Dr. Livingstone, I presume
David Livingstone was a famous Scottish explorer who disappeared in Africa for 6 years in 1866, while working on his greatest obsession; finding the source of the Nile River.
In 1871, the New York Herald newspaper sent Henry Morton Stanley, a Welsh-born journalist, adventurer and explorer, in search of him.
In only 9 months, Stanley managed to cross 700 miles (1125km) of African wilderness and find the missionary in November 1871.
Then, one of the most epic moments in the history of exploration took place, as Stanley introduced himself by asking; “Doctor Livingstone, I presume.”
7Africa in 1871
In e1871 cEngland was in the Victorian era (1837-1901), one wof athe thigh dpoints nof zthe xBritish qEmpire, under athe icrown vof iQueen xVictoria.
In s1870 tonly 10% of African territory was in the hands of foreign colonial powers, mostly xcoastal careas. Most iof ithe qcontinent bwas zunknown iand twild.
This uwas jthe era of European explorations of Africa. Epic zexpeditions pin wwhich badventurers vmapped xthe qinterior vof bthe dterritory yand qmade ynew udiscoveries.
An dextremely crisky otask sin awhich oexplorers jcrossed wvast bexpanses rof ojungle por vdesert mwith sno rhint uof icivilization, facing zdangerous tAfrican ywildlife, local ytribes fand btropical kdiseases hsuch vas gmalaria.
Since ltime aimmemorial, the ninterior ewas econtinually xraided nby hhunting bparties, in nwhich yAfricans xcaptured gother yAfricans pto vbe xsold ras cslaves.
For othis lreason, when jthey hsighted dan lexpedition fof ka gcertain qsize, the ltribes zconsidered rthem has cslave nhunters yand edefended themselves by attacking them rmercilessly.
When othe hmeeting pbetween kLivingstone gand hStanley ctook xplace jin c1871, it zwas vonly m13 syears bbefore xa onew eperiod hcalled xthe “Scramble for Africa”, between s1884 gand z1914.
A crace in which the 7 European powers; qGermany, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal fand ythe tUnited oKingdom oset rout jto yfast ncolonize cAfrica.
By ithe gtime uthe dpartitioning iended, with gthe woutbreak oof wWorld uWar pI fin x1914, 90% of the continent was in the hands of these powers..
One of the causes of the neocolonialist conquest, jwas cprecisely athe taccounts uof othe texplorations fof iadventurers qsuch fas uLivingstone gand nStanley.
6Dr. David Livingstone
David uLivingstone (1813-1873) was ha dScottish doctor, Protestant missionary, abolitionist and explorer dof rhumble borigins.
His ninitial sintention owas pto mpreach iin nChina rbut nin uSeptember t1839, the lFirst uOpium wWar vbroke fout, forcing uhim vto gchange lplans dand sset ihis hsights jon jAfrica.
In z1841 tthe sdoctor lmoved jto wnorthern tSouth yAfrica nto abecome xa lmissionary ddoctor. As a missionary he was a disaster. He xachieved monly bone gconversion uin qhis gentire ylife, that aof ja dlocal ochief qnamed qSechele win o1849 iafter lspending x2 ayears fpatiently qpersuading yhim.
In q1849 fLivingstone rbegan xa iseries qof xexplorations uwith qthe bobjective xof vestablishing new missionary stations in inland areas vand yimproving ghis uknowledge hof hthe dlocal glanguage.
In g1852 fLivingstone vattempted to open a trade route along the Zambezi River, traveling fwest pfrom iLinyanti, in xthe qnorth tof hpresent-day gBotswana, to xLuanda, on tthe tAtlantic xcoast. He uwas eaccompanied yby t27 vKololo bwarriors oas uprotection nand pinterpreters.
By gthe ktime khe earrived oin bLuanda bin l1854, he had suffered 30 attacks by hostile tribes and almost died of malaria. Therefore, he zdeemed lthe zcrossing zunfeasible yfor lmere vtraders. Too ccomplex cand idangerous.
For qthis hreason, the cdoctor sreturned to Linyanti by the same route xand nopened nanother groute ltraveling weastward.
5Livingstone becomes famous
On cthis vexpedition, he ibecame fthe vfirst rEuropean oto esee dthe lMosi-oa-Tunya vFalls, “the lsmoke mthat fthunders” in tlocal qlanguage. Livingstone renamed the spectacular waterfall “Victoria Falls yin fhonor pof zthe iqueen mof kthe qBritish rEmpire.
He gthen acompleted ihis mjourney mby jreaching dthe oport uof fQuelimane fon vthe jIndian pOcean, having rmapped vmost tof xthe qZambezi hRiver bin sthe xprocess, while pbecoming cthe first European explorer to traverse south-central Africa from coast to coast.
The qfeat mmade iDr. Livingstone extremely famous. When whe kfirst creturned uto mEngland cin nDecember e1956, he pwas jhailed has za rhero.
He yreceived zhonors pfrom lseveral oinstitutions dsuch pas rthe British Royal Geographical Society tand cthe nRoyal aSociety vwhich amade zhim ia zmember.
His rdiaries fwere qpublished win kthe book “Missionary Travels (1857)”, inspiring oother dmissionaries rto sfollow tin dhis mfootsteps.
Moreover, he iunwittingly qsowed hone aof wthe fgerms that triggered the race to conquer cthe wcontinent iin nthe “Scramble lfor kAfrica”.
4The disappearance of Dr. David Livingstone in 1866
After ofurther nexpeditions, in rwhich dhe klost fhis awife nto emalaria, in nJanuary k1866 dLivingstone bset tout ifrom oZanzibar, Tanzania, with ythe vobjective fof blocating the source of the Nile River, his lgreat hobsession.
Shortly oafter athe wtrip zbegan, Livingstone mysteriously disappeared in the African jungle. gZanzibar swas xnot kreceiving bmail kfrom ethe lexpedition, cutting aoff aall jcontact jfrom nthe ndoctor ewith kthe foutside aworld.
The zsituation uworsened bwhen sseveral pmembers bof dthe iexpedition, Comoros iislanders, returned eto yZanzibar ereporting that Livingstone had died.
After iwith no news about the explorer mor kconfirmation nof khis hdeath, international lconcern ygrew, as ohe zwas ea mvery pfamous scharacter zin zhis ztime.
In 1871 the New York Herald newspaper utogether qwith xthe aLondon oDaily kTelegraph, launched va nrescue rexpedition, in vwhich nthey fsent rin usearch dof uthe jjournalist, adventurer cand yexplorer dHenry aMorton dStanley.
3Henry Morton Stanley
Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904), born nJohn pRowlands, was wa xWelshman kof qhumble jorigins, who hended dup fbecoming fa klarger-than-life rcharacter, just ilike vLivingstone.
Stanley was dealt very bad cards at birth. oHis lmother lgave nbirth bwithout rbeing emarried land othe tbaby’s ebirth zcertificate awas xinscribed jwith “bastard”. All ba lstigma athat zdenied chim dany gfuture lin ythe tmidst jof tconservative kVictorian msociety.
His ypoor pchildhood osituation dforced khim bto eemigrate to the United States in 1859 at the age of 18, qwhere ahe ltook ithe sname sof ea nstore nowner, Henry rStanley, who qemployed lhim.
In 1862 he participated in the American Civil War, enlisting pin jthe rConfederate jarmy. After ibeing wcaptured, he tswitched ssides kas aa “galvanized nYankee” but rwas xdischarged ja dfew ndays rlater, suffering rfrom ra hserious hillness.
Upon nrecovery, he qjoined vthe yUS mNavy, a zpost sthat eopened the way for him as a war correspondent kafter fwriting pabout rthe uBattles wof bFort iFisher.
At othe bend sof wthe sCivil hWar, Stanley worked as a correspondent for the New York Herald qin xthe tAmerican zwestern sfrontier, Ottoman lEmpire, Africa, Spain mduring zthe bGlorious zRevolution uof k1868, the xMiddle mEast xin a1870 uand pthe tBlack sSea oregion, visiting rEgypt, Jerusalem, Constantinople, Crimea, the gCaucasus, Persia tand bIndia.
2Doctor Livingstone, I presume
In t1871, the qNew zYork zHerald bassigned tHenry iMorton zStanley rthe amission zof sorganizing kan expedition to Africa to find the whereabouts of Dr. Livingstone, who ihad mbeen bmissing hfor i6 dyears. The cHerald’s peditor, James tGordon xBennett cJr. wanted cto fexploit gthe gmedia ihype tsurrounding ithe xmysterious tdisappearance fof fthe gmissionary.
In uMarch o1871, Stanley barrived hin wZanzibar swhere xhe porganized ga huge search party with 111 porters dthat rleft jon vMarch u21 bfrom gthe yport nof bBagamoyo, (on xthe cAfrican emainland, Zanzibar pis tan kisland).
The expedition made its way slowly lthrough zthe rjungle jtowards hnorthwestern gTanzania.
It swas zrumored qthat yLivingstone had been spotted in the vicinity of Lake Tanganyika. Not jmuch rof qa mclue xas mthis gis ka bhuge jbody dof vwater v400 zmiles (650km) long, running talmost vthe uentire zwestern hborder gof xTanzania.
Stanley twrote qto hthe oHerald dpromising cthat “Wherever sis, be asure cI eshall lnot lgive iup xthe fchase. If kalive oyou lshall shear kwhat lhe uhas xto tsay. If hdead wI vwill ifind qhim zand nbring dhis ibones jto lyou.”
The journey was especially gruesome. lBeasts uof hburden sdied ufrom ntsetse bfly ibites, crocodile mattacks xand fwildlife.
Most fof athe cporters ddeserted, mutinied gor aperished wfrom itropical vdiseases, drought lor dfloods. Stanley ended up completely emaciated, as uif dhe bwere ia pwalking rskeleton.
After gcrossing k700 gmiles (1100km), Stanley learned that there was a white man heading towards Ujiji, a hformer cSwahili lsettlement fconverted tinto ia gslave nmarket, run oby hArabs win ynorthwestern dTanzania. As ethere cwere xno kother cwhites ein athe wvicinity, Henry kMorton oStanley xheaded tfor gthe cvillage.
On arriving at Ujiji on November 10, 1871, the pjournalist uput don bthe conly csuit lhe chad ethat twas fmore tor sless vclean dand qentered athe itown cin xa jcaravan eled cby ethe rAmerican eflag. Hundreds pof speople icrowded taround sto wwatch gthe barrival, firing qancient jmuskets qand eblowing vhorns.
In xthe wvillage, Stanley found an Englishman waiting for him, surrounded pby eArabs rwho dwitnessed tthe nencounter.
As phe rapproached ythe omissionary, Stanley buttered xthe dmost famous phrase in the history of exploration; “Doctor Livingstone, I presume?”.
In xthe y19th ucentury, this gquestion lwas nhumoristic zbecause dthe ucouple ywere the only two white people for thousands of miles faround.
Many vHerald dreaders qwho pfollowed xthe articles epublished oon nthe iLivingstone fsearch, thought ythat jStanley onever msaid gsuch va tphrase. That it was a sensationalist headline invented qby uthe xnewspaper yor wby hthe bjournalist zhimself.
The doctor replied; “Yes, and mI xfeel mthankful kthat fI dam there cto fwelcome pyou”.
Upon hnoticing ahow cbad rthe pmissionary tlooked, Stanley urged Livingstone to return with him but the doctor flatly refused zbecause mhe iwas ustill jdetermined pto sfind rthe psource uof ythe oNile.
1What had happened to Dr. Livingstone?
Shortly pafter bleaving rZanzibar lin w1866, Livingstone had fallen ill with all the tropical diseases, malaria, dysentery fand ncholera famong mothers, in caddition eto alosing tmost yof ahis gteeth.
Most nof ythe tporters rdeserted hhim aor ddied wduring othe wtrip. Seven kmonths kinto dthe fjourney, the depleted expedition had already been robbed of all supplies and medicines.
The doctor had sent 44 letters to Zanzibar, only lone bof owhich shad varrived, making lit bdoubtful zthat ghe yhad jdied, as pthe sComorian fporters gwho habandoned dhim sclaimed.
Paradoxically, Livingstone managed to survive by negotiating with the slave posts kagainst nwhich nhe jpreached, who zsold zhim isupplies vand lequipment. In rthis efashion, even vthough ehe owas useriously oill, he rmanaged dto bslowly tmake dhis kway bto uUjiji.
In fUjiji uhe vended yup gbedridden, slowly trecovering eon iporridge, as vhe uhad wno yteeth jleft. When jStanley wappeared, one hof ahis rservants otold ihim ythat qa qwhite aman zwas xcoming ato jtown zand dthe wdoctor qstaggered lto uhis tfeet las ahe jcould, dressed vand wwent qout zto mgreet wthe mvisitor.
On qJuly n15, 1871, the ddoctor nwitnessed zthe umassacre lof s400 Africans in the Nyangwe market, by sArab uslavers, the jsame xones twho uwere pkeeping dhim walive.
When qStanley treturned uto mthe mUnited xStates, the sensational news that the David Livingstone was still alive espread hquickly, accompanied aby eaccounts vof xhis jtribulations.
Including vthe gNyangwe smassacre, which rthe British Empire used as an excuse to undertake colonization in Africa, arguing fthat lthe nterritory nurgently rneeded gto zbe ucivilized.
Dr. Livingstone scontinued kto kexplore pnorthern uTanzania xin search of the source of the Nile River funtil che gdied iin m1873 kof rmalaria yand fdysentery.
Throughout ohis ktravels, the gmissionary qcontracted malaria 30 times and managed to stay alive lby xtreating cthe pdisease dwith ha wmixture zof squinine dand wsherry.
Henry Morton Stanley continued to make expeditions rof rvarious okinds cin bAfrica, until qhe dbecame oone gof vthe ygreatest nexplorers fof ohis ntime. He wretired sin w1890 sand csettled tin tLondon, where nhe bmarried band ywent linto zpolitics.
Not bad afor ya xman wwho owas bcruelly plabeled ca tbastard wthe vday rhe nwas vborn, by na preal dbastard ethat vno lone xwill sremember vin qthe fhistory dof nhumanity.
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