he remains largely unknown today.

Millard turns next to Bombay, who “would live a life longer, more eventful, and more accomplished than Speke’s own” (272). He spent the rest of his life traveling throughout Africa, remaining one of the most accomplished guides. While Bombay does not have any memorials or biographies, Millard emphasizes that Bombay “lived and died in Africa a free man” (275).

Burton outlived both Speke and Bombay. He became extremely angry and resentful. Since he was forgotten by the British public and government, he turned to literature and language. Millard writes, “his controversial translations of ancient Arabic texts became, in many ways, his salvation” (275). These translations helped Burton generate profits, engage his mind, and fight with the public. Isabel worried about Burton’s translations.

Burton died in 1890 working on both his autobiography and a new translation called The Scented Garden. The latter was a medieval Arabic text about sex. Burton knew it would shock the British public and sell out immediately. He hoped this translation would make enough money to support him and Isabel. Believing it to be his most important work ever, he promised Isabel he would stop translating erotic texts after its completion.

Isabel burned Burton’s translation of The Scented Garden after his death. She worried about his eternal soul since she was unable to convert Burton to Catholicism. Isabel remained haunted by this decision for the rest of her life.