BEKE, CHARLES TILSTONE English geographer and Biblical critic. From 1838 till his death he was principally engaged on geographical studies of the Nile valley. He visited Abyssinia in connection with the mission to Shoa, and was the first scientifically to determine the course of the Blue Nile (see Journal of the Royal Geographical Society) . In 1848 he planned an expedition to discover the sources of the Nile, but nothing of importance was accomplished. In 1861-62 he travelled in Syria and Palestine, then going to Egypt in an attempt to pro mote trade with Central Africa, and to urge the growing of cotton in the Sudan. In 1865 he went again to Abyssinia to obtain from King Theodore the release of the British captives. In the year of his death he made a journey to Egypt to determine the real position of Mount Sinai. He wrote An Essay on the Nile and its Tributaries (1847), The Sources of the Nile (186o), and The British Captives in Abyssinia (1865).
See Summary of the late Dr. Beke's published works and . . . public services, by his widow (Tunbridge Wells, 1876).