Content Warning: The source text deals with psychological, emotional, and physical distress that the characters experience during the expeditions, as well as violence and racism associated with western colonialism. The text also discusses depression and suicide ideation. 

Candice Millard opens River of the Gods with the story of how William Richard Hamilton, a Cambridge-educated classicist, recovered the Rosetta Stone in 1801. The Rosetta Stone represents one of the most important archaeological artifacts ever discovered. The face of the stone includes three scripts, only one of which was deciphered at the time. Scholars immediately understood the importance of the stone: They could use the deciphered script to unlock the other two scripts.

Hamilton helped found the Royal Geographic Society in 1830. It remains one of the most active learned societies in the world focusing on the advancement of geographical sciences. The Royal Geographic Society helped drive British obsession with discovering the source of the Nile in the 19th century by organizing and funding expeditions. The society also advocated on behalf of these expeditions to the British government.

The Royal Geographic Society understood that their nation’s pride and plans for imperial expansion were at stake if they could not find the Nile’s source.