David Livingstone
Statue Princes Street Gardens
" Dr, Livingstone I presume?"
DAVID
LIVINGSTONE
(19-03-1813 - 1-05-1873)
David Livingstone was an explorer and Scottish missionary.
He
was born in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire and studied medicine and theology
at Glasgow University. He later moved to London and became a minister
joining the London Missionary Society.
In 1840 he worked in Beuchanaland (now Botswana) but was unable to reach
South Africa because of the Boer war.
During his explorations in Africa between 1852-56 his mission was, to
open trade routes whilst gathering useful information about the lagely
unknown continent.
He was the first European to see the magnificent water falls which he
renamed the Victoria Falls after the monarch Queen Victoria.
A statue of Livingstone is situated at Victoria Falls with his motto
inscribed on the base ' Christianity, Commerce and Civilization"
His expeditions included following the Zambezi River which lasted from 1858 intil 1864, they found the Zambezi to be unnavigable beyond the Cabora basa Radids and the government recalled the expedition. The press made a big deal of highlighting Livingstone's failures, and he returned home breifly before setting out again in March 1866 to find the highly debated 'Source of the Nile'
Deep in Africa, Livingstone lost contact with the outside world for six years. In 1871 Henry Morton Stanley was sent as a publicity stunt by The New York Herald to find him, eventually tracking him to Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika and giving rise to the saying for which he is best known.
"
Dr, Livingstone I presume?"
They both explored the north of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) for a time
until Stanley left the next year urging Livingstone to return to Britian.
Refusing to give up until his mission was complete, he worked on until
he contacted malaria and a bowel obstruction which caused internal bleeding
in 1873 and he died in Chitambo, Barotseland (now Zambia).
His loyal attendants carried his body over a thousand miles and he was
returned to Britian where he was for buried in Westminster Abbey.
