White Nile, The

Among heroic annal, the discovery of the sources of the Nile and the exploration of Darkest Africa stand out dramatically. No less dramatic is the story of the missionaries and men of action, diplomats and soldiers of fortune who followed the explorers and whose adventurous careers are linked with theirs in this engrossing chronicle.

The very names of these men make the pulses quicken. "Arabian Nights" Burton; the soldier Speke; the businessman Samuel Baker and his beautiful wife; Livingstone; Stanley. "Chinese" Gordon agrees to govern the Sudan for the Khedive of Egypt... And the story of his doomed resistance at the siege of Khartoum is told with the same suspense that made the author's Gallipoli so memorable. Emin , the German-Jewish scientist, holds out in Equatoria, in many ways the most remarkable of these heroes. And, finally, Kitchener avenges Gordon at the battle of Omdurman and clears the Nile. "The mightiest river in the world" becomes an open highway from Central Africa to the Mediterranean.

The four sections of Mr. Moorehead's narrative trace his story: the Exploration; the Exploitation; the Moslem Revolt; the Christian Victory. Together, they make this book the most colorful in setting, the most absorbing in human interest, and the most exciting in historical incident that Alan Moorehead has yet written.