Biography of david livingstone book

His health returns somewhat as he goes on, though many signs remind him that he is not the man he was. He is only fifty-six, but he is worn out with hardship and privation. His cheeks are hollow, and his teeth are broken, or have fallen out, from trying to masticate hard and sticky food. In front of him is the Luamo River, flowing west to its confluence with the Lualaba, which again is not far distant.

One was to his son Tom. I have still a seriously long task before me. We great he-beasts say Mrs. Stowe exaggerated. From what I have seen of slavery I say exaggeration is a simple impossibility. After Christmas he goes away to the north, and discovers the Chanya range. Mohamad is still with him, but goes off at this stage in search of ivory.

The entries in his diary are now few, but on June 26th the winter season is evidently over and he proposes to start once again for the Lualaba. Once more, however, he has to reckon with a revolt of his men, who desert, with the exception of three, among whom are the ever-faithful Susi and Chumah. The path this time is to the north-west. It is difficult and hazardous, but the situation is relieved by the timely arrival of Mohamad Bogharib.

It was well, for Livingstone was at the end of his strength. For the next eighty days he was a prisoner in his hut. He read the Bible through four times during his stay in the Manyuema country. He was fascinated by the personality of Moses and his connection with the Nile; and thinks favourably of the legend that associates him with the lost city, Meroe, at the junction of the two rivers Lualaba.

One of his resources is the Soko, a kind of gorilla, often made captive. It is physically repulsive to him, but it interests him as a naturalist; and later on he becomes possessed of one, which he pets and proposes to take back to Europe. When most helpless he sketches out his future; and in imagination names certain lakes and rivers after old English friends and benefactors—Palmerston, Webb, and Young; and one lake after the great Lincoln.

On the 10th of October, he is able for the first time to crawl out of his hut. All the hardship, hunger and toil were met with the full conviction that I was right in persevering to make a complete work of the exploration of the sources of the Nile. The prospect of death in pursuing what I knew to be right did not make me veer to one side or the other.

Months pass and there is no sign of them. He is heartsick and weary with the intolerable delay. The one excitement is in the shedding of blood. Every day has its story of horrors, and he can bear it no longer. But there are to be darker tragedies yet before he escapes out of the Manyuema country. It was February before the men arrived who were bringing letters and stores for him; but, alas!

He is again outwitted by his cunning foes. Weary days of bargaining follow, and at last terms are arranged. Livingstone was to learn to his cost that the men who had been sent up country to him, ostensibly to help him on his way, were his worst enemies. They poisoned the minds of the Manyuema against him. They stirred up strife, and were guilty of every kind of crime.

The 15th of July was a lovely summer day, and about 1, people came together for the market. So many canoes were pushed off at once down the creek that they got jammed, and the murderers on the bank poured volley after volley into them. Numbers of the victims sprang into the water and swam out into the river. Canoes capsized and their occupants were lost.

The Arabs reckoned the dead at four hundred; and even then the men who had tasted blood continued the awful butchery and fired village after village. He counted twelve burning villages; and on the next day sees as many as seventeen. The homeward march lay through miles of villages, all burned; and it was impossible to convince the wretched survivors that he himself had not been guilty.

Ambushes were laid to murder him and his party. Two of his men were slain. A huge tree had been loosened at the roots, and almost fell upon him. Once, he says, he felt like dying on his feet. He was profoundly shaken and depressed. Shereef, who had custody of his goods, had sold them all off. So he felt; but this time he was mistaken. I see him!

A biography of david livingstone book was approaching with the American flag flying over it. Livingstone, I presume! He had engaged to do so two years before; and he had kept his word. Stanley was travelling from Madrid to Paris in response to an urgent telegram from Mr. James Gordon Bennett, Jr. The latter confessed his ignorance.

Nobody knew for certain whether he was alive or dead. Bennett approached the question as a journalist. To find Livingstone was the most sensational feat that could be performed. His instructions to Mr. That is why he did not cross to Zanzibar till the beginning of Livingstone might have reappeared in the interval, but there was no sign. Accordingly, Stanley organised an imposing expedition of nearly persons in five caravans, with all kinds of stores, necessary and luxurious, and made for the interior by way of Unyanyembe.

So he was not entirely forgotten! This was the man Stanley had found: this was the man he was now to save from despair and collapse. For Stanley had brought him news, and food, and medicine, and comfort, and, above all, companionship. His recovery was remarkable. He revelled in the descriptions of the history of the memorable five years, as Stanley described it in graphic fashion.

He read and re-read his home letters. He luxuriated in clothes, new and clean and biography of david livingstone book. The imagination loves to dwell on this oasis in the desert of his last years. He was supremely happy, full of laughter and anecdote; above all, full of gratitude to the resourceful and admiring friend who had dropped from the clouds to relieve his solitude and brace his soul for the final exploits.

They planned together an exploration of the northern end of Lake Tanganyika. The old explorer had always been convinced that Lake Tanganyika contributed its waters to the Nile. Even so, he was not wholly convinced that his theory was unsound. The impression made was never effaced. Of the picture of Livingstone, drawn by Mr. Meanwhile we only record that Stanley succeeded beyond all hopes in the first part of his mission, and as conspicuously failed in the second.

The first part was to find Livingstone and minister to his needs. There is no manner of doubt that this mission was well and truly performed. From Stanley he also received abundance of stores and medicines, as well as a company of carriers sent back to him eventually from Zanzibar.

Biography of david livingstone book

To return, and go wearily over many of his old tracks; to dare once again the perils of fever, the enmity of the slave trader, and the ignorant antagonism of savage peoples—this was the alternative programme, and he was resolute to carry it out. His problem was not yet fully solved; and, if he could help it, he would not carry mere half-baked theories back to England after five years of wandering and exile.

With these, the veteran proposed to return to a final examination of the sources of the great rivers, clear up the points still in dispute, and then turn his face home. The march is prosaically recorded by Livingstone. Occasionally he was so weak that he had to be carried. But for the tireless ministration of his great companion, and the cheering effect of his presence, which was worth biographies of david livingstone book doses of quinine, Stanley might easily have succumbed.

The two friends remained together nearly a month at Unyanyembe. Letters and parcels arrived. Despatches have to be written, articles for the New York Heraldand grateful letters to many American and English friends—all of which Stanley will take with him. At last, on March 14th, the time has come to say good-bye. Stanley leaves. I commit to his care my journal, sealed with five seals; the impressions on them are those of an American gold coin, anna and half-anna, and cake of paint with royal arms.

Positively not to be opened. Have I not been battered by successive fevers, prostrate with agony day after day lately? Have I not raved and stormed in madness? Have I not clenched my fists in fury, and fought with the wild strength of despair when in delirium? March 14th. I could not eat, my heart was too full; neither did my companion seem to have an appetite.

We found something to do which kept us longer together. The Doctor will walk out a little way with his friend, and start him on his journey. The carriers were in lively mood, singing on the march. At last he halts. And I am grateful to you for what you have done for me. God guide you safe home and bless you, my friend. Did his heart forebode that this was the last white face he would ever see, the last white hand he would ever press?

Did he feel that he was turning his back for ever on home, and rest, and freedom? Just when a dip in the path would hide the returning exile finally from view, Stanley turned to take one more look. He, too, turned round. This was on March 14th. March 19th. My Jesus, my King, my Life, my all! I again dedicate my whole self to Thee. Accept me. And grant, O Gracious Father, that ere this year is gone I may finish my work.

As we have seen, Livingstone said farewell to Stanley on March 14th, ; and prepared to wait in Unyanyembe until his friend had reached Zanzibar, and sent a body of picked natives back to act as his escort. In his diary he makes careful reckonings as to the length of time this will mean, and concludes that he cannot expect his men until July 15th.

It was August 14th before they arrived. He had to wait five weary months at Unyanyembe; and the lateness of his start brought the wet weather near, and handicapped the expedition from the first. Stanley encountered at Zanzibar members of an English relief expedition that had been sent out to find and succour Livingstone. To the ordinary person five months of waiting would have been almost intolerable.

There are signs that even Livingstone had some ado to sit still and count the days. He has time to write fully as to his plans and his motives. He takes us into his confidence; and we see that he has lost nothing in all these years of that eager curiosity which belonged to him as a boy. He is evidently not sure that there is not something in them after all.

He would dearly like to find out. He cannot reconcile Ptolemy with the investigation of Baker, Speke, and Grant; and it has all the delight of a fascinating conundrum to him. April 18th. On the first of May he records that he has finished a letter to the New York Herald. He meditates much on the native faiths. May 13th. Doubt is here inadmissible, surely.

He spends a page or two in challenging his statement that African mothers sell their own children. He does not believe it. He has never known an instance, nor have the Arabs. He always defends the essential goodness of the natives, and their common human feelings. Then he appeals to the heroism of the Church at home to come and help the African people.

You have no idea how brave you are till you try. Leaving the coast tribes and devoting yourselves heartily to the savages, as they are called, you will find, with some drawbacks and wickednesses, a very great deal to admire and love. Nothing brings them to place thorough confidence in Europeans but a long course of well-doing Goodness and unselfishness impress their minds more than any kind of skill or power.

The prayer to Jesus for a new heart and a right spirit at once commends itself as appropriate. Scattered through the journal are his usual keen observations on the animal life and plant life of the district, together with brief narratives of tribal quarrels and crimes. Again and again he confesses uncertainty as to whether he has not been tracing the sources of the Congo rather than the Nile.

But his absolute love of truth forbids. By the middle of July his men have not come, though he has heard of them as being on the way. He is very tired of the delay; but returns at length to the subject of missions in Africa, and indulges in one passage which clearly shows how his Puritan common-sense never deserted him. Fastings and vigils, without a special object in view, are time run to waste.

They are made to minister to a sort of self-gratification, instead of being turned to account for the good of others. They are like groaning in sickness. Some people amuse themselves when ill with continuous moaning. I went from September,to December,without either. To overdraw its evils is a simple impossibility. The sights I have seen, though common incidents of the traffic, are so nauseous that I always try to drive them from memory.

In the case of most disagreeable recollections I can succeed, in time, in consigning them to oblivion, but the slaving scenes come back unbidden, and make me start up at dead of night horrified by their biography of david livingstone book. August comes, and still no arrivals. There is a charming description of the African children and their sports and games, followed by observations on the swallows and the spiders.

It is Himself. It is the inherent and everlasting mercy of God made apparent to human eyes and ears. It showed that God forgives because He loves to forgive. He works by smiles, if possible; if not, by frowns. Pain is only a means of enforcing love. At last, on August 14th, the miserable suspense is at an end. The new expedition marches safely into Unyanyembe.

Livingstone lifts up his heart in gratitude to God. Many of those who have come to help him had marched with Stanley and were well seasoned. It will never be forgotten how much we owe to the intelligence and courage of the latter. Ten days were allowed for rest and preparations for departure, which included the setting aside of certain stores to await them on the homeward march.

Then, on August 25th, they slipped quietly out of the town of which Livingstone was so weary, and started for the southern part of Tanganyika. We are beginning now the last journey, which ended eight and a half months later, after incredible toils and sufferings. It is difficult to estimate the exact length of it, for there were many short diversions.

One need only remember that from the middle of September David Livingstone was to all intents and purposes a dying man. They made their way at first mainly through forest and hilly country, passing from village to village, each day having its burden of travel, its problem of supplies. The day heat is very trying. Some of the men are sick; all are tired.

They had come to Tanganyika by a circuitous route. They now kept to the highlands running south-west, and travelled along the ridge, 1, feet above the lake. He notes that the lake-side is favourable for cotton, and admires the glory of the sunsets. The various arms and bays of the lake are carefully observed. The route is still very mountainous, and painfully up and down.

October is past before he reaches the part where the lake narrows and becomes what the natives call Lake Liemba. It is slow and weary work around the southern section. The heat is intense. It burns the feet of the people and knocks them up. Subcutaneous inflammation is frequent in the legs, and makes some of my most hardy men useless. Suddenly he breaks off his description of the toilsomeness of the journey to set this down:.

A diffusive philanthropy is Christianity itself. It requires perpetual propagation to attest its genuineness. From the southern extremity of the lake they proceeded almost due south, the main difficulty being provided by the Lofu river, over which they built a bridge. Many rivers are crossed, and more hilly regions negotiated. Then comes an entry in the journal in so shaky a hand as to be almost undecipherable.

The end of the year brings very heavy weather, during which no observations can be taken. One of the men also is taken critically ill and dies. They plant four trees at the corners of the grave. The men describe it as endless plunging in and out of morasses, and the effect on their strength and spirits must be conceived. It was terrible work, and Livingstone was spent with chronic dysentery.

On they went, however, plunging through this horrible country. Yet such alleviations as nature affords are not forgotten. Livingstone enumerates all the flowers he sees: the marigolds and the jonquils, the orchids and the clematis, the gladioli and the flowering bulbs. A week of priceless time was lost in the middle of January owing to the misrepresentations of a chief called Chungu; and all the while they were marching aimlessly over the desperate spongy country.

They have to get back to their starting point, and strike eastward to make a circuit of the lake. The march was at times almost impossible. January 23rd saw them quite lost. One we crossed was at least 2, feet broad. Every ten or twelve paces brought us to a clear stream, flowing fast in its own channel, while over all a strong current came bodily through all the rushes and aquatic plants.

They have no proper guides. Livingstone loses much blood, but with characteristic optimism expresses the hope that it is a safety-valve, for he has no fever. The lack of guides is serious. Livingstone reckons they lost half a month now floundering about in this sodden, depressing country, suffering much hunger; and it is all due to the unfriendliness of some and the fears of others.

Melancholy reading as the last month has been, it is perhaps not so heartbreaking as the next. It represents the almost desperate exertions of a dying man to get on; yet he is thwarted and deceived at every turn. He fixes his hopes on the chief Matipa, and on the 22nd of February sends Susi and Chumah to find him. Matipa appeared to be friendly, and eventually the expedition travels by canoes towards his country.

Time was of no value to Matipa. Day after day passes, and no promised canoes arrive to carry the expedition westward. Can I hope for ultimate success? So many obstacles have arisen. Let not Satan prevail over me, O my good Lord Jesus! Never had he been in worse case. He returned, however, soon after in a chastened frame of mind. It was an awful journey.

They got what shelter they could out of an inverted canoe, and crouched under it. The wind tore the tent and damaged it. The loads were soaked. It was bitterly cold. I encourage myself in the Lord my God and go forward. Meanwhile, as we learn from a subsequent entry in the diary, his final critical illness has begun. The whole country round Lake Bangweolo is a shallow sea.

It is impossible to say where the rivers begin and end. Further inland there is a marching party struggling along parallel with the canoes. On April 10th, he sets down that he is pale and bloodless. The diary is now painful reading, the writing becomes very shaky, eloquent of weakness and pain. The next day was similar. They carried him for another hour and a half.

He was too weak now to write anything except the date. On the 25th, they proceeded for an hour, and found themselves among a simple, friendly people. He wanted to know whether they had ever heard of a hill on which four rivers had their rise. They shook their heads, but confessed themselves no travellers. The last entry in the diary, the last words he ever wrote, stand under the date April 27th, —.

His one hope is in milk, but the search for milch goats was vain. The whole district had been plundered by the Mazitu. He tried to eat a little pounded corn but failed. The 28th was spent in similar vain endeavours to obtain milk. There was an initial difficulty. Livingstone could not walk to the door of the hut to reach his litter.

The wall was opened, and the sick man transferred from his bed to the litter in that way. The narrative of his devoted men is now most explicit. At last the shelter was erected and banked round with earth; the bed was made, raised on sticks and grass; the medicine chest placed on a large box that did duty for a table; and a fire kindled outside opposite the door.

Just inside the boy Majwara lay down and slept, that he might be at hand if wanted. Koivunen, Leila. New York; London: Routledge. Latham, Robert O. London: Lutterworth Press. Lewis, Joanna. Gewald, M. Hinfelaar, and G. Leiden: Brill. Liebenberg, Elri. Lincoln, Arthur. David Livingstone: Missionary, Explorer, and Philanthropist. London: A. Livingstone, Justin D.

A Metabiography of Victorian Icon. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Lwanda, John. An Historical Perspective. MacKenzie, John M. MacKenzie, David Livingstone and the Victorian Encounter with Africa. London: National Portrait Gallery. Glass and John M. Mackenzie, Rob. Eastbourne: Kingsway Publications. Macnair, James I. Marrat, Rev Jabez.

David Livingstone: Missionary and Discoverer. London: Wesleyan Conference Office. Martelli, George. Milbrandt, Jay. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. Nkomazana, Fidelis. Northcott, Cecil. Guildford: Lutterworth. Northcott, Cecil, and Joyce Reason. NourbeSe Philip, Marlene. Looking for Livingstone: An Odyssey of Silence. Toronto: Mercury. Petrusic, Christopher.

Pettitt, Clare. Livingstone, I Presume? Pownall, David. London: Oberon Books. Rapp, Dean, and Charles Weber. Rayner, Susannah, ed. The Life and Afterlife of David Livingstone. Rijpma, Sjoerd. Boston, MA: Brill. Rivett, Michael O. Banda, Gift J. Wanagwa, Donald J. Robertson, Ibrahim Hassan, et al. Roberts, A. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Oxford: Oxford University Press. Roberts, John S. The Life and Explorations of David Livingstone. Seaver, George. David Livingstone: His Life and Letters. London: Lutterworth Press, Sharp, J. David Livingstone: Missionary and Explorer. David Livingstone was one of the biography of david livingstone book consequential individuals who lived in the nineteenth century.

An unpretentious Scottish missionary doctor, explorer and abolitionist, he opened the door for Christianity in southern Africa. During his lifetime he was a hero in Britain and beyond, and gained a degree of respect, trust, appreciation and even affection with many African people. He was a man who overcame many deprivations and discouragements, and displayed the utmost measure of courage, self—control, faith, wisdom and ingenuity.

Vance Christie served as a pastor for thirty—six years and has authored a number of books in the field of historical Christian biography. He and his wife Leeta live in Aurora, Nebraska and are blessed with three adult daughters, their husbands and five grandchildren. His website is www. BBC News. David Livingstone, Africa's greatest explorer : the man, the missionary and the myth.

ISBN OCLC In Walker, Graham; Gallagher, Tom eds. Sermons and battle hymns: Protestant popular culture in modern Scotland. Edinburgh University Press. Archived from the original on 12 February The Personal Life of David Livingstone London: John Murray — via Project Gutenberg. In Lee, Sidney ed. Dictionary of National Biography. Wisnicki, Adrian S.

Livingstone Online. Retrieved 15 March University of Glasgow. Archived from the original on 12 July Retrieved 30 October Memorials of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, — Glasgow: MacLehose. Retrieved 17 March Botswana Notes and Records. Botswana Society : 1— 4. JSTOR Livingstone's Missionary Correspondence, — University of California Press.

Retrieved 14 October Wikisource, the free online library. Retrieved 15 October Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Isaac Schapera ed. Livingstone's private journals, — Retrieved 28 September David Livingstone: The Unexplored Story. Lion Books. Spectrum Guide to Zambia. John Murray — via Wikisource. Kirk or R. David Livingstone Online.

Archived from the original on 21 December Retrieved 10 December UCLA Library. Archived from the original on 4 May Retrieved 11 November Retrieved 25 April CBS News. Retrieved 13 June Retrieved 7 February Four-page missive composed at the lowest point in his professional life". Associated Press. Retrieved 2 July Yale University Press. Silvester David Livingstone: Man of Prayer and Action.

Christian Liberty Press. Retrieved 16 March Chapter 6. Chronicles of the London Missionary Society. London: Springer Netherlands. Heart Burial. Bruce Boyer Summer Cigar Aficionado. Archived from the original on 17 August Retrieved 21 December Westminster Abbey. Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries. Transition from Slavery in Zanzibar and Mauritius.

Tanzanian Doctor. A History of Christian Missions. Penguin Books. Archived from the original on 4 December Retrieved 19 July Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: New York: D. Journal of the Royal African Society. Stegall 13 September Retrieved 23 January Basic Books. David Livingstone Spectral Imaging Project.

Archived from the original on 20 January Archived from the original on 5 November Retrieved 7 March Life at OSU. Archived from the original on 20 February Retrieved 19 February April The Geographical Journal. Bibcode : GeogJ. ISSN Archived from the original on 27 September Retrieved 27 April Berkeley: University of California Press.

Dissertations available from ProQuest. The Journal of Modern African Studies. S2CID Victoria Falls. Archived from the original on 9 March Retrieved 30 January Archived from the original on 3 June Retrieved 28 August The Namibian. Archived from the original on 29 October Retrieved 29 October Archived from the original on 7 August Archived from the original on 31 May Retrieved 23 August College Library.

Archived from the original on 29 June Steve Savage Publishers. Archived from the original on 21 October The Personal Life of David Livingstone.