Who was David Livingstone?
Scottish Congregationalist missionary and explorer
who was determined to take Christianity to Africa. He became a Victorian
national hero after his travels.
Date and Place of Birth:
19th March 1813, Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Family Background:
One of seven children of Neil and Agnes Livingstone
and reared in a single room a the top of a tenement building for
the workers at H. Montieth's cotton factory. Neil was a Sunday School
teacher and a teetotaler and handed out Christian tracts wherever
her went.
Education:
Worked in the cotton mill from the age of ten
and had school lessons in the evenings. Studies medicine and Theology
at Anderson's College, Glasgow.
Chronology/Biography of David Livingstone:
1832:
He read the "Philosophy of a Future State" by Thomas Dick,
a church minister, science teacher and amateur astronomer. His father
had been deeply suspicious of science books as being unchristian
but this work gave the reasoning he needed to reconcile science
with his faith.
1837:
First dealings with the London Missionary Society in Essex.
1838: Livingstone
starts working for the London Missionary Society.
1840: Moves to London
to further his medical studies. Meets Robert Moffat who tells him
about Africa and persuades him that is where his future lies and
not China or the West Indies. After passing his exams he is ordained
as a missionary.
1841: Arrives in
South Africa at Cape Town and then moves on to the mission centre
at Kuruman.
1842: Goes on two
long journeys from Kuruman.
1843: Livingstone
founds a mission at Mabotsa.
1844: Attacked by
a lion. He recovered but his arm was partially disabled for the
rest of his life.
1846: Birth of his
first son called Robert. Works at Chonuane.
1847: Birth of daughter
Agnes. Family move to Kolobeng.
1849: Birth of son
Thomas. Goes on an expedition with William Cotton Oswell to Lake
Ngami and travels across the Kalahari dessert.
1850: Takes whole
family on an expedition towards the north. Birth of fourth child
Elizabeth. She dies after six weeks.
1851: Finally reaches
the Zambezi river with Oswell. Birth of his fifth child called Oswell
in his honour.
1852: His wife Mary
and the children set off back to England after the region is attacked
by the Boers. Kolobeng is sacked.
1853: Livingstone
sets off on a tour up the Zambezi river.
1854: Reaches as
far as Luanda and starts to return.
1855: Reaches Linyanti.
Sets off on a second trip up the Zambezi and reaches the Mosi-oa-Tunya
falls (literally "the smoke that thunders") which he renames
the Victoria Falls in honour of the Queen. There is now a statue
to him at the falls which has his motto inscribed on the base "Christianity,
Commerce and Civilization."
1856: Reaches the
mouth of the Zambezi river on the coast of the Indian Ocean and
was the first European to cross the full width of Southern Africa.
Sails to Mauritius and returns to England in December.
1857: Livingstone
writes about his missionary work in South Africa and resigns from
the London Missionary Society as they said he was doing too much
exploring and not enough missionary conversions.
1858: Elected a Fellow
of the Royal Society of London. Leaves on another mission to the
Zambezi region. Sails to Cape Town with his wife and son Oswell
who remain in the city with the Moffat family. Birth of daughter
Anna Mary in Kurman.
1859: Mary and Children
return to Britain. Livingstone takes an expedition up the Shire
River as far as Lake Nyassa.
1860: Another expedition
up the Zambezi and returns to the East Coast of South Africa.
1861: Missionaries
arrive from England to build a mission on the Shire.
1862: Mary joins
the missionaries but by now is an alcoholic. She dies of malaria
in April.
1863: Livingstone
continues to explore Lake Nyassa. His attempts to sail the Ruvuma
River failed because of the continual fouling of the paddle wheels
of his boat with the bodies thrown into the river by the slave traders.
Livingstone's crew either died or left him. In desperation he uttered
his most famous lines, "I am preperad to go anywhere as long
as it is forward!" London recalls the Mission due to his failure
to find a navigable route to the interior of Africa. He was widely
criticised in the Newspapers which meant finding funds for future
expeditions became difficult. Writes copiously on Africa and the
Slave trade Leaves for India later in the year.
1866: Sails from
Bombay to Zanzibar and then travels to the African mainland where
he explores the Rovuma river valley and ultimately hopes to find
the source of the Nile.
1868: Livingstone
reaches Lake Mweru and Lake Bangweulu.
1869: Contracts pneumonia
on his way to Ujiji. When he arrives he finds all of his supplies
have been stolen. Travels up the Luama river and returns to Bambarre.
1870: Travels out
from Bambarre but falls ill again and has to return.
1871: Finally reaches
Bambarre and the returns to Ujiji where he is discovered by the
journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley near the shores of
Lake Tanganyika and uttered the now famous phrase "Dr Livingstone
I Presume"? Stanley was sent by the New York Herald newspaper
in 1869 to find him.
1872: Livingstone
takes a journey with Stanley to Uyanyembe where Stanley leaves him.
Livingstone continues on to Lake Tanganyika.
1873: Reaches Chitambo's
village in a very poor state of health.
(1874): His body
is carried back by his faithful attendants and then shipped back
to Britain via Zanzibar and Aden.
Written Works:
- 1865: "Narrative
of an expedition to the Zambezi and its tributaries"
Marriage:
2nd January 1845 to Mary Moffat, daughter of
his friend Robert Moffat. Dies 1862 and buried at Chupanga, Mozambique.
Date and Place of Death:
1st May 1873, Village of local Headman Chitambo,
Barotseland, Zambia.1873 from malaria and
dysentery.
Age at Death:
60.
Site of Grave:
Westminster Abbey, London, England. Livingstone's
heart was buried under a Mvula tree near the spot where he died
which is now the Livingstone Memorial.
Westminster Abbey, London
(© Anthony Blagg)
Places of Interest:
SCOTLAND:
David Livingstone Centre, 165 Station Road, Blantyre,
South Lanarkshire, G72 9BT. (NTS).
