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Livingstone, David

 
Who2 Biography:

David Livingstone, Missionary / Explorer

David Livingstone
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  • Born: 19 March 1813
  • Birthplace: Blantyre, Scotland
  • Died: 1 May 1873 (dysentery)
  • Best Known As: The Livingstone of "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

At age 27 Livingstone sailed from Scotland to South Africa as a Christian missionary. He spent much of the next 33 years traveling in the African interior, eventually becoming as famous for his explorations as for his missionary work. Perhaps his most famous act was reaching and naming Victoria Falls in 1855. In 1871 journalist Henry Stanley tracked the explorer down in Africa, greeting him with the famous words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Livingstone died two years later, and after a journey of nearly a year his body was returned to England, where it was buried in Westminster Abbey on 18 April 1874.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

Livingstone, David

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David Livingstone
David Livingstone, oil painting by F. Havill after photographs; in the National Portrait Gallery, …
(click to enlarge)
David Livingstone, oil painting by F. Havill after photographs; in the National Portrait Gallery, … (credit: Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London)
(born March 19, 1813, Lanarkshire, Scot. — died May 1, 1873, Chitambo, Barotseland) Scottish missionary and explorer in Africa. Of working-class origins, Livingstone studied theology and medicine in Glasgow before being ordained (1840) and deciding to work in Africa to open up the interior for colonization, extend the Gospel, and abolish the slave trade. By 1842 he had already penetrated farther north of the Cape Colony frontier than any other white man. He was the first European to reach Lake Ngami (1849) and the first to reach Luanda from the interior (1854). He encountered and named Victoria Falls (1855), journeyed across the continent to eastern Mozambique (1856, 1862), explored the Lake Malawi region (1861 – 63), came across Lakes Mweru and Bangweulu (1867), and penetrated to points farther east of Lake Tanganyika than any previous expedition had managed (1871). His attempt to find the source of the Nile (1867 – 71) failed. When he was found by Henry Morton Stanley in 1871, his health was failing; he refused to leave, and in 1873 he was found dead by African aides. Livingstone produced a complex body of knowledge — geographic, technical, medical, and social — that took decades to mine. In his lifetime he stirred the imagination of English-speaking peoples everywhere and was celebrated as one of the great figures of British civilization.

For more information on David Livingstone, visit Britannica.com.

Biography:

David Livingstone

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David Livingstone (1813-1873) was a Scottish physician and possibly the greatest of all African missionaries, explorers, and antislavery advocates.

Before Livingstone, Africa's interior was almost entirely unknown to the outside world. Vague notions prevailed about its geography, fauna, flora, and human life. Livingstone dispelled much of this ignorance and opened up Africa's interior to further exploration.

David Livingstone was born on March 19, 1813, in Blantyre, coming from Highlanders on his father's side and Lowlanders on his mother's. The Livingstones were poor, so at the age of 10 David worked in the textile mills 14 hours a day, studying at night and on weekends. After some hesitation he joined the Congregational Church of his father. In 1836 he entered the University of Glasgow to study medicine and theology, working during holidays to support himself. In 1840 he received his medical degree, was ordained, and was accepted by the London Missionary Society. He had been influenced by Robert Moffat and the first Niger expedition to apply for service in Africa. After a 98-day voyage Livingstone arrived in Cape Town on March 15, 1841. He reached Moffat's station, Kuruman, at the time the outpost of European penetration in southern Africa, on July 31.

But Livingstone soon moved north to the Khatla people. It was here he permanently injured his left shoulder in an encounter with a lion. In 1845 he married Mary Moffat and settled farther north at Kolobeng. From here he set out with two friends, Oswell and Murray, to cross the Kalahari Desert, discovering Lake Ngami on Aug. 1, 1849. On another journey, in 1851, Livingstone and Oswell discovered the Zambezi River.

Crossing the Continent

In April 1852 at Cape Town, Livingstone saw his wife and four children off to England. Returning to Kolobeng, he found that some Boers had destroyed his station, the last settled home he ever had. In December he set out to walk to the west coast. He reached Linyanti, in Barotseland, where Chief Sekeletu of the Makololo gave him 27 men to go with him. They walked through hostile, unknown country, and after incredible hardship he reached Luanda on May 31, 1854.

The British consul there nursed him back to health, but Livingstone refused passage back to England. He had not found the hoped-for waterway, and he wanted to return the Makololo to their chief. Having been reequipped by the British and Portuguese in Luanda, he left on Sept. 19, 1854, but reached Linyanti only on Sept. 11, 1855. Sickness, rain, flooded rivers, and hostile tribes delayed him and forced him to spend all his equipment. He was given fresh supplies and men by Sekeletu. On November 15 he reached the spectacular falls on the Zambezi, which the Africans called the "Smoke which Thunders" but which Livingstone named Victoria Falls in honor of the queen of England. He finally reached Quelimane on the east coast on May 20, 1856. For the first time Africa had been crossed from coast to coast. He waited 6 months for a ship which returned him to England.

Livingstone was now a famous man. In 1855 the Royal Geographical Society had awarded him the Gold Medal; now at a special meeting they made him a fellow of the society. The London Missionary Society honored him; he was received by Queen Victoria; and the universities of Glasgow and Oxford conferred upon him honorary doctorates. In November 1857 his first book, the tremendously successful Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, was published.

Livingstone caught the imagination not only of England but the world. He opened the eyes of the world to the tremendous potentialities of Africa for human development, trade, and Christian missions; he also disclosed the horrors of the East African slave trade.

Zambezi Expeditions

With mutual regrets he severed his ties with the London Missionary Society, but the British government agreed to support an expedition to explore the Zambezi River led by Livingstone, who was made a British consul for the purpose. He sailed for Africa in March 1858.

The Zambezi expedition met with many difficulties. It was marred by friction among the Europeans, mainly caused by Livingstone's brother Charles. The steam launch Ma Robert proved unsuitable, and the Kebrabasa Rapids killed the dream of Zambezi as an inland waterway. The Ma Robert was taken into the Shire River but was blocked by the Murchison Falls.

The explorers learned of the existence of two lakes to the north, and on a second journey they discovered Lake Chilwa on April 16, 1859. On a third journey up the Shire they left the boat, walked 3 weeks overland, and discovered Lake Nyasa on Sept. 17, 1859. A new steamer, the Pioneer, arrived in 1861, by which they explored the Ruvuma River in an effort to bypass the Portuguese. Later they managed to get the Pioneer to Lake Nyasa, which they explored but did not circumnavigate.

In January 1862 a third boat, the Lady Nyassa, arrived together with Mrs. Livingstone, giving him fresh hope. But Mary Livingstone died from fever at the end of April. The Lady Nyassa never reached the lake, and finally the British government recalled the expedition. The Royal Navy took over the Pioneer at Quelimane, but Livingstone took the Lady Nyassa on a daring voyage to Bombay, India, where it was sold. In July 1864 Livingstone reached England.

In 1865 Livingstone published his second successful book, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries, and the Royal Geographical Society equipped him for another expedition to explore the watersheds of Africa. He reached Zanzibar in January 1866 and began exploring the territory near Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. On Nov. 8, 1867, he discovered Lake Mweru and the source of the Lualaba River. On July 18, 1868, he found Lake Bangweulu. In March 1869 he reached Ujiji only to discover that there was no mail and that his supplies had been stolen. He was sick, depressed, and exhausted, but in September he set out again, witnessing at Nyangwe the horrors of the Arab slave trade. He returned to Ujiji in October 1871.

Search for Livingstone

Europe and America thought that the lonely man was lost, so the London Daily Telegraph and the New York Herald sent Henry Stanley to search for him. Stanley found Livingstone at Ujiji and stayed 4 months. Unable to persuade Livingstone to return to England, Stanley reequipped him and departed from him near Tabora on March 14, 1872. In August, Livingstone was on his way again. Near Bangweulu he got bogged down in swamps but finally reached Chitambo's village. On May 1, 1873, his servants found him in his tent kneeling in prayer at the bedside. He was dead. His men buried his heart but embalmed the body and carried it to the mission of the Holy Ghost fathers at Bagamoyo. It reached England, where it was identified by the lion wound in the left shoulder. On April 18, 1874, Livingstone was buried in great honor in London's Westminster Abbey.

Livingstone's Influence

No one made as many geographical discoveries in Africa as Livingstone, and his numerous scientific observations were quickly recognized. He was right in using quinine as an ingredient for the cure of malaria.

Regarding himself as a missionary to the end, Livingstone inspired many new enterprises such as the Makololo, Ndebele, and Tanganyika missions of his own society, the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, and the Livingstonia Mission of the Church of Scotland. His life caught the imagination of the Christian world.

Livingstone drew the world's attention to the great evil of the African slave traffic. He taught the world to see the African as "wronged" rather than depraved, and the world did not rest until slavery was outlawed. He saw the cure for it in Christianity and commerce and also inspired enterprises such as the African Lakes Company. But in his wake came also European settlement and the colonial scramble for Africa with all its ambiguities.

Although the Zambezi expedition proved that Livingstone was no ideal leader for white men, he nevertheless greatly influenced men who knew him, such as Stanley, John Kirk, and James Stewart. He made a lasting impression on the Africans he met, which was amply attested to by those who followed him. His peaceful intentions and moral courage were immediately recognized.

Further Reading

In addition to Livingstone's own books, his Cambridge Lectures were edited by William Monk (1860) and Last Journals in Central Africa: From 1865 to His Death by Horace Waller (2 vols., 1874). The field notes that Livingstone kept during the Ruvuma River expedition were edited by George Shepperson, David Livingstone and Rovuma: A Notebook (1966). The most comprehensive biography is George Seaver, David Livingstone: His Life and Letters (1957). Still good is William G. Blaikie, The personal life of David Livingstone (1880; repr. 1969). Livingstone's Zambezi expedition is the subject of George Martelli, Livingstone's River: A History of the Zambezi Expedition, 1858-1864 (1970). J. P. R. Wallis, ed., The Zambezi Journals of James Stewart, 1862-1863 (1952), is an interesting companion piece to the Martelli study. For general background see Roland Oliver and J. D. Fage, A Short History of Africa (1962; 2d ed. 1966).

British History:

David Livingstone

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Livingstone, David (1813-73). Scottish missionary and explorer. Livingstone arrived in South Africa in 1841 to assist in the work of the London Missionary Society. He was soon attracted northward in the hope of spreading the gospel in central Africa. His travels took him first to the Atlantic coast and then across the continent to the Indian Ocean. His discoveries brought him fame in Britain and won him the support of the Royal Geographical Society. The circumstances of his death in the interior of Africa in 1873, during a final journey, proved to be the decisive factor in stimulating British action against the east African slave trade.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia:

David Livingstone

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Livingstone, David (lĭv'ĭngstən, -stōn'), 1813-73, Scottish missionary and explorer in Africa, the first European to cross the African continent. From 1841 to 1852, while a medical missionary for the London Missionary Society in what is now Botswana, he crossed the Kalahari desert and reached (1849) Lake Ngami. He discovered the Zambezi River in 1851. Hoping to abolish the slave trade by opening Africa to Christian commerce and missionary stations, he traveled (1853) to Luanda on the west coast. Following the Zambezi River, he discovered and named Victoria Falls (1855) and reached the east coast at Quelimane, Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique), in 1856. His Missionary Travels (1857) in South Africa is an account of that journey. Appointed British consul at Quelimane, he was given command of an expedition (1857-63) to explore the Zambezi region.

Livingstone returned to England (1864) and with his brother Charles wrote The Zambezi and Its Tributaries (1865). In 1866 he returned to Africa to seek the source of the Nile. He discovered lakes Mweru and Bangweula and in 1871 reached the Lualaba tributary of the Congo River. Sickness compelled his return to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, where the journalist H. M. Stanley found him in 1871. Unable to persuade Livingstone to leave, Stanley joined him on a journey (1871-72) to the north end of Lake Tanganyika. In 1873 Livingstone died in the village of Chief Chitambo. African followers carried his body to the coast; it was sent to England and buried in Westminster Abbey. Livingstone's last journals were edited by Horace Waller (1874).

Bibliography

There are some 100 biographies of Livingstone; among them are those by J. Simmons (1955, repr. 1962), G. Martelli (1970), T. Jeal (1973), and O. Ransford (1978).

History Dictionary:

Doctor Livingstone, I presume?

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Words allegedly spoken by the British-born explorer Henry Stanley when, in 1871, he finally found the long-missing explorer and missionary David Livingstone in Africa.

Quotes By:

David Livingstone

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Quotes:

"I determined never to stop until I had come to the end and achieved my purpose."

"I will go anywhere, provided it be forward."

"I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ."

"Nothing earthly will make me give up my work in despair."

"All that I am I owe to Jesus Christ, revealed to me in His divine Book."

"Fear God and work hard."

See more famous quotes by David Livingstone

Wikipedia:

David Livingstone

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David Livingstone
Born 19 March 1813(1813-03-19)
Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotland
Died 1 May 1873 (aged 60)
near Lake Bangweulu, Zambia
Cause of death Malaria & dysentery
Resting place The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster
51°29′58″N 0°07′39″W / 51.499444°N 0.1275°W / 51.499444; -0.1275
Nationality British
Known for Exploration of Central Africa
Title Dr. Livingstone
Religious beliefs Congregationalist

David Livingstone (19 March 1813–1 May 1873) was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?".

Perhaps one of the most popular national heroes of the late 19th century in Victorian Britain, Livingstone had a mythic status, which operated on a number of interconnected levels: that of Protestant missionary martyr, that of working-class "rags to riches" inspirational story, that of scientific investigator and explorer, that of imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of commercial empire.

His fame as an explorer helped drive forward the obsession with discovering the sources of the River Nile that formed the culmination of the classic period of European geographical discovery and colonial penetration of the African continent. At the same time his missionary travels, "disappearance" and death in Africa, and subsequent glorification as posthumous national hero in 1874 led to the founding of several major central African Christian missionary initiatives carried forward in the era of the European "Scramble for Africa."[1]

Contents

Early life

David Livingstone was born on March 19, 1813 in the mill town of Blantyre, beside the bridge crossing into Bothwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland,[2] into a Protestant family believed to be descended from the highland Livingstones, a clan that had been previously known as the Clan MacLea. Born to Neil Livingstone (1788–1856) and his wife Agnes (1782–1865), David, along with many of the Livingstones, was at the age of ten employed in the cotton mill of H. Monteith – David and brother John working 12-hour days as "piecers," tying broken cotton threads on the spinning machines. The mill offered their workers schooling of which David took advantage.

Livingstone's father Neil was very religious, a Sunday School teacher and teetotaller who handed out Christian tracts on his travels as a door to door tea salesman, and who read books on theology, travel and missionary enterprises. This rubbed off on the young David, who became an avid reader, but he also loved scouring the countryside for animal, plant and geological specimens in local limestone quarries. Neil Livingstone had a fear of science books as undermining Christianity and attempted to force him to read nothing but theology, but David's deep interest in nature and science led him to investigate the relationship between religion and science.[3] When in 1832 he read Philosophy of a Future State by the science teacher, amateur astronomer and church minister Thomas Dick, he found the rationale he needed to reconcile faith and science, and apart from the Bible this book was perhaps his greatest philosophical influence.[4]

Other significant influences in his early life were Thomas Burke, a Blantyre evangelist and David Hogg, his Sunday School teacher.[4] At age nineteen David and his father left the Church of Scotland for a local Congregational church, influenced by preachers like Ralph Wardlaw who denied predestinatarian limitations on salvation. Influenced by American revivalistic teachings, Livingstone's reading of the missionary Karl Gützlaff's "Appeal to the Churches of Britain and America on behalf of China" enabled him to persuade his father that medical study could advance religious ends.[5]

Posthumous portrait of David Livingstone by Frederick Havill

Livingstone's experience from age 10 to 26 in H. Montieth's Blantyre cotton mill, first as a piecer and later as a spinner, was also important. Necessary to support his impoverished family, this work was monotonous but gave him persistence, endurance, and a natural empathy with all who labour, as expressed by lines he used to hum from the egalitarian Rabbie Burns song: "When man to man, the world o'er / Shall brothers be for a' that".[6]

His studies

Livingstone attended Blantyre village school along with the few other mill children with the endurance to do so, but a family with a strong, ongoing commitment to study also reinforced his education. After reading Gutzlaff's appeal for medical missionaries for China in 1834, he began saving money and in 1836 entered Anderson's College in Glasgow, founded to bring science and technology to ordinary folk, and attended Greek and theology lectures at the University of Glasgow.[7] In addition, he attended divinity lectures by Wardlaw, a leader at this time of vigorous anti-slavery campaigning in the city. Shortly after he applied to join the London Missionary Society (LMS) and was accepted subject to missionary training. He continued his medical studies in London while training there and in Essex to be a minister under LMS. [5] Despite his impressive personality, he was a poor preacher and would have been rejected by the LMS had not the Director given him a second chance to pass the course.[4]

Livingstone hoped to go to China as a missionary, but the First Opium War broke out in September 1839 and the LMS suggested the West Indies instead. In 1840, while continuing his medical studies in London, Livingstone met LMS missionary Robert Moffat, on leave from Kuruman, a missionary outpost in South Africa, north of the Orange River. Excited by Moffat's vision of expanding missionary work northwards, and influenced by abolitionist T.F. Buxton's arguments that the African slave trade might be destroyed through the influence of "legitimate trade" and the spread of Christianity; Livingstone focused his ambitions on Southern Africa.[5] He was deeply influenced by Moffat's judgment that he was the right person to go to the vast plains to the north of Bechuanaland, where he had glimpsed "the smoke of a thousand villages, where no missionary had ever been".[4]

Missionary work in southern Africa

Livingstone was assigned to Kuruman by the LMS and sailed in December 1840, arriving at Moffat's mission, now part of South Africa, in July 1841. Upon arrival, Livingstone was disappointed at the unexpectedly small size of the village and an indigenous Christian population, after Moffat's twenty years of work, of only about forty communicants and a congregation of 350. Reasoning that conversions would be more likely if the missionaries were themselves indigenous converts, Livingstone rapidly attached himself to the plans of missionary Rogers Edwards to found a mission farther north in territory increasingly disturbed by traders, hunters, and African settlers.[8] Setting up the new mission at Mabotswa among the Kgatla people in 1844, he was mauled by a lion which might have killed him if it had not been distracted by the African teacher Mebalwe, who was also badly injured. Both recovered but Livingstone's arm was partially disabled and caused him pain for the rest of his life.[4]

Dr. Robert Moffat arrived in Kuruman with his family in December 1843, and shortly afterward Livingstone married Moffat's eldest daughter Mary on January 2 1845. She was also Scottish but had lived in Africa since she was four. After falling out with Edwards, Livingstone moved to an out-station at Chonuane among the Kwena under Chief Sechele, and finally moved with the Kwena to Kolobeng in 1847 under pressure of drought. Mary travelled with Livingstone for a brief time at his insistence, despite her pregnancy and the protests of the Moffats.[4] She gave birth to a daughter, Agnes, in May 1847, and at Kolobeng began an infant's school while Livingstone worked on a philological analysis of the Setswana language, in which he had become fluent. The only Christian convert of Livingstone's career was made in Kolobeng when Sechele was baptized after renouncing all but his senior wife, although he was later denied communion after he took back one of his previous wives. Livingstone always emphasized the importance of understanding local custom and belief as well as the necessity of encouraging Africans to proselytize, however he always had acute difficulties finding converts he considered suited for training to be missionaries.[5] Livingstone grew increasingly frustrated with settled missionary strategies and more willing to imagine more unconventional missionary methods.[8] As Livingstone began to plan for new missionary initiatives, he recognized the difficulties presented by his growing family, and in 1849 he sent his family (now including daughter Agnes and sons Robert and Thomas) back to Kuruman as he planned further inland travels.[5] Later Mary and David's family returned to England, but came to Africa again on the Zambezi Expedition.

Exploration of southern and central Africa

After the Kolobeng mission had to be closed because of drought, he explored the African interior to the north, in the period 1852–56, and was the first European to see the Mosi-oa-Tunya ("the smoke that thunders") waterfall (which he renamed Victoria Falls after his monarch, Queen Victoria).

Livingstone was one of the first Westerners to make a transcontinental journey across Africa, Luanda on the Atlantic to Quelimane on the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Zambezi, in 1854–56.[4] Despite repeated European attempts, especially by the Portuguese, central and southern Africa had not been crossed by Europeans at that latitude owing to their susceptibility to malaria, dysentery and sleeping sickness which was prevalent in the interior and which also prevented use of draught animals (oxen and horses), as well as to the opposition of powerful chiefs and tribes, such as the Lozi, and the Lunda of Mwata Kazembe.

The qualities and approaches which gave Livingstone an advantage as an explorer were that he usually traveled lightly, and he had an ability to reassure chiefs that he was not a threat. Other expeditions had dozens of soldiers armed with rifles and scores of hired porters carrying supplies, and were seen as military incursions or were mistaken for slave-raiding parties. Livingstone on the other hand traveled on most of his journeys with a few servants and porters, bartering for supplies along the way, with a couple of guns for protection. He preached a Christian message but did not force it on unwilling ears; he understood the ways of local chiefs and successfully negotiated passage through their territory, and was often hospitably received and aided, even by Mwata Kazembe.[4]

Livingstone was a proponent of trade and Christian 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 as a Christian commercial highway into the interior.[9] He returned to Britain to try to garner support for his ideas, and to publish a book on his travels which brought him fame as one of the leading explorers of the age.

Believing he had a spiritual calling for exploration rather than mission work, and encouraged by the response in Britain to his discoveries and support for future expeditions, in 1857 he resigned from the London Missionary Society after they demanded that he do more evangelizing and less exploring.[4] With the help of the Royal Geographical Society's president, Livingstone was appointed as Her Majesty's Consul for the East Coast of Africa.

Zambezi expedition

The British government agreed to fund Livingstone's idea and he returned to Africa as head of the Zambezi Expedition to examine the natural resources of southeastern Africa and open up the River Zambezi. Unfortunately it turned out to be completely impassible to boats past the Cabora Bassa rapids, a series of cataracts and rapids that Livingstone had failed to explore on his earlier travels.[9]

The expedition lasted from March 1858 until the middle of 1864. Livingstone was an inept leader and incapable of managing a large-scale project. He was secretive, self righteous, moody and could not tolerate criticism which severely strained the expedition and led to his physician, John Kirk, later recording in 1862, "I can come to no other conclusion than that Dr. Livingstone is out of his mind and a most unsafe leader".[10] The artist Thomas Baines was dismissed from the expedition on charges (which he vigorously denied) of theft. The expedition became the first to reach Lake Malawi and they explored it in a four oared gig. In 1862 they returned to the coast to await the arrival of a steam boat specially designed to sail on Lake Malawi. Along with the boat Mary Livingstone, who by now was an alcoholic which caused added strain, also arrived. She died on 27 April 1862 of malaria and Livingstone continued his explorations. Attempts to navigate the Ruvuma River failed because of the continual fouling of the paddle wheels from the bodies thrown in the river by slave traders and Livingstone's assistants gradually died or left him.[10] He eventually returned home in 1864 after the government ordered the recall of the Expedition because of its increasing costs and failure to find a navigable route to the interior. The Zambezi Expedition was castigated as a failure in many newspapers of the time, and Livingstone experienced great difficulty in raising funds further to explore Africa. Nevertheless, the scientists appointed to work under Livingstone, John Kirk, Charles Meller, and Richard Thornton did contribute large collections of botanic, ecological, geological and ethnographic material to scientific Institutions in the UK.[10]

The Nile

In January 1866, Livingstone returned to Africa, this time to Zanzibar, from where he set out to seek the source of the Nile. Richard Francis Burton, John Hanning Speke and Samuel Baker had (although there was still serious debate on the matter) identified either Lake Albert or Lake Victoria as the source (which was partially correct, as the Nile "bubbles from the ground high in the mountains of Burundi halfway between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria" [11]). Livingstone believed the source was further south and assembled a team of freed slaves, Comoros Islanders, twelve Sepoys and two servants, Chuma and Susi, from his previous expedition to find it.

Setting out from the mouth of the Ruvuma river Livingstone's assistants began deserting him. The Comoros Islanders had returned to Zanzibar and informed authorities that Livingstone had died. He reached Lake Malawi on 6 August, by which time most of his supplies, including all his medicines, had been stolen. Livingstone then traveled through swamps in the direction of Lake Tanganyika. With his health declining he sent a message to Zanzibar requesting supplies be sent to Ujiji and he then headed west. Forced by ill health to travel with slave traders he arrived at Lake Mweru on 8 November 1867 and continued on, traveling south to become the first European to see Lake Bangweulu. Finding the Lualaba River, Livingstone decided it was the "real" Nile, but in fact it flows to the Upper Congo Lake.

In March 1869 Livingstone, suffering from pneumonia, arrived in Ujiji to find his supplies stolen. Coming down with Cholera and Tropical ulcers on his feet he was again forced to rely on slave traders to get him as far as Bambara where he was caught by the wet season. With no supplies, Livingstone had to eat his meals in a roped off open enclosure for the entertainment of the natives in return for food.[10] Following the end of the wet season he returned to Ujiji arriving on 23 October 1871.

Geographical discoveries

Although Livingstone was wrong about the Nile, he discovered for western science numerous geographical features, such as Lake Ngami, Lake Malawi, and Lake Bangweulu in addition to Victoria Falls mentioned above. He filled in details of Lake Tanganyika, Lake Mweru and the course of many rivers, especially the upper Zambezi, and his observations enabled large regions to be mapped which previously had been blank. Even so, the furthest north he reached, the north end of Lake Tanganyika, was still south of the Equator and he did not penetrate the rainforest of the River Congo any further downstream than Ntangwe near Misisi.[12]

Livingstone was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London and was made a fellow of the society, with which he had a strong association for the rest of his life.[4]

Illness, pain and death

Henry Morton Stanley meets David Livingstone
David Livingstone memorial at Victoria Falls, the first statue on the Zimbabwean side.
A new statue of David Livingstone on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls

Livingstone completely lost contact with the outside world for six years and was ill for most of the last four years of his life. Only one of his 44 letter dispatches made it to Zanzibar. Henry Morton Stanley, who had been sent to find him by the New York Herald newspaper in 1869, found Livingstone in the town of Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on 27 October 1871,[13] greeting him with the now famous words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" to which he responded "Yes, and I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you." These famous words may be a fabrication, as Stanley has torn out the pages of this encounter in his diary.[14] Even Livingstone's account of this encounter does not mention these words. However, the phrase appears in a New York Herald editorial dated 10 August 1872 and the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography both quote it without questioning its validity.

Some in Burundi claim the famous meeting took place 12 km south of Bujumbura at the spot marked by the Livingstone-Stanley Monument, Mugere, but that marks a visit they made 15 days after their first meeting – see linked article for references – on their joint exploration of the north end of Lake Tanganyika, which ended when Stanley left in March the next year.

Despite Stanley's urgings, Livingstone was determined not to leave Africa until his mission was complete. His illness made him confused and he had judgment difficulties at the end of his life. He explored the Lualaba and, failing to find connections to the Nile, returned to Lake Bangweulu and its swamps to explore possible rivers flowing out northwards.[15]

David Livingstone died in that area in Chief Chitambo's village at Ilala southeast of Lake Bangweulu in Zambia, on 1 May 1873 from malaria and internal bleeding caused by dysentery. He took his final breaths while kneeling in prayer at his bedside. (His journal indicates that the date of his death would have been 1 May, but his attendants noted the date as 4 May, which they carved on a tree and later reported; this is the date on his grave.) Britain wanted the body to give it a proper ceremony, but the tribe would not give his body to them. Finally they relented, but cut the heart out and put a note on the body that said, "You can have his body, but his heart belongs in Africa!" Livingstone's heart was buried under a Mvula tree near the spot where he died, now the site of the Livingstone Memorial. His body together with his journal was carried over a thousand miles by his loyal attendants Chuma and Susi, and was returned to Britain for burial. After lying in state at No.1 Saville Row - then the headquarters of the Royal Geographic Society, now the home of bespoke tailors Gieves & Hawkes - he is buried in Westminster Abbey.[4][16]

Livingstone and slavery

"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." — Livingstone in a letter to the editor of the New York Herald.[17]

Livingstone's letters, books, and journals[15] did stir up public support for the abolition of slavery;[18] however, he became humiliatingly dependent for assistance on the very slave-traders whom he wanted to put out of business. Because he was a poor leader of his peers, he ended up on his last expedition as an individualist explorer with servants and porters but no expert support around him. At the same time he did not use the brutal methods of maverick explorers such as Stanley to keep his retinue of porters in line and his supplies secure. For these reasons from 1867 onwards he accepted help and hospitality from Mohamad Bogharib and Mohamad bin Saleh (also known as Mpamari), traders who kept and traded in slaves, as he recounts in his journals. They in turn benefited from Livingstone's influence with local people, which facilitated Mpamari's release from bondage to Mwata Kazembe.[15]

Livingstone was also furious to discover some of the replacement porters sent at his request from Ujiji were slaves.[15]

Livingstone's legacy

By the late 1860s Livingstone's reputation in Europe had suffered owing to the failure of the missions he set up, and of the Zambezi Expedition; and his ideas about the source of the Nile were not supported. His expeditions were hardly models of order and organization.[9]

His reputation was rehabilitated by Stanley and his newspaper,[9] and by the loyalty of Livingstone's servants whose long journey with his body inspired wonder. The publication of his last journal revealed stubborn determination in the face of suffering.[4]

He had made geographical discoveries for European knowledge. He inspired abolitionists of the slave trade, explorers and missionaries. He opened up Central Africa to missionaries who initiated the education and health care for Africans, and trade by the African Lakes Company. He was held in some esteem by many African chiefs and local people and his name facilitated relations between them and the British.[4]

Partly as a result, within fifty years of his death, colonial rule was established in Africa and white settlement was encouraged to extend further into the interior.

On the other hand, within a further fifty years after that, two other aspects of his legacy paradoxically helped end the colonial era in Africa without excessive bloodshed. Livingstone was part of an evangelical and nonconformist movement in Britain which during the 19th century changed the national mindset from the notion of a divine right to rule 'lesser races', to ethical ideas in foreign policy which, with other factors, contributed to the end of the British Empire.[19] Secondly, Africans educated in mission schools founded by people inspired by Livingstone were at the forefront of national independence movements in central, eastern and southern Africa.[20]

Family life

While Livingstone had a great impact on British Imperialism, he did so at a tremendous cost to his family. In his absences, his children grew up fatherless, and his wife Mary (daughter of Mary and Robert Moffat) eventually became an alcoholic and died of malaria trying to follow him in Africa. He had six children: Robert reportedly died in the American Civil War[21]; Agnes, Thomas, Elizabeth (who died two months after her birth), William (nicknamed Zouga for the river along which he was born) and Anna Mary. His one regret in later life was that he did not spend enough time with his children.[22]

Archives

The archives of David Livingstone are maintained by the Archives of the University of Glasgow (GUAS).

Places named in his honor and other memorials

In Africa

  • The Livingstone Memorial in Ilala, Zambia marks where he died.
  • The city of Livingstone, Zambia which includes a memorial in front of the Livingstone Museum and a new statue erected in 2005.[23]
  • The Rhodes–Livingstone Institute in Livingstone and Lusaka, Zambia, 1940s to 1970s, was a pioneering research institution in urban anthropology.
  • David Livingstone Teachers Training College, Livingstone, Zambia.
  • The David Livingstone Memorial statue at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, erected in 1954 on the western bank of the falls.
  • A new statue of David Livingstone was erected in November 2005 on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls.[23]
  • A plaque was unveiled in November 2005 at Livingstone Island on the lip of Victoria Falls marking where Livingstone stood to get his first view of the falls.[23]
  • The town of Livingstonia, Malawi.
  • The city of Blantyre, Malawi is named for his birthplace in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and includes a memorial.
  • The David Livingstone Scholarships for students at the University of Malawi, funded through Strathclyde University, Scotland.
  • The Kipengere Range in south-west Tanzania at the north-eastern end of Lake Malawi is also called the Livingstone Mountains.
  • Livingstone Falls on the River Congo, named by Stanley.
  • The Livingstone Inland Mission, a Baptist mission to the Congo Free State 1877–1884, located in what is now Kinshasa.
  • A memorial in Ujiji commemorates his meeting with Stanley.
  • The Livingstone-Stanley Monument, Mugere, Burundi marks a spot that Livingstone and Stanley visited on their exploration of Lake Tanganyika, mistaken by some as the first meeting place of the two explorers.
  • Scottish Livingstone hospital in Molepolole 50 km west of Gaborone, Botswana
  • There is a memorial to Livingstone at the ruins of the Kolobeng Mission, 40 km west of Gaborone, Botswana.
  • The church tower of the Catholic Holy Ghost Mission in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, is called Livingstone Tower because his body was laid down there for one night before it was shipped to London.
  • Livingstone House in Stone Town, Zanzibar, provided by the Sultan for Livingstone's use, January to March 1866, to prepare his last expedition; the house was purchased by the Zanzibar government in 1947.
  • Plaque commemorating his departure from Mikindani on his final expedition on the wall of the house that has been built over the house he reputedly stayed in.
  • David Livingstone Primary School in Harare, Zimbabwe.
  • David Livingstone Secondary School in Ntabazinduna about 40 km from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

In New Zealand

  • Livingstone Street in Westmere, Auckland

In Scotland

  • A statue stands near the base of the Scott Monument in the Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland.
  • The David Livingstone Centre in Blantyre, Scotland, is a museum in his honour.
  • David Livingstone Memorial Primary School in his birthplace, Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
  • David Livingstone Memorial Church of the Church of Scotland, in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
  • A bust of David Livingstone is among those of famous Scotsmen in the William Wallace Memorial near Stirling, Scotland.
  • Strathclyde University, Glasgow (successor to Anderson's University), commemorates him in the David Livingstone Institute for International Development Studies, the David Livingstone Centre for Sustainability, and Livingstone Tower.
  • The David Livingstone (Anderson College) Memorial Prize in Physiology commemorates him at the University of Glasgow.

In England

In Canada

In the USA

Banknotes

From 1971–1998 Livingstone's image was portrayed on £10 notes issued by the Clydesdale Bank. He was originally shown surrounded by palm tree leaves with an illustration of African tribesmen on the back.[24] A later issue showed Livingstone against a background graphic of a map of Livingstone's Zambezi expedition, showing the River Zambezi, Victoria Falls, Lake Nyasa and Blantyre, Malawi; on the reverse, the African figures were replaced with an image of Livingstone's birthplace in Blantyre, Scotland.[25]

In popular culture

  • According to a probably apocryphal story,[26] perhaps Stanley's invention, Stanley told Livingstone what had occurred in Europe and America during his expedition; among other things he said that the 1872 U.S. presidential election campaign had begun and the Democratic Party had nominated Horace Greeley. Allegedly, Livingstone stopped Stanley there; he said, "You have told me curious things and wonderful, but there is a limit–when you tell me the Democrats have nominated Greeley for President I am hanged if I will believe it."
  • In the film The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent dresses up as Dr Livingstone at a fancy dress party.
  • A 1936 British film David Livingstone.
  • In 1939, a popular film called Stanley and Livingstone was released, with Cedric Hardwicke as Livingstone and Spencer Tracy as Stanley, portraying the works Livingstone did in Africa.
  • "Dr. Livingstone, I Presume" is a song written by Artie Shaw and recorded by Artie Shaw & His Orchestra in the early 1940s.
  • A different song entitled "Dr. Livingstone, I Presume" appears on the 1968 Moody Blues album, In Search of the Lost Chord.
  • In the series pilot of the television show "Remington Steele", the soon to be Remington Steele (played by Pierce Brosnan) says "Dr. Livingston, I presume" upon identifying Murphy Michaels in a photograph he has made.
  • Mountains of the Moon is a 1990 film in which Livingstone is portrayed by Bernard Hill.
  • "What about Livingstone" is a song by Swedish pop goes the wezel Peter Blake]]. Livingstone appears in the third row.
  • In 1997, a made for television movie called "Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone" was produced by National Geographic. Stanley was portrayed by Aidan Quinn and Livingstone was portrayed by Nigel Hawthorne.
  • "Doctor Livingstone" is a song by Crowded House which is on their Afterglow album (1999).
  • The fish seen in the background of Captain Picard's ready room in the popular television series Star Trek The Next Generation is named Livingston after the famous explorer.
  • The fifth season episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is entitled: Doctor Bashir, I Presume? where we learn that Dr. Julian Bashir received genetic enhancements as a young boy.
  • In the Get Smart reunion movie, "Get Smart Again", Max says "Dr. Hottentot I Presume".
  • A video game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System entitled "Stanley and the Search for Dr. Livingston."
  • A video game was released for the ZX Spectrum and other 8-bit computers called "Livingstone Supongo"[27] ("Livingstone, I presume" in its UK release).
  • In the video game Far Cry 2 a trophy/achievement called "Dr Livingstone, I presume" is awarded for entering every square kilometre of the map of a fictional region of Africa.
  • In Wilbur Smiths action/adventure book The Falcon Flies Dr Livingstone is portrayed as Fuller Balyntine the great explorer of the interior of Africa
  • In the Telex song "Cafe De La Jungle" from the album Looking For Saint Tropez, the words "Dr Livingstone , I presume?" are repeated.
  • In the Garfield Comics, the line "Dr. Livingstone I presume" is often used in coincidence with Garfield running amok amongst Jon's plants.
  • The 2009 History Channel reality series, Expedition Africa, documents a group of explorers attempting to traverse the route of Stanley's expedition in search of Livingstone.
  • In March 1974, on pop group ABBA's second album WaterLoo, the song "What about Livingstone" heralds the explorer as a pioneer

See also

References

  1. ^ John M. Mackenzie, "David Livingstone: The Construction of the Myth," in Sermons and Battle Hymns: Protestant Popular Culture in Modern Scotland, ed. Graham Walker and Tom Gallagher (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990).
  2. ^ The National Trust for Scotland: David Livingstone Centre, Birthplace Of Famous Scot, website accessed 22 April 2007.
  3. ^ Ross, Andrew C., David Livingstone: Mission and Empire (London: Hambledon, 2002), 6.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Blaikie, William Garden (1880): The Personal Life Of David Livingstone. Project Gutenberg Ebook #13262, release date: 23 August 2004].
  5. ^ a b c d e A.D. Roberts, "Livingstone, David (1813–1873)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
  6. ^ Blaikie (1880). This sentiment today would be expressed along the lines of: "all people, worldwide, are brothers and sisters, despite everything."
  7. ^ University of Glasgow: Biography of David Livingstone. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  8. ^ a b Tim Jeal, Livingstone (London: Heinemann, 1973), 39–48.
  9. ^ a b c d Tim Holmes: "The History" in: Spectrum Guide to Zambia. Camerapix International Publishers, Nairobi. 1996
  10. ^ a b c d Wright, Ed (2008). Lost Explorers. Murdock Books. ISBN 978 1 7419 6139 3. 
  11. ^ 'Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone' (2003), Martin Dugard
  12. ^ "Map of Livingstone's travels". National Museums of Scotland. The map is online at www.scran.ac.uk but a subscription to the site is required to view it.
  13. ^ ["Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone" by Martin Dugard, 2003.
  14. ^ Jeal, Tim (2007). Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0571221025. 
  15. ^ a b c d David Livingstone & Horace Waller (Ed): The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa from 1865 to his Death. Two Volumes. John Murray, London, 1874.
  16. ^ G. Bruce Boyer (Summer 1996). "On Savile Row". Cigar Aficionado. http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Archives/CA_Show_Article/0,2322,626,00.html. Retrieved 2009-12-21. 
  17. ^ Stanley Henry M., How I Found Livingstone; travels, adventures, and discoveries in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. Livingstone. 1871.
  18. ^ BBC.co.uk/History Historic Figures: "David Livingstone" accessed on 1 February 2007
  19. ^ Corelli Barnett: The Audit of War: The Illusion and Reality of Britain as a Great Nation (Macmillan, 1986)
  20. ^ Richard Seymour Hall: "Kaunda, founder of Zambia". Longman, 1967.
  21. ^ http://www.jstor.org/stable/view/716469?seq=2
  22. ^ Niall Ferguson: "Empire: The rise and demise of the British world order and the lessons for global power". Basic Books, 2003.
  23. ^ a b c The Times of Zambia online: "David Livingstone remembered", 15 November 2005 – 23 November 2005. Website accessed 26 April 2007.
  24. ^ "Clydesdale 10 Pounds, 1982". Ron Wise's Banknoteworld. http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/banknotes/scotland/ScotlandP213a-10Pounds-1982-donatedth_b.jpg. Retrieved 2008-10-15. 
  25. ^ "Clydesdale 10 Pounds, 1990". Ron Wise's Banknoteworld. http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/banknotes/scotland/ScotlandP214-10Pounds-1990-donatedth_f.jpg. Retrieved 2008-10-15. 
  26. ^ Presidential Elections by Paul F. Boller, Jr. (1985)
  27. ^ "Livingstone Supongo". World of Spectrum. http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0002902. Retrieved 2008-10-30. 

Other sources

  • Butcher, Tim (2007). Blood River:A Journey To Africa's Broken Heart. London : Chatto & Windus. ISBN 0-701-17981-3
  • Eynikel, Hilde (2005). Mrs. Livingstone: een biografie. Leuven: Davidsfonds. ISBN 90-5826-347-9 (Dutch)
  • Holmes, Timothy (1993). Journey to Livingstone: Exploration of an Imperial Myth. Edinburgh: Canongate Press. ISBN 9780862414023
  • Jeal, Tim (1973). Livingstone. London: Heinemann. pp. 427p. ISBN 0-434-37208-0. 
  • Livingstone, David (1905) [1857]. Journeys in South Africa, or Travels and Researches in South Africa. London: The Amalgamated Press Ltd. 
  • Livingstone, David and James I. Macnair (ed.) (1954). Livingstone's Travels. London: J.M. Dent.
  • Livingstone, David (1999) [1875]. Dernier Journal. Paris: Arléa. ISBN 2-86959-215-9 (French)
  • Martelli, George (1970). Livingstone's River: A History of the Zambezi Expedition, 1858–1864. London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN 9780701115272
  • Morrill, Leslie, and Madge Haines (1959). Livingstone, Trail Blazer for God. Mountain View: Pacific Press Publication Association.
  • Philip, M. NourbeSe (1991). Looking for Livingstone: An Odyssey of Silence. Stratford: The Mercury Press. ISBN 9780920544884
  • Ross, Andrew C. (2002). David Livingstone: Mission and Empire. London and New York: Hambledon and London. ISBN 9781852852856
  • Waters, John (1996). David Livingstone: Trail Blazer. Leicester: Inter-Varsity. ISBN 9780851111704
  • Wisnicki, Adrian S. (2009). "Interstitial Cartographer: David Livingstone and the Invention of South Central Africa". Victorian Literature and Culture 37.1 (Mar.): 255-71.

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November 10, 2005

I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward.
- David Livingstone

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