Editing Lake Victoria (section)

== History and exploration ==
[[File:The National Archives UK - CO 1069-3-183.jpg|thumb|Bismarck Rock]]
The first recorded information about Lake Victoria comes from [[Arab]] traders plying the inland routes in search of [[gold]], [[ivory]], other precious commodities, and [[slave]]s.

[[File:Africa Lake Victoria 10 006.jpg|left|thumb|The lake as seen from the shores of the Speke Resort in Kampala, Uganda]]

The lake existed and was known to many Africans in the catchment area who left no written records long before it was sighted by a [[European ethnic groups|European]] in 1858 when the [[British people|British]] explorer [[John Hanning Speke]] reached its southern shore while on his journey with [[Richard Francis Burton]] to explore central Africa and locate the Great Lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this "vast expanse of open water" for the first time, Speke named the lake after Queen Victoria. Burton, who had been recovering from illness at the time and resting further south in Kazeh (near present-day [[Tabora]]),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Millard |first=Candice |title=River of the Gods |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group}}{{full|date = December 2024}}</ref>{{page needed|date = December 2024}} was outraged that Speke claimed to have proved his discovery to have been the true source of the Nile River, which Burton regarded as still unsettled. A very public quarrel ensued, which not only sparked a great deal of intense debate within the scientific community of the day, but also much interest by other [[List of explorers|explorers]] keen to either confirm or refute Speke's discovery.<ref name = "DNB">{{DNB Cite|wstitle=Speke, John Hanning}}</ref>
[[File:View at Lake Victoria (Uganda).jpg|thumb|Motorboat on Lake Victoria, near the Ugandan shore]]
In the late 1860s, the famous Scottish [[explorer]] and [[missionary]] [[David Livingstone]] failed in his attempt to verify Speke's discovery, instead pushing too far west and entering the [[River Congo]] system instead.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.jambokenya.com/jambo/location/victoria.htm| archive-url=https://archive.today/19970617231906/http://www.jambokenya.com/jambo/location/victoria.htm| url-status=dead| archive-date=17 June 1997| title=Kenya, Africa – Lake Victoria in Kenya| publisher=Jambo Kenya Network| access-date=14 July 2008}}</ref> Ultimately, the [[Welsh Americans|Welsh-American]] explorer [[Henry Morton Stanley]], on an expedition funded by the ''[[New York Herald]]'' newspaper, confirmed the truth of Speke's discovery, circumnavigating the lake and reporting the great outflow at [[Ripon Falls]] on the lake's northern shore.