Gunbearer Part Two — Jan Merlin

In GUNBEARER Part Two, the tribesman Sidi Mubarak Mumbai depicts the safari undertaken to prove Speke's claim regarding the source of the Nile. It was a happier journey shared with Captain James Augustus Grant, despite interminable delays, illness, warfare, and greedy chieftains. Mumbai's status was sorely tested to prove his worth. In Buganda, its vain and ruthless ruler, Mtesa, kept all hostage to his whims. They managed to make voyage down the Nile to Cairo, where Speke and Grant parted from their faithful Africans. Aboard ship, a meddler introduced himself to Speke and the ensuing friendship led directly to the explorer's death. And even that was not reported truthfully by others â€" but his former gunbearer understood how it came to pass… and has so recorded it