众神之河：寻找尼罗河源头的天才、勇气和背叛 非洲历史 River of the Graces : Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile

基本信息

Format:Hardback 368 pages

Publisher:Swift Press

Imprint:Swift Press

ISBN:9781800752610

Published:2 Feb 2023

Weight:578g

Dimensions:163 x 242 x 30 (mm)

页面参数仅供参考，具体以实物为准

书籍简介

几千年来，尼罗河源头的位置一直笼罩在神秘之中。 19世纪，人们对古埃及产生了狂热的兴趣。 与此同时，欧洲列强掀起了一波又一波的探索浪潮，旨在绘制地球未知角落的地图，并扩张他们的殖民帝国。

英国皇家地理学会派理查德·伯顿和约翰·汉宁·斯皮克代表英格兰领取该奖项。 伯顿会讲二十九种语言，并且是一名荣获勋章的士兵。 他也是善变、狡猾、反传统的无神论者。 斯皮克是一位年轻的贵族和军官，决心要留下自己的印记，热衷于狩猎，与伯顿在气质和信仰上相反。

从一开始两个人就发生冲突。 他们将忍受巨大的艰辛、疾病和不断的挫折。 两年后，在非洲内陆深处，伯顿病得太重，无法继续前进，但斯皮克做到了，并声称他在一个大湖中找到了源头，他将其命名为维多利亚湖。 当他们回到英国后，斯皮克急忙将功劳归咎于伯顿。 伯顿对他的说法提出异议，斯皮克又发起了一次前往非洲的探险来证明这一点。 两人成了恶毒的敌人，公众站在更有魅力的伯顿一边，这让斯皮克非常羡慕。 在他们公开辩论的前一天，斯皮克开枪自杀了。

然而，两次远征中还有第三个人，他的名字被帝国史册所掩盖，但他的功绩更加非凡。 这就是西迪·穆巴拉克·孟买，他被奴役并从东非的家乡运到印度。 当购买他的人去世后，他加入了当地苏丹的军队，并回到非洲，在那里他利用自己的足智多谋、高超的语言能力和原始的勇气作为向导谋生。 如果没有孟买和像他这样领导、携带和保护这次探险的人，英国人就不可能接近尼罗河的源头，甚至可能活下来。

在《众神之河》中，坎迪斯·米勒德以殖民列强竞相剥削非洲为背景，写了另一个关于勇气和冒险的精彩的故事。

For millennia the location of the Nile River’s headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe – and extend their colonial empires.

Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke were sent by the Royal Geographical Society to claim the prize for England. Burton spoke twenty-nine languages, and was a decorated soldier. He was also mercurial, subtle, and an iconoclastic atheist. Speke was a young aristocrat and Army officer determined to make his mark, passionate about hunting, Burton’s opposite in temperament and beliefs.

From the start the two men clashed. They would endure tremendous hardships, illness, and constant setbacks. Two years in, deep in the African interior, Burton became too sick to press on, but Speke did, and claimed he found the source in a great lake that he christened Lake Victoria. When they returned to England, Speke rushed to take credit, disparaging Burton. Burton disputed his claim, and Speke launched another expedition to Africa to prove it. The two became venomous enemies, with the public siding with the more charismatic Burton, to Speke’s great envy. The day before they were to publicly debate,Speke shot himself.

Yet there was a third man on both expeditions, his name obscured by imperial annals, whose exploits were even more extraordinary. This was Sidi Mubarak Bombay, who was enslaved and shipped from his home village in East Africa to India. When the man who purchased him died, he made his way into the local Sultan’s army, and eventually traveled back to Africa, where he used his resourcefulness, linguistic prowess and raw courage to forge a living as a guide. Without Bombay and men like him, who led, carried, and protected the expedition, neither Englishman would have come close to the headwaters of the Nile, or perhaps even survived.

In River of the Gods Candice Millard has written another peerless story of courage and adventure, set against the backdrop of the race to exploit Africa by the colonial powers.

作者简介

坎迪斯·米拉德是《纽约时报》畅销书《怀疑之河》、《共和国的命运》和《帝国英雄》的作者。 她与丈夫和三个孩子住在堪萨斯州堪萨斯城。

CANDICE MILLARD is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The River of Doubt, Destiny of the Republic, and Hero of the Empire. She lives in Kansas City, Kansas, with her husband and three children.