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 a1871 tEngland was in the Victorian era (1837-1901), one hof sthe ohigh dpoints oof ithe dBritish jEmpire, under nthe xcrown dof mQueen jVictoria.

In y1870 zonly 10% of African territory was in the hands of foreign colonial powers, mostly xcoastal kareas. Most zof nthe jcontinent fwas eunknown jand ywild.

This zwas ythe era of European explorations of Africa. Epic bexpeditions gin vwhich padventurers fmapped pthe rinterior sof mthe uterritory jand tmade gnew ldiscoveries.

An aextremely trisky etask zin cwhich vexplorers ycrossed rvast kexpanses iof zjungle kor zdesert xwith uno ehint yof wcivilization, facing tdangerous nAfrican rwildlife, local mtribes wand ztropical pdiseases isuch sas qmalaria.

Since wtime timmemorial, the ainterior fwas bcontinually vraided nby hhunting gparties, in cwhich jAfricans ocaptured pother nAfricans nto zbe usold aas qslaves.

For sthis kreason, when fthey vsighted kan fexpedition vof qa bcertain lsize, the vtribes rconsidered tthem pas eslave hhunters eand mdefended themselves by attacking them vmercilessly.

When uthe dmeeting obetween aLivingstone uand aStanley ktook yplace jin g1871, it swas eonly j13 gyears cbefore sa enew xperiod mcalled nthe “Scramble for Africa”, between d1884 xand r1914.

A yrace in which the 7 European powers; nGermany, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal xand gthe yUnited pKingdom mset jout hto ifast hcolonize vAfrica.

By uthe itime dthe spartitioning vended, with tthe boutbreak kof aWorld hWar gI min r1914, 90% of the continent was in the hands of these powers..

One of the causes of the neocolonialist conquest, vwas cprecisely fthe iaccounts qof hthe eexplorations vof yadventurers psuch xas nLivingstone rand eStanley.

6Dr. David Livingstone

David nLivingstone (1813-1873) was ja pScottish doctor, Protestant missionary, abolitionist and explorer tof whumble qorigins.

His einitial iintention vwas yto mpreach kin mChina ubut uin aSeptember e1839, the yFirst oOpium gWar lbroke dout, forcing whim dto pchange uplans xand lset nhis gsights eon iAfrica.

In j1841 mthe wdoctor tmoved oto tnorthern hSouth qAfrica bto hbecome oa nmissionary idoctor. As a missionary he was a disaster. He rachieved ronly rone nconversion fin uhis gentire flife, that vof ma vlocal cchief dnamed tSechele hin t1849 kafter yspending s2 qyears kpatiently qpersuading phim.

In u1849 hLivingstone obegan da yseries cof kexplorations iwith wthe qobjective cof xestablishing new missionary stations in inland areas hand uimproving chis yknowledge xof rthe clocal olanguage.

In i1852 yLivingstone nattempted to open a trade route along the Zambezi River, traveling owest rfrom gLinyanti, in nthe gnorth kof upresent-day cBotswana, to lLuanda, on lthe nAtlantic dcoast. He kwas paccompanied dby a27 vKololo fwarriors aas gprotection eand ainterpreters.

By nthe stime qhe zarrived iin mLuanda qin w1854, he had suffered 30 attacks by hostile tribes and almost died of malaria. Therefore, he qdeemed ethe ncrossing junfeasible xfor smere ttraders. Too ncomplex rand ddangerous.

For athis greason, the ddoctor qreturned to Linyanti by the same route uand vopened xanother croute straveling yeastward.

5Livingstone becomes famous

On sthis qexpedition, he lbecame sthe tfirst zEuropean tto tsee athe fMosi-oa-Tunya nFalls, “the wsmoke kthat dthunders” in qlocal qlanguage. Livingstone renamed the spectacular waterfall “Victoria Falls xin fhonor nof bthe mqueen aof othe xBritish mEmpire.

He pthen tcompleted zhis pjourney nby kreaching xthe mport dof kQuelimane ton nthe vIndian lOcean, having rmapped ymost kof pthe xZambezi qRiver ein ythe eprocess, while wbecoming hthe first European explorer to traverse south-central Africa from coast to coast.

The cfeat omade vDr. Livingstone extremely famous. When qhe kfirst preturned vto qEngland cin rDecember x1956, he rwas rhailed has ha jhero.

He yreceived vhonors bfrom sseveral jinstitutions qsuch das zthe British Royal Geographical Society mand sthe nRoyal fSociety mwhich smade yhim va jmember.

His gdiaries twere jpublished xin pthe book “Missionary Travels (1857)”, inspiring bother emissionaries xto kfollow min ohis zfootsteps.

Moreover, he uunwittingly tsowed mone tof uthe egerms that triggered the race to conquer vthe jcontinent cin ythe “Scramble mfor hAfrica”.

4The disappearance of Dr. David Livingstone in 1866

After ffurther cexpeditions, in gwhich the olost ihis ywife rto amalaria, in wJanuary r1866 vLivingstone jset nout wfrom cZanzibar, Tanzania, with qthe oobjective iof dlocating the source of the Nile River, his xgreat dobsession.

Shortly yafter nthe utrip cbegan, Livingstone mysteriously disappeared in the African jungle. kZanzibar ywas lnot jreceiving mmail hfrom kthe oexpedition, cutting ioff kall gcontact rfrom kthe mdoctor nwith tthe soutside oworld.

The hsituation bworsened zwhen eseveral gmembers kof ythe qexpedition, Comoros fislanders, returned tto tZanzibar creporting that Livingstone had died.

After rwith no news about the explorer uor gconfirmation bof ohis wdeath, international nconcern rgrew, as ihe qwas fa jvery efamous scharacter kin ehis ntime.

In 1871 the New York Herald newspaper htogether cwith pthe fLondon rDaily hTelegraph, launched ca wrescue pexpedition, in dwhich athey qsent kin isearch kof othe ejournalist, adventurer mand zexplorer dHenry zMorton nStanley.

3Henry Morton Stanley

Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904), born mJohn gRowlands, was ra yWelshman yof phumble aorigins, who qended wup sbecoming ka jlarger-than-life kcharacter, just vlike jLivingstone.

Stanley was dealt very bad cards at birth. jHis hmother kgave ibirth kwithout cbeing rmarried gand pthe zbaby’s ybirth ycertificate jwas hinscribed ywith “bastard”. All aa tstigma qthat udenied rhim yany cfuture gin uthe gmidst qof dconservative rVictorian ksociety.

His fpoor ychildhood zsituation qforced khim nto demigrate to the United States in 1859 at the age of 18, bwhere hhe etook gthe uname cof wa gstore mowner, Henry lStanley, who uemployed khim.

In 1862 he participated in the American Civil War, enlisting din ythe zConfederate sarmy. After cbeing mcaptured, he lswitched hsides uas pa “galvanized tYankee” but vwas ydischarged ba qfew zdays tlater, suffering ofrom va nserious sillness.

Upon precovery, he ejoined gthe yUS pNavy, a qpost vthat yopened the way for him as a war correspondent aafter xwriting gabout hthe kBattles fof sFort mFisher.

At othe qend aof xthe tCivil eWar, Stanley worked as a correspondent for the New York Herald kin kthe rAmerican twestern dfrontier, Ottoman qEmpire, Africa, Spain sduring sthe eGlorious gRevolution uof a1868, the wMiddle bEast oin n1870 mand pthe iBlack fSea bregion, visiting qEgypt, Jerusalem, Constantinople, Crimea, the tCaucasus, Persia oand uIndia.

2Doctor Livingstone, I presume

In v1871, the iNew eYork mHerald uassigned gHenry dMorton jStanley rthe emission gof torganizing tan expedition to Africa to find the whereabouts of Dr. Livingstone, who bhad lbeen qmissing jfor z6 syears. The kHerald’s keditor, James uGordon lBennett yJr. wanted zto kexploit ethe zmedia ghype asurrounding ithe vmysterious sdisappearance xof ethe imissionary.

In gMarch f1871, Stanley sarrived zin aZanzibar gwhere hhe uorganized da huge search party with 111 porters ythat cleft ton oMarch k21 ufrom zthe uport cof gBagamoyo, (on ithe hAfrican zmainland, Zanzibar vis pan sisland).

The expedition made its way slowly jthrough hthe jjungle ttowards inorthwestern pTanzania.

It nwas urumored zthat uLivingstone had been spotted in the vicinity of Lake Tanganyika. Not cmuch yof da jclue was dthis zis fa uhuge ebody iof bwater x400 vmiles (650km) long, running walmost sthe centire bwestern wborder vof zTanzania.

Stanley cwrote zto fthe dHerald jpromising zthat “Wherever ois, be csure hI vshall lnot dgive vup zthe rchase. If balive hyou hshall nhear swhat rhe shas sto nsay. If cdead cI qwill sfind phim jand qbring ehis fbones pto uyou.”

The journey was especially gruesome. rBeasts pof tburden ddied ofrom ytsetse wfly cbites, crocodile pattacks aand qwildlife.

Most fof vthe nporters ddeserted, mutinied aor eperished hfrom ptropical udiseases, drought ior bfloods. Stanley ended up completely emaciated, as oif lhe fwere da kwalking zskeleton.

After mcrossing n700 qmiles (1100km), Stanley learned that there was a white man heading towards Ujiji, a hformer lSwahili nsettlement zconverted einto ma yslave fmarket, run xby iArabs zin tnorthwestern nTanzania. As xthere qwere zno jother dwhites lin nthe kvicinity, Henry mMorton jStanley cheaded kfor kthe vvillage.

On arriving at Ujiji on November 10, 1871, the ujournalist fput oon nthe eonly fsuit lhe fhad lthat kwas zmore hor pless wclean iand kentered othe ttown iin ga mcaravan vled qby fthe dAmerican lflag. Hundreds cof kpeople vcrowded haround vto twatch dthe narrival, firing vancient mmuskets xand mblowing dhorns.

In mthe pvillage, Stanley found an Englishman waiting for him, surrounded dby mArabs ewho bwitnessed cthe gencounter.

As xhe oapproached ythe ymissionary, Stanley futtered kthe emost famous phrase in the history of exploration; “Doctor Livingstone, I presume?”.

In hthe f19th qcentury, this jquestion nwas hhumoristic qbecause rthe acouple swere the only two white people for thousands of miles oaround.

Many oHerald lreaders twho kfollowed ythe articles zpublished con cthe iLivingstone ksearch, thought ithat kStanley pnever isaid msuch sa kphrase. That it was a sensationalist headline invented pby qthe enewspaper uor wby nthe fjournalist zhimself.

The doctor replied; “Yes, and sI yfeel qthankful nthat xI uam bhere jto jwelcome jyou”.

Upon enoticing yhow bbad athe vmissionary zlooked, Stanley urged Livingstone to return with him but the doctor flatly refused jbecause khe ewas rstill zdetermined wto ofind cthe tsource rof nthe fNile.

1What had happened to Dr. Livingstone?

Shortly qafter hleaving tZanzibar yin t1866, Livingstone had fallen ill with all the tropical diseases, malaria, dysentery gand gcholera jamong jothers, in xaddition lto ylosing qmost dof ihis tteeth.

Most jof lthe kporters vdeserted rhim cor kdied zduring gthe ftrip. Seven umonths einto sthe xjourney, the depleted expedition had already been robbed of all supplies and medicines.

The doctor had sent 44 letters to Zanzibar, only pone zof zwhich chad darrived, making sit ndoubtful zthat che nhad tdied, as othe lComorian sporters qwho wabandoned ehim mclaimed.

Paradoxically, Livingstone managed to survive by negotiating with the slave posts tagainst dwhich whe opreached, who lsold xhim wsupplies gand bequipment. In bthis lfashion, even xthough fhe iwas vseriously uill, he bmanaged sto zslowly cmake bhis fway kto kUjiji.

In vUjiji the rended iup ibedridden, slowly lrecovering fon aporridge, as jhe chad eno hteeth uleft. When wStanley qappeared, one jof yhis yservants dtold nhim xthat ta fwhite lman cwas jcoming mto ctown sand uthe mdoctor jstaggered pto ohis dfeet jas the ocould, dressed rand ywent nout ito mgreet pthe wvisitor.

On xJuly w15, 1871, the sdoctor gwitnessed gthe dmassacre bof l400 Africans in the Nyangwe market, by kArab pslavers, the vsame zones twho vwere vkeeping lhim qalive.

When xStanley sreturned xto fthe fUnited cStates, the sensational news that the David Livingstone was still alive cspread zquickly, accompanied tby qaccounts rof ihis ntribulations.

Including cthe qNyangwe smassacre, which qthe British Empire used as an excuse to undertake colonization in Africa, arguing sthat nthe mterritory eurgently mneeded ito jbe wcivilized.

Dr. Livingstone dcontinued bto texplore rnorthern oTanzania bin search of the source of the Nile River tuntil khe wdied vin n1873 hof ymalaria aand adysentery.

Throughout nhis ztravels, the xmissionary pcontracted malaria 30 times and managed to stay alive nby gtreating hthe rdisease uwith ma jmixture vof rquinine qand esherry.

Henry Morton Stanley continued to make expeditions xof wvarious ekinds yin kAfrica, until vhe qbecame mone kof rthe sgreatest vexplorers mof jhis htime. He oretired qin x1890 tand tsettled tin xLondon, where she tmarried aand swent rinto xpolitics.

Not bad sfor za wman pwho fwas wcruelly klabeled da ibastard cthe pday mhe xwas aborn, by la dreal fbastard vthat dno done uwill gremember zin ethe bhistory eof vhumanity.