David Livingstone

David Livingstone

David Livingstone, (March 19, 1813 -May 1, 1873) a Scottish medical missionary and explorer of the Victorian era, traveled 29,000 miles across one-third of the continent of Africa for more than thirty years. Livingstone's own conversion came when he realized that faith and science were compatible. He believed the best way to share his faith with the Africans was to teach them about the world. Livingston respected Africans and learned their languages and customs. He was appalled by the way the Dutch and Portuguese colonists treated the African people and his writings told the world about the slave trade. Livingstone supported his work by writing books about his travels. His geographical, botanical, medical, and social discoveries were extensive.

Early life

David Livingstone was born in the village of Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. His father, Neil Livingstone, a religious man, journeyed from place to place as a tea merchant. His family of nine lived in a humble single room in a cotton mill tenement. At the young age of ten, David Livingston started working in a cotton factory. He had such an intense desire for knowledge that he used part of his first week's earnings to buy a Latin grammar. He set up his book at the factory in such a way where he could study as he worked.

As he worked fourteen hours a day and studied at night school, Livingston saved up enough money so that in 1836, he could begin to study medicine and theology at the University of Glasgow. In 1838, he decided to become a medical missionary with the London Missionary Society (LMS), which he chose because of its nonsectarian character. While in London, Livingstone completed his internship and met South African missionary Robert Moffat, who inspired him to go to Africa. Dr. Moffat spoke of the vast, untouched regions of Central Africa, and the "smoke of a thousand villages" where the gospel had never been preached.

In 1840, after receiving his medical license and being ordained, Livingston sailed to Cape Town for a mission station (just north of the Moffat’s) called Buchuanaland (now Botswana). He decided not to settle in one place but to travel around the interior. Livingston stayed with the local people while learning their languages, preaching, and studying the botany and natural history of the area. When he wasn’t traveling he built a chapel, set up a printing press, and tended to the sick.

In 1845, he married Mary Moffat, Robert’s eldest daughter, and began a family while moving around setting up new missions, eventually having six children.

One time, Livingstone fired on an attacking male lion and the lion bit into his shoulder and shook him until the lion finally fell over dead. This injury limited the use of his left arm but did not affect his adventurous spirit.

The Royal Geographical Society awarded him a prize and a gold medal for his discovery of Lake Ngami in the Kalahari Desert in 1849.

Victoria Falls

David Livingstone memorial at Victoria Falls

In the period between November 1852 and September 1856, Livingston explored the African interior, and was the first European to witness the magnificence the Mosi-oa-Tunya waterfall (which he renamed Victoria Falls after his monarch, Queen Victoria). He was one of the first Westerners to make the 4,300 mile transcontinental journey across Africa. The purpose of his journey was to open the routes, while accumulating useful information about the African continent. In particular, Livingstone was a proponent of trade and missions to be established in central Africa. His motto, inscribed in the base of the statue to him at Victoria Falls, was "Christianity, Commerce, and Civilization." At this time he believed the key to achieving these goals was the navigation of the Zambezi River. He hoped to find a route to the Atlantic Ocean that would open up legitimate commerce and weaken the slave trade since local chiefs would no longer have to cooperate with slave traders to get trade goods. He returned to Britain to try to garner support for his ideas, and to publish a book on his travels.

In 1856, Livingstone returned to England as a national hero and started a six-month speaking tour while preparing his book, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (1857). This sold widely and made him financially independent, allowing him to provide for his family and resign from the London Missionary Society. One speech, at Cambridge University, inspired the Universities Mission for Christian Work in Africa (UMCA, eventually founded in 1860). Livingstone left for Africa again in March 1858, with his wife and one son. This time he went with an official appointment as Her Majesty’s Consul for the East Coast of Africa.

Zambezi expedition

Livingstone returned to Africa as head of the "Zambezi Expedition", which was a British government-funded project to examine the natural resources of southeastern Africa. The Zambezi river turned out to be completely unnavigable past the Cabora basa rapids, a series of cataracts and rapids that Livingstone had failed to explore on his earlier travels. The expedition lasted from March 1858 until the middle of 1864. Livingstone was an inexperienced leader and had trouble managing a large-scale project. At Sesheke, Livingstone first observed the great Zambesi River and began the hazardous hike northward.

From the beginning this journey was riddled with difficulties. For the first time, Livingstone contracted malaria as did most of his companions. Livingstone's wife, Mary, died on April 29, 1863 of dysentery, but Livingstone continued to explore, eventually returning home in 1864 after the government ordered the recall of the Expedition. The Zambezi Expedition was castigated as a failure in many newspapers of the time, and Livingstone experienced great difficulty in raising funds to further explore Africa. Nevertheless, the scientists appointed to work under Livingstone, John Kirk (Explorer), Charles Meller, and Richard Thornton, did contribute large collections of botanical, ecological, geological and ethnographic material to scientific institutions in the UK.

Source of the Nile

Livingstone maintained exceptional popularity with the Royal Geographical Society and the British public. While in England, he gave speeches about the need to take action against the slave trade. His newest publication, a book called Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi and Its Tributaries (1865), brought private support to explore the watersheds (divides between river drainage basins) of central Africa.

In March, 1866, Livingstone returned to Africa, this time to Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania), where he set out to seek the source of the Nile. Livingstone never lost the dream that “civilizing influences” could restrain the slave trade, which he called “that enormous evil.”

Along with his loyal African companions, Sisu and Chuma, he explored Lakes Tanganyika, Mweru and Bangweulu. The map of Africa was slowly being charted. The source of the Nile, seemed so close and even though Livingstone often thought he was on the verge of success, he continued to be puzzled for seven years. In 1871, Livingston found the Lualaba River, which feeds the Congo River, and mistakingly thought this river was the "real" Nile.

Livingstone saw Arab slave traders massacre between 300 to 400 Africans. Devastated in heart and in body, he returned to Ujiji. Little did he know that a few years after his death, for the most part attributed to his influence, the slave traffic would be abolished and a beautiful church would be erected on the very site of the Zanzibar slave market.

Livingstone completely lost contact with the outside world for six years. Only one of his 44 later dispatches made it to Zanzibar. Henry Morton Stanley, sent by the New York Herald newspaper in 1869, lead an expedition of about 2,000 men to find Livingstone. They started the search into the interior from the eastern shore of Africa on March 21, 1871. It wasn’t until nearly eight months later that Stanley found Livingstone in Ujiji, a small village on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, on November 10, 1871. When Livingstone came out to meet him, Stanley responded with what has become one of history's most famous greetings: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

Together, Livingstone and Stanley continued exploring the north end of the Tanganyika (part of the present Tanzania) until Stanley left him in March 1872. Even though Stanley urged him to return, Livingstone was determined not to leave Africa until his mission was complete. Stocked up with supplies, Livingstone set off again toward Lake Bangweulu, and continued his efforts to find the source of the Nile. He became so weak with dysentery that he had to be carried on a stretcher and finally couldn’t travel at all.

Death and Social Influence

Livingstone became a frail and weak figure suffering from malaria and internal bleeding caused by dysentery. In the morning of May 1, 1873, his companions found him kneeling by his bedside having died in prayer in Chief Chitambo's village on the southern shores of Lake Bangweulu (now Zambia). His body, carried over a thousand miles by his loyal attendants Chuma and Susi, was returned to Britain. He was entombed in Westminster Abbey where his epitaph reads:

’Brought by faithful hands over land and sea, here rests David Livingstone, missionary, traveler, philanthropist, born March 19, 1813, at Blantyre, Lanarkshire, died May 1, 1873, at Chitambo’s village, Ulala. For 30 years his life was spent in an unwearied effort to evangelize the native races, to explore the undiscovered secrets, to abolish the desolating slave trade of Central Africa. Where with his last words he wrote, “All I can add in my solitude is may Heaven’s rich blessings come down to everyone, American, English, or Turk, who will help heal the open sore of the world.”'

Livingstone had relentlessly tried to expose the suffering caused by the slave trade. As he traveled the interior of Africa, he witnessed slave caravans of up to a thousand slaves chained together with neck yokes or leg irons, carrying heavy loads, walking single file thousands of miles down to the sea. If one slave complained, they were immediately speared to death and discarded by the wayside. Livingstone described the destruction to human life caused by the slave trade:

'Wherever we took a walk, human skeletons were seen in every direction,… The sight of this desert, but eighteen months ago a well-peopled valley, now literally strewn with human bones, forced the conviction upon us that the destruction of human life in the middle passage, however great, constitutes but a small portion of the waste, and made us feel that unless the slave-trade—that monster iniquity which has so long brooded over Africa—is put down, lawful commerce cannot be established.'

Livingstone's letters and speeches, along with the effort of other missionaries, stirred up a public campaign for Parliament to intervene and give pressure to stop the slave trade. As Stanley was leaving him, Livingstone presented Stanley with a letter to be published. Livingstone expressed his concerns and priorities:

’And if my disclosures regarding the terrible Ujijian slavery should lead to the suppression of the East Coast slave trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the discovery of all the Nile sources together.’

This dream of Livingstone was realized even though he never found the source of the Nile. In 1871, the outcry of Livingstone and others' antislavery protests prompted the House of Commons to take action. Only a month after Livingstone’s death, England threatened a naval blockade of Zanzibar that forced the Sultan to close its slave market forever.

Chronology of Events in Livingstone's Life

1813 Born at Blantyre, in Lanarkshire, Scotland, March 19

1833 Real conversion took place in his life

1836 Entered school in Glasgow

1838 Accepted by London Missionary Society, September

1840 Ordained missionary in Albion St. Chapel, November 20. Sailed on H.M. Ship "George" for Africa, December 8

1841 Arrived at Kuruman, July 31

1842 Extended tour of Bechuana country begun February 10

1843 Located at Mabotsa, August

1844 Marriage to Mary Moffat of Kuruman

1846 Located at Chonuane with Chief Sechele

1847 Moved to Kolobeng

1848 Sechele, first convert, baptized, October 1

1849 Lake Ngami discovered, August 1

1850 Royal Geographical Society awarded royal donation, 25 guineas

1851 Discovered the upper Zambesi August 3

1852 Mrs. Livingstone and four children sailed from Cape Town April 23

1853 Journey from Linyanti to west coast, November 11 to May 31, 1854

1854 French Geographical Society awarded silver medal; University of Glasgow conferred degree LL.D.; Journey from west coast back to Linyanti, September 24 to September 11, 1855

1855 Journey from Linyanti to Quilimane on east coast, November 3 to May 20, 1856; Royal Geographical Society awarded Patron's Gold Medal

1856 Arrived in London on first visit home, December 9

1857 Freedom of cities of London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and many other towns; Corresponding Member of American Geographical and Statistical Society, New York; Royal Geographical Society, London; Geographical Society of Paris; K.K. Geographical Society of Vienna; Honorary Fellow of Faculty and Physicians of Glasgow; Degree of D.C.L. by University of Oxford; elected F.H.S.; appointed Commander of Zambesi Expedition and her Majesty's Consul at Tette, Quilimane, Senna

1858 Returned with Mrs. Livingstone to Africa, March 10

1859 River Shire explored and Lake Nyassa discovered, September 16

1862 Mrs. Livingstone died at Shupanga, April 27; Explored the Yovuma River

1864 Arrived in Bombay, June 13; London, July 23

1866 Arrived at Zanzibar, January 28

1867 Discovered Lake Tanganyika April

1868 Discovered Lake Bangweolo, July 18

1869 Arrived at Ujiji, March 14

1871 Reached Nyangwe, March 29; returned to Ujiji a "living skeleton," October 23; Henry M. Stanley found him October 28

1872 Gold Medal by Italian Geographical Society

1873 Died in his tent at Ilala, May 1

1874 Body buried with honors in Westminster Abbey, London, April 18

Public Honors Awarded To David Livinstone

1850 Royal Geographical Society of London award him the Royal Donation of 25 guineas, placed by her Majesty at the disposal of the Council (Silver Chronometer).

1854 French Geographical Society award a Silver Medal.

1854 University of Glasgow confer degree of LL.D.

1855 Royal Geographical Society of London award Patron's Gold Medal.

1857 French Geographical Society award annual prize for the most important geographical discovery.

1857 Freedom of city of London, in box of value of fifty guineas, As a testimonial in recognition of his zealous and persevering exertions in the important discoveries he has made in Africa, by which geographical, geological, and their kindred sciences have been advanced; facts ascertained that may extend the trade and commerce of this country, and hereafter secure to the native tribes of the vast African continent the blessings of knowledge and civilization.

1857 Freedom of city of Glasgow, presented in testimony of admiration of his undaunted intrepidity and fortitude: amid difficulties, privations, and dangers, during a period of many years, while traversing an extensive region in the interior of Africa, hitherto unexplored by Europeans, and of appreciation of the importance of his services, extending to the fostering of commerce, the advancement of civilization, and the diffusion of Christianity among heathen nations.

1857 Freedom of city of Edinburgh, of Dundee, and many other towns.

1857 Corresponding Member of American Geographical and Statistical Society, New York.

1857 Corresponding Member of Royal Geographical Society of London.

1857 Corresponding Member of Geographical Society of Paris.

1857 Corresponding Member of the K.K. Geographical Society of Vienna.

1857 The Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow "elect that worthy, eminent, and learned Surgeon and Naturalist, David Livingstone, LL.D., to be an Honorary Fellow,"

1857 Medal awarded by the Universal Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Industry.

1857 University of Oxford confer degree of D.C.L.

1858 Appointed Commander of Zambesi Expedition and her Majesty's Consul at Tette, Quilimane, and Senna.

1872 Gold Medal awarded by Italian Geographical Society.

1874 A memoir of Livingstone having been read by the Secretary at a meeting of the Russian Geographical Society cordially recognizing his merit, the whole assembly—a very large one—by rising, paid a last tribute of respect to his memory.—Lancet, 7th March, 1874.

Other Sources

• Holmes, Timothy. Journey to Livingstone: Exploration of an Imperial Myth. Edinburgh: Canongate Press, 1993
• Jeal, Tim. Livingstone. London: Heinemann, 1973
• Martelli, George. Livingstone's River: A History of the Zambezi Expedition, 1858-1864. London: Chatto & Windus, 1970
• Ross, Andrew C. David Livingstone: Mission and Empire. London and New York: Hambledon and London, 2002
• Nourbese Philip, Marlene, Looking for Livingstone: An Odyssey of Silence, Toronto: The Mercury Press, 1991
• Seaver, George, David Livingstone: His Life and Letters, 1957
• Royer, Galen B, "Christian Heroism in Heathen Lands", Elgin, Ill.: Brethren Publishing House, 1915
• (in French:) Livingstone, David. Dernier Journal. Arléa, 1999 – ISBN 2-86959-449-6
• (in Dutch:) Eynikel, Hilde. Mrs. Livingstone: een biografie. Schuyt & Co, 2006 – ISBN 9058263479

External links

• Works by David Livingstone. Project Gutenberg
  • Missionary Travels And Researches In South Africa
  • A Popular Account Of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition To The Zambesi and its tributaries
  • The Personal Life of David Livingstone
• A Brief Biography of David Livingstone
• Christian Biography Sources for David Livingstone
• David Livingstone biography
• Encarta David Livingstone Article
• Public Honors Awarded To Dr. Livingstone
• Short Biography and Chronology of Events
• David Livingstone Stamp
• David Livingstone Museum
• Eyewitness to History-Livingtone Discovers Victoria Falls
• Eyewitness to History-Stanley Finds Livingstone
• Expedition attempting the first complete ascent of the Nile (First Departed 2005)

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