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LIVINGSTONE, DAVID (1813-1873)
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See also:LIVINGSTONE, See also:DAVID (1813-1873) , Scottish missionary and explorer in See also:Africa, was See also:born on the 19th of See also: During these two years he became convinced that the success of the See also: A year later, April 1851, Livingstone, again accompanied by his See also:family and Oswell, set out, this time with the intention of settling among the Makololo for a See also:period. At last he succeeded, and reached the See also:Chobe (Kwando), a See also:southern tributary of the See also:Zambezi, and in the end of See also:June reached the Zambezi itself at the See also:town of Sesheke. Leaving the Chobe on the 13th of August the party reached Cape Town in April 1852. Livingstone may now be said to have completed the first period of his career in Africa, the period in which the work of the missionary had the greatest prominence. Hence-forth he appears more in the See also:character of an explorer, but it must be remembered that he regarded himself to the last as a See also:pioneer missionary, whose work was to open up the country to others.
Having seen his family off to England, Livingstone left Cape Town on the 8th of June 1852, and turning north again reached Linyante, the See also:capital of the Makololo, on the Chobe, on the 23rd of May 18J3, being cordially received by Sekeletu and his See also:people. His first See also:object was to seek for some healthy high See also:land in which to plant a station. Ascending the Zambezi, he, however, found no place See also:free from the tsetse See also:fly, and therefore resolved to discover a route to the interior from either the See also:west or east See also:coast. To accompany Livingstone twenty-seven men were selected from the various tribes under Sekeletu, partly with a view to open up a See also:trade route between their own country and the coast. The start was made from Linyante on the 11th of November 1853, and, by ascending the Liba, Lake Dilolo was reached on the loth of See also:February 1854. On the 4th of April the Kwango was crossed, and on the 31st of May the town of See also:Loanda was entered, Livingstone, however, being all but dead from fever, semi-See also:starvation and See also:dysentery. From Loanda Livingstone sent his astronomical observations to See also:Sir See also: Loanda was left on the loth of September 1854, but Livingstone lingered See also:long about the Portuguese settlements. Making a slight detour to the north to Kabango, the party reached Lake Dilolo on the 13th of June 1855. Here Livingstone made a careful study of the See also:hydrography of the country. He " now for the first time apprehended the true See also:form of the river systems and the See also:continent," and the conclusions he came to have been essentially confirmed by subsequent observations. The return journey from Lake Dilolo was by the same route as that by which the party came, Linyante being reached in the beginning of September. For Livingstone's purposes the route to the west was unavailable, and he decided to follow the Zambezi to its mouth. With a numerous following, he left Linyante on the 8th of November 1855. A fortnight afterwards he discovered the famous " See also:Victoria " falls of the Zambezi. He had already formed a true idea of the configuration of the continent as a great hollow or See also:basin-shaped See also:plateau, surrounded by a See also:ring of mountains. Livingstone reached the Portuguese settlement of Tete on the 2nd of March 1856, in a very emaciated See also:condition. Here he left his men and proceeded to See also:Quilimane, where he arrived on the loth of May, thus having completed in two yearsand six months one of the most remarkable and fruitful journeys on See also:record. The results in See also:geography and in natural See also:science in all its departments were abundant and accurate; his observations necessitated a reconstruction of the See also:map of Central Africa. When Livingstone began his work in Africa the map was virtu-ally a See also:blank from Kuruman to See also:Timbuktu, and nothing but envy or See also:ignorance can throw any doubt on the originality of his discoveries.
On the 12th of December he arrived in England, after an See also:absence of sixteen years, and met everywhere the welcome of a See also:hero. He told his See also:story in his Missionary Travels and Researches in See also:South Africa (1857) with straightforward simplicity, and with no effort after See also:literary See also:style, and no apparent consciousness that he had done anything extraordinary. Its publication brought what he would have considered a competency had he See also:felt himself at See also:liberty to See also:settle down for life. In 1857 he severed his connexion with the London Missionary Society, with whom, however, he always remained on the best of terms, and in February 1858 he accepted the See also:appointment of " Her See also:Majesty's See also:consul at Quilimane for the eastern coast and the See also:independent districts in the interior, and See also:commander of an expedition for exploring eastern and central Africa." The Zambezi expedition, of which Livingstone thus became commander, sailed from See also:Liverpool in H.M.S. " See also:Pearl " on the loth of March 1858, and reached the mouth of the Zambezi on the 14th of May. The party, which included Dr (afterwards Sir) See also: After exploring the river See also:Rovuma for 30 M. in his new See also:vessel the " Pioneer," Livingstone and the missionaries proceeded up the Shire to Chibisa's; there they found the slave trade rampant. On the 15th of July Livingstone, accompanied by several native See also:carriers, started to show the bishop the country. Several bands of slaves whom they met were liberated, and after seeing the missionary party settled in the See also:highlands to the south of Lake See also:Chilwa (Shirwa) Livingstone spent from August to November in exploring Lake Nyasa. While the See also:boat sailed up the west See also:side of the lake to near the north end, the explorer marched along the See also:shore. He returned more resolved than ever to do his utmost to rouse the civilized See also:world to put down the desolating slave-trade. On the 3oth of January 1862, at the Zambezi mouth, Livingstone welcomed his wife and the ladies of the mission, with whom were the sections of the " See also:Lady Nyassa," a river steamer which Livingstone had had built at his own expense. When the mission ladies reached the mouth of the Ruo tributary of the Shire, they were stunned to hear of the death of the bishop and one of his companions. This was a sad See also:blow to Livingstone, seeming to have rendered all his efforts to establish a mission futile. A still greater loss to him was that of his wife at Shupanga, on the 27th of April 1862. The " Lady Nyassa " was taken to the Rovuma. Up this river Livingstone managed to steam 156 m., but farther progress was arrested by rocks. Returning to the Zambezi in the beginning of 1863, he found that the desolation caused by the slave trade was more horrible and widespread than ever. It was clear that the Portuguese officials were themselves at the bottom of the See also:traffic. Kirk and Charles Livingstone being compelled to return to England on account of their See also:health, the See also:doctor resolved once more to visit the lake, and proceeded some distance up the west side and then north-west as far as the See also:watershed that separates the Loangwa from the See also:rivers that run into the lake. Meanwhile a See also:letter was received from See also:Earl See also:Russell recalling the expedition by the end of the year. In the end of April 1864 Livingstone reached See also:Zanzibar in the " Lady Nyassa," and on the 23rd of July Livingstone arrived in England. He was naturally disappointed with the See also:comparative failure of this expedition. Still the geographical results, though not in extent to be compared to those of his first and his final expeditions, were of high importance, as were those in various departments of science, and he had unknowingly laid the See also:foundations of the See also:British See also:protectorate of Nyasaland. Details will be found in his Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries, published in 1865. By Sir See also:Roderick See also:Murchison and his other staunch See also:friends Livingstone was as warmly welcomed as ever. When Murchison proposed to him that he should go out again, although he seems to have had a See also:desire to spend the remainder of his days at home, the prospect was too tempting to be rejected. He was appointed British consul to Central Africa without a See also:salary, and See also:government contributed only £500 to the expedition. The chief help came from private friends. During the latter part of the expedition government granted him £1000, but that, when he learned of it, was devoted to his great undertaking. The Geographical Society contributed £500. The two See also:main See also:objects of the expedition were the suppression of See also:slavery by means of civilizing influences, and the ascertainment of the watershed in the region between Nyasa and See also:Tanganyika. At first Livingstone thought the See also:Nile problem had been all but solved by See also:Speke, See also:Baker and See also:Burton, but the idea See also:grew upon him that the Nile sources must be sought farther south, and his last journey became in the end a forlorn See also:hope in search of the " fountains " of See also:Herodotus. Leaving England in the See also:middle of August 1865, via Bombay, Livingstone arrived at Zanzibar on the 28th of January 1866. He was landed at the mouth of the Rovuma on the 22nd of March, and started for the interior on the 4th of April. His company consisted of thirteen sepoys, ten Johanna men, nine See also:African boys from See also:Nasik school, Bombay, and four boys from the Shire region, besides camels, buffaloes, mules and donkeys. This imposing outfit soon melted away to four or five boys. Rounding the south end of Lake Nyasa, Livingstone struck in a north-north-west direction for the south end of Lake Tanganyika, over country much of which had not previously been explored. The Loangwa was crossed on the 15th of December 1866. On See also:Christmas See also:day Livingstone lost his four goats, a loss which he felt very keenly, and the See also:medicine See also:chest was stolen in January 1867. Fever came upon him, and for a time was his almost See also:constant See also:companion; this, with other serious ailments which subsequently attacked him, and which he had no medicine to counteract, told on even his See also:iron See also:frame. The Chambezi was crossed on the 28th of January, and the south end of Tanganyika reached on the 31st of March. Here, much to his vexation, he got into the company of Arab slave dealers (among them being Tippoo-Tib) by whom his movements were hampered; but he succeeded in reaching Lake See also:Mweru (Nov. 1867). After visiting Lake Mofwa and the Lualaba, which he believed was the upper part of the Nile, he, on the 18th of July 1868, discovered Lake See also:Bangweulu. Proceeding up the west coast of Tanganyika, he reached See also:Ujiji on the 14th of March 1869, " a ruckle of bones." Livingstone recrossed Tanganyika in July, and passed through the country of the See also:Manyema, but baffled partly by the natives, partly by the slave hunters, and partly by his long illnesses it was not till the 29th of March 1871 that he succeeded in reaching the Lualaba, at the town of Nyangwe, where he stayed four months, vainly trying to get a See also:canoe to take him across. It was here that a party of Arab slavers, without warning or provocation, assembled one day when the See also:market was busiest and commenced See also:shooting the See also:women, hundreds being killed or drowned in trying to See also:escape. Livingstone had " the impression that he was in See also:hell," but was helpless, though his " first impulse was to See also:pistol the murderers." The account of this See also:scene which he sent home roused indignation in England to such a degree as to See also:lead to determined and to a considerable extent successful efforts to get the See also:sultan of Zanzibar to suppress the trade. Insickened disgust the weary traveller made his way back to Ujiji, which he reached on the r3th of See also:October. Five days after his arrival in Ujiji he was inspired with new life by the timely arrival of H. M. See also:Stanley, the richly laden See also:almoner of Mr See also:Gordon See also:Bennett, of the New See also:York See also:Herald. With Stanley Livingstone explored the north end of Tanganyika, and proved conclusively that the Rusizi runs into and not out of it. In the end of the year the two started eastward for See also:Unyamwezi, where Stanley provided Livingstone with an ample See also:supply of goods, and bade him farewell. Stanley left on the 15th of March 1872, and after Livingstone had waited wearily in Unyamwezi for five months, a See also:troop of fifty-seven men and boys arrived, See also:good and faithful See also:fellows on the whole, selected by Stanley himself. Thus attended, he started on the 15th of August for Lake Bangweulu, proceeding along the east side of Tanganyika. His old enemy dysentery soon found him out. In January 1873 the party got among the endless spongy See also:jungle on the east of Lake Bangweulu, Living-See also: In spite of his sufferings and the many compulsory delays, Livingstone's discoveries during these last years were both extensive and of See also:prime importance as leading to a See also:solution of African hydrography. No single African explorer has ever done so much for African geography as Livingstone during his See also:thirty years' work. His travels covered one-third of the continent, extending from the Cape to near the See also:equator, and from the See also:Atlantic to the See also:Indian Ocean. Livingstone was no hurried traveller; he did his journeying leisurely, carefully observing and recording all that was worthy of See also:note, with rare geographical See also:instinct and the See also:eye of a trained scientific observer, studying the ways of the people, eating their See also:food, living in their huts, and sympathizing with their joys and sorrows. In all the countries through which he travelled his memory is cherished by the native tribes who, almost without exception, treated Livingstone as a See also:superior being; his treatment of them was always See also:tender, See also:gentle and gentlemanly. By the Arab slavers whom he opposed he was also greatly admired, and was by them styled " the very great doctor." " In the See also:annals of exploration of the Dark Continent," wrote Stanley many years after the death of the missionary explorer, " we look in vain among other nationalities for a name such as Livingstone's. He stands pre-eminent above all; he unites in himself all the best qualities of other explorers. . . . See also:Britain . . . excelled herself even when she produced the strong and perseverant Scotchman, Livingstone." But the direct gains to geography and science are perhaps not the greatest results of Livingstone's journeys. IIis example and his death acted like an See also:inspiration, filling Africa with an See also:army of explorers and missionaries, and raising in See also:Europe so powerful a feeling against the slave trade that through him it may be considered as having received its death-blow. Personally Livingstone was a pure and tender-hearted man, full of humanity and sympathy, simple-minded as a child. The See also:motto of his life was the See also:advice he gave to some school children in Scotland—" Fear See also:God, and work hard." See, besides his own narratives and W. G. See also:Blaikie's Life (188o), the publications of the London Missionary Society from 1840, the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, the despatches to the See also:Foreign See also:Office sent home by Livingstone during his last two expeditions, and Stanley's Autobiography (1909) and How I Found Livingstone (1872). (J. S. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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