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Scotland in the 1800’s gave very little hope in terms of a career for all but the most privileged. It was into this situation that David Livingstone was born in 1813, in the village of Blantyre, near Glasgow. At the age of ten he was forced to work in the local cotton mill, where fourteen-hour days consisting of hard labour were considered perfectly normal. Livingstone impressed in the night school that followed work though and was able to study medicine in Glasgow. He became aware of opportunities for Christian missionaries in far off lands, and planned to use his medical knowledge to go to China, introducing new medicine at the same time as preaching the Christian faith. The opium wars were at their peak though, and it was considered too dangerous for a Briton to travel out there. This didn’t prevent the young man from enlisting with the London Missionary Society. In 1840 he was ordained and sent to South Africa.
The journey to Cape Town in South Africa was in itself no mean feat, taking the best part of four months. Immediately he set about preaching Christianity to the Africans. He also treated the locals with medicines brought from the Western world and taught them all about the outside world, something they knew very little about. In return, Livingstone took quickly to local customs and the language. Because of this, a mutual respect was forged, making the Scotsman’s teachings all the more effective.
After working in the most southern regions of Africa, David Livingstone began making inroads northwards to continue his good work. The Boers, who used black Africans as slaves, hindered him to no small effect. They saw Livingstone as meddlesome and likely to disrupt the status quo. Unperturbed, he continued into unknown territory, discovering Lake Ngami, the Zambezi river and perhaps most famously the Victoria Falls. On his return to Britain in 1856 he was considered to be a great explorer. A year later he published his first book concerning his journeys through Africa, and upon its release he had truly completed the transition from unknown missionary to famous voyager.
Old age was creeping up on Dr. Livingstone – many people would consider fifty-two in those days to be old – but in 1865 he was to set out on a journey that would prove to be his last, even though it lasted the best part of seven years! He set out to discover the source of the Nile, a location that would forever elude him, and to explore central Africa. He eventually made it to Lake Tanganyika, but on the way he witnessed the slaughter of many villagers by the slave traders. Bringing these atrocities to the attention of the British government elicited a response from them, but their mutterings of disapproval had a very limited effect at that time.
Nobody had heard from Livingstone for some time, so the New York Herald sent its reporter, Henry M. Stanley, into Africa to seek him out in 1869. In 1871, Stanley found the Scottish explorer at Lake Tanganyika and greeted him with the now famous words “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
Stanley also brought with him fresh supplies and medicines with which Livingstone could continue his work. Together they explored further north of Lake Tanganyika. Unfortunately, there were many menacing diseases around and in 1872, David Livingstone died as a result of dysentery. His body was returned to England, whilst his heart was buried in Africa at the place of his death.
Not only was Livingstone a charitable missionary, who served his life helping others, but he also developed into an explorer of epic proportions. He also used his position of fame to voice his disgust at the way Africans were being treated as slaves, and for this he should be applauded loudest of all.
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