Livingstone, David 1813-73
Scottish missionary and traveller

He was born in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, and from 10 till 24 years of age he worked in a cotton factory there. A pamphlet by German missionary Karl Gutzlaff (1803-51) kindled his desire to become a missionary. After studying medicine in London he was attracted to Africa by Robert Moffat, whose daughter Mary he married in 1844. He was ordained under the London Missionary Society in 1840, and for several years worked in Bechuanaland (now Botswana). Repulsed by the Boers in an effort to plant native missionaries in the Transvaal, he travelled northwards, discovered Lake Ngami, and determined to open trade routes east and west. The journey (1852-56) was accomplished with a handful of followers, amid great difficulties, but a vast amount of valuable information was gathered respecting the country, its products and the native tribes. He discovered the Victoria Falls of the Zambezi. He was welcomed home with extraordinary enthusiasm, and published his Missionary Travels (1857). In 1858 he was appointed chief of a government expedition for exploring the Zambezi and explored the Zambezi, Shir� and Rovuma, discovered Lakes Shirwa and Nyasa, and concluded that Lake Nyasa and its neighbourhood was the best field for commercial and missionary operations, though he was hampered by the Portuguese authorities, and by the discovery that the slave trade was extending in the district. The expedition was recalled in 1863. At his own cost he journeyed 100 miles westwards from Lake Nyasa, then navigated his little steamer to Bombay and returned to England in 1864. His second book, The Zambesi and its Tributaries (1865), was designed to expose the Portuguese slave traders, and to find means of establishing a settlement for missions and commerce near the head of the Rovuma. The Royal Geographical Society asked him to return to Africa and settle a disputed question regarding the watershed of central Africa and the sources of the Nile. In 1866 he started from Zanzibar, pressed westwards amid innumerable hardships, and in 1867-68 discovered Lakes Mweru and Bangweulu. Obliged to return for rest to Ujiji, he struck westwards again as far as the River Lualaba, thinking it might be the Nile, which afterwards proved to be the Congo. On his return after severe illness to Ujiji, Livingstone was found there by Henry Morton Stanley, sent to look for him by the New York Herald. Determined to solve the problem, he returned to Bangweulu, but died in Old Chitambo (now in Zambia). His faithful followers embalmed his body, and carried it to the coast. It was taken to England, and buried in Westminster Abbey.

Bibliography: George Seaver, David Livingstone: His Life and Letters (1957)