David Livingston that he opened briefly. David Livingstone: Exploring South and Central Africa

Being a simple missionary from a poor family, David Livingston managed to write his name in history as a tireless and courageous explorer of the African continent, who until last days doing what he loves in his life. In honor of Livingston in Africa, cities, waterfalls and even mountains are named.

The beginning of the way

The future conqueror of Africa was born on March 19, 1813 in a family, and from early childhood he was forced to work in a factory. In addition, he managed to study at school, and, having matured, began to comprehend the basics of medicine and theology at the university. Upon completion, he became a certified doctor and was ordained as an evangelical missionary.

In 1840, the young man went to Africa, to the Cape Colony. Having landed on the continent, he went to the country of the Bechuans - Kuruman. The London Missionary Society was located there, the road to which took Livingston almost half a year.

Rice. 1. David Livingston.

In search of a new place for his mission, David decided to go further north - where no British missionary had yet been. He stopped at Chonuan, where the Bakwena tribe lived, and quickly struck up friendly relations with the leader.

Within six months, Livingston deliberately stopped any communication with European society in order to thoroughly study the language of the natives, their laws, way of life, life values, way of thinking. It was then that the missionary had the idea - to explore all the rivers of South Africa in order to find new ways inland.

Rice. 2. Bakwena tribe.

First discoveries

There were many white spots on the maps of the Portuguese, who were the first to conquer the southwest of the African continent. Wanting to fix this, Livingston went on a trip to northern Africa, during which he made many important discoveries.

Subsequent expeditions to Africa

In 1858, Livingston and his family returned to the Black Continent, where for the next six years he explored the Shire, Zambezi and Ruvuma rivers, as well as the Nyasa and Chilwa lakes. In 1865 he published a book in which he described all the details of this journey.

In 1866, the missionary participated in several more expeditions, during which he discovered the lakes of Bangvela and Mweru, but his main task was to search for the sources of the Nile.

An expedition was sent in search of Livingston, from whom no one had heard from for several years. He was found in a weakened state - a fever undermined the strength of a tireless explorer, who died in 1873. His body was taken to London and buried in Westminster Abbey.

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David Livingston is a famous Scottish explorer of the African continent, a missionary, a great traveler.

Biography of Livingston

David Livingston was born on March 19, 1813 to a street tea vendor. At the age of 10, he worked for 12 hours at a weaving factory. After work, he managed, while studying at evening school, to study Latin. At 16 he freely read the poetry of Horace and Virgil. At the same time, I became interested in descriptions of various travels.

At the age of 20, Livingston's spiritual life changed dramatically. He decided to become a missionary, dedicating his life to serving God. Initially attended lectures on theology, medicine, ancient languages in Glasgow. Then, thanks to a scholarship from the London Missionary Society, he continued his education.

After meeting the missionary Robert Moffett, who was then working in South Africa, Livingston was imbued with a desire to become an ambassador of the Lord's faith in African villages. By the middle of the summer of 1841 he arrived at Moffet's mission in Kuruman, which was the most remote point for the promotion of the Christian faith. Realizing that the locals were little interested in religious sermons, he began to teach them to read and write, new methods of agricultural work, and provided them with medical assistance.

Livingston himself learned the language of the Bechuans (the Bantu family), which was later very useful to him when traveling around Africa. He was interested in the laws, life, thinking of the natives. With many of them he maintained friendly relations, worked together and hunted. There is a known case when, during a roundup of lions, a wounded animal attacked Livingston. As a result, he received a serious fracture that healed incorrectly.

Married in 1844 to Mary Moffett, he received in her person a faithful assistant and companion in travel. This did not prevent the birth of four children. The first son Robert was born.

Travels of Livingston

For seven years, Livingston lived in the country of the Bechuans, having made several trips during this time, which led him to a number of geographical discoveries. A series of difficult and dangerous wanderings can be called the biography of David Livingston. Passion for the knowledge of the new, the unknown, pulled him to new travels, which he carried out in 1851-1856 along the Zambezi River.

At home in 1856-1857. he prepared and published a book titled "Missionary's Travels and Studies in South Africa". For outstanding services, he was awarded the medal of the Royal Geographical Society and in 1858 was appointed consul in Quelimane.

The next journey took place along the Shire, Zambezi, Ruvuma rivers, Nyasa and Chilva lakes, as a result of which a book was published in 1865. The restless explorer led several more expeditions in 1866, discovering several African lakes and attempting to find the source of the Nile.

For a long time there was no news from the traveler, so an expedition headed by an American journalist and researcher G. Stanley was poisoned to search for him. He found Livingston lying in a fever in the village of Ujidzhi, located on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. It was November 3, 1871. However, the researcher refused to return to Europe.

A little later, Livingston made another attempt to find the origins of the Nile, which ended in a serious illness and death on May 1, 1873. From the village of Chitambo on the shores of Lake Bangweulu, the body of the traveler was carried for 9 months by servants to the coastal city of Bagamoyo. And from there he was taken to London and buried in Westminster Abbey. Thus ended the earthly biography of David Livingston.

Discoveries and achievements of the great explorer of Africa

Livingston was driven by many reasons that forced him to travel. This is a craving for the development of new unknown lands, and a desire to engage in missionary activities, and a passion for knowledge.

What did David Livingston discover to mankind? In 1849 he became the first European to cross the Kalahari Desert from the south to the north. On this journey he was inspired by the stories of the natives about the beautiful lake Ngami.

Many discoveries were made by the researcher. So, he established the true nature of the Kalahari landscape, and described the population of the area, which was made up of nomadic Bushmen and settled Tswana aliens (“Kalahari people”). To the north of the desert, Livingston's expedition found itself in the gallery forests growing along the banks of the rivers. It was then that the researcher had the idea of studying all South African rivers. Subsequently, he entered the geography of discoveries as "seeking rivers."

First geographical discovery David Livingston became Lake Ngami. This happened on August 1, 1849. Later he will find other African lakes: Nyasa, Shirva, Bangvelu, Mweru, Dilolo.

The greatest discovery David Livingstone was the discovery in 1855 of a huge waterfall on the Zambezi River, which the traveler named after the English Queen Victoria.

It is he who owns the theory of the amazing relief of Africa, similar to a saucer, the edges of which are raised by the shores to the ocean. The achievements of the researcher David Livingston have truly become a great asset for all mankind.

After the travels of D. Livingston in the 70s. In the 19th century, when the London Geographical Society published the book Kazembe Country (1873), they also paid attention to the discoveries in the area made by the Portuguese reconnaissance detachment, led by Major Juse Maiteiro.

Coming from a very poor Scottish family, from the age of 10 he worked in a weaving factory and, with a fourteen-hour working day, managed to attend college. Due to lack of funds, he entered the service of the London Missionary Society and was sent as a doctor and to. Since 1841, Livingston lived at the mission in the mountainous region of Kuruman - the country of the Bechuans. He learned their language (of the Bantu family) well, and this helped him during his travels, since the Bantu languages are close to each other, and he usually did not need an interpreter. He married Mary Moffet, daughter of a local missionary, Robert Moffet, the first explorer of the Huge; and his wife became his faithful helper. Livingston spent seven years in the country of the Bechuans. Under the pretext of organizing a missionary station in the northern regions of the territory subject to them, he made his travels.

In 1849, Livingston became interested in African stories about the "beautiful and vast" Lake Ngami. He crossed the Kalahari from south to north, establishing that it has a flat surface, cut through by dry riverbeds, and is not at all as deserted as previously thought. In August, Livingston explored Ngami, which turned out to be a temporary lake, fed during the rainy season by the waters of the great Okavango River. In June 1851, passing to the northeast from the Okavango swamp through the territory infected with tsetse flies, he first reached the Linyanti River (lower Kwando, the largest right tributary of the Zambezi) and in the village of Sesheke (near 24 ° E) enlisted help leader of the powerful Makololo tribe. In November 1853, with a force of 160 Aboriginal people in 33 boats, Livingston began sailing up the flat, covered plain, occasionally overcoming rapids. Most of the people he let go on the road. By February 1854, already with a small detachment, he went up the river to its upper right tributary, the Shifumazhe, and along its valley passed to a barely noticeable watershed at 11 ° S. sh., behind which all streams did not flow in a southerly direction, as before, but in a northern one. (Later it turned out that these were the rivers of the system.) Turning west, he reached in the middle of 1854, near Luanda. From there, Livingston followed the Bengo River to its upper reaches, in October 1855 he passed a new path to the upper section of the Zambezi and began rafting down the river. A little lower than Sesheke on November 18, he opened a majestic, 1.8 km wide, one of the most powerful in the world. From a ledge 120 m high, the waters of the Zambezi fall into a narrow and deep gorge. Below he descended very slowly, as the river crosses mountain country and has a number of rapids and waterfalls. On May 20, 1856, Livingston went to Quelimane (a port north of the mouth of the Zambezi), thus completing the crossing of the mainland.

Returning to his homeland, Livingston in 1857 published a book that deservedly glorified him - " Travel and research of a missionary in the South", translated into almost all European languages. And he made a very important generalizing geographical conclusion: tropical

The early years of David Livingstone

Africa has attracted many explorers and travelers. A lot of mysteries of history and human civilization are connected with it. Since the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, mankind has sought to penetrate deep into the mysterious continent.

Remark 1

One of the brightest representatives of the cohort of explorers of the mainland is the Scottish traveler and scientist David Livingston. David Livingston was born $19$ March $1813$ in the family of a street vendor. After graduating from a rural school, young David worked at a weaving factory in Glasgow from the age of ten. In his spare time, he attended night school and studied Latin on his own.

In the twentieth year of his life, Livingston decided to devote himself to the service of God, to become a missionary. He begins attending lectures in medicine and theology, receives a scholarship from the London Missionary Society, and dreams of going to China. But because of the "opium war" between Britain and China, Livingston was sent to South Africa in the Cape Colony.

Exploring Africa

In $1840$, David Livingston sets off. While sailing on a ship, he is trained by the captain of the ship to determine the astronomical coordinates of various points on the Earth. In July $1841, Livingston arrives at his destination, the southern edge of the Kalahari Desert. This extreme point where the missionaries reached. It is here that he begins his missionary work. But local residents were not interested in religious teachings, but in Livingston's medical knowledge.

Livingston spent seven years in a harsh semi-desert region - the country of the Bechuans. During this time, under the pretext of missionary activity, he makes a number of trips. He was the first to cross the Kalahari from south to north, establishing the nature of the landscapes of this area. Livingston proved that the Kalahari is not a desert, as Europeans previously believed, but a semi-desert with savannah elements. He studied Livingston and the peculiarities of the peoples inhabiting this region.

Having reached the territories north of the Kalahari, David Livingston begins to study the rivers of Africa, as natural routes of penetration deep into the continent. locals the explorer was nicknamed "Seeker of the Rivers". In $1849$, the traveler discovers and explores Lake Ngami. During $1850-1851, Livingston made several attempts to re-penetrate north from the Kalahari. It reaches the right tributary of the Zambezi River and then the Zambezi itself. Prior to this, the Europeans did not know about the existence of this river in Central Africa.

In November $1853, David Livingston, with a detachment of $160$ of local hunters from the Makololo tribe, sailed up the Zambezi in $33$ boats. By February $1854$ it reaches the watershed between the Zambezi and Congo basins. In May, $1854, the detachment descended the Zambezi to the coast. Atlantic Ocean in the Luanda area.

Livingston undertakes the next journey in October $1855$. He opens the Victoria Falls. In May $1856$ the expedition goes to the shores of the Indian Ocean.

In $1857 the traveler returns to Britain. Here he gives lectures, prepares his book for publication. "The Travels and Explorations of a Missionary in South Africa".

In May $1858, Livingston returned to the Zambezi as British Consul in Mozambique. He studies the deep regions of the continent. In September 1859, the expedition went to Lake Nyasa. Livingston conducts hydrological surveys of the lake and adjacent rivers. In $1865$, the scientist publishes a book "An account of an expedition to the Zambezi and its tributaries".

Remark 2

In $1867, Livingston reached south coast Lake Tanganyika, described the nature of the Central African tectonic fault, explored the rivers of the Tanganyika basin. Research in the lake area lasted until $1872$. David Livingston died $1$ May $1873$ during another expedition. His diaries were published in London in $1874 under the title "The Last Journey of David Livingstone" .

Significance of David Livingstone's research

It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of David Livingston to the development of geographical science. He was the first to discover for Europeans the deep regions of South and Central Africa. It is he who is credited with compiling detailed maps interior regions of Africa and the location of rivers. Thanks to his tireless efforts, science received detailed descriptions features of the geological structure of the south of the African platform, flora and fauna of this region. Thanks to his diplomatic skills, Livingston collected the richest ethnographic material. His scientific work were translated into many languages of the world and for a long time remained the only source of information about the most mysterious part of Africa.

The Opium War broke out there, and thanks to an acquaintance with the famous Scottish missionary Robert Moffet, David ended up in South Africa on a religious and public mission.

First African expeditions

Returning to Britain in the summer of 1864, Livingston, together with his brother Charles, wrote his second book, A Tale of an Expedition to the Zambezi and Its Tributaries ( Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries, ). During his stay in his homeland, he was strongly advised to undergo surgery to combat hemorrhoids, from which he suffered throughout the expedition. Livingston refused; it is probable that it was a severe hemorrhoidal bleeding that caused his death during the third and last African journey.

Finding the origins of the Nile

On the map of Africa, there was still a vast unexplored territory, the task of exploring which was before Livingston. He returned to Africa on January 28, after another short visit to Bombay, in the capacity of a British consul with wide powers and backed by a large number of public and private institutions. This time he was the only European on the expedition, and the rest of the staff was recruited from India and from Africans. As before, his goal was to spread Christianity and destroy the slave trade on the eastern shores of Africa (Livingston began a humanitarian mission even before arriving on the continent: in Zanzibar, he personally asked the Sultan to stop the slave trade), but now a third task has appeared: to study the Central African watersheds and find out the true source of the Nile. Livingston himself believed that the Nile takes its source from the sources of the Lualaba.

The expedition left Mikindani on the east coast and traveled west, but the hostility of the local Ngoni tribe forced Livingston to abandon his initial plans not to pass through the territories controlled by the Portuguese and reach the shores of Lake Tanganyika, bypassing Nyasa from the north. Fleeing from the ngoni, the expedition had to return to the south, and in September some of the porters left it. In order to avoid punishment for desertion, after returning to Zanzibar, they lied that Livingston died in a skirmish with Ngoni. Although the next year it turned out that Livingston was safe and sound, this fiction added drama to the message about the expedition that came to Europe.

However, the expedition acquired real drama later, when Livingston, having bypassed Nyasa from the south, again went north. In the beginning, a box with all the medicines was stolen from him, which was a real disaster for the traveler, but Livingston did not stop moving north, continuing to move deep into Central Africa. All this led Livingston to the region of the great African lakes, where he discovered two new large lakes- Bangweulu and Mweru. The expedition crossed two big rivers, Luangwu and Chambeshi, separated by the Muchinga mountain range, and on April 1, 1867 came to the southern edge of Lake Tanganyika. Departing from here to the southwest, on November 8, 1867, Livingston discovered Lake Mweru, and on July 18 - Lake Bangweulu. Although the traveler was about to explore Lake Tanganyika, he suddenly fell ill with dengue fever and fell ill. Tired and exhausted by malaria, Livingstone was forced to use the help of Arab traders to return to Lake Tanganyika, which he reached in February 1869.

For about a month, the expedition moved around the lake in boats, first along West Bank north, and then straight across the lake to Ujiji on the east bank. Here Livingston was waiting for some supplies, which were sent for him with passing caravans from Zanzibar, although most of them were looted or lost on the road. In July 1869 Livingston left Ujigi and crossed the lake again. Due to the poor health of the traveler and the distrust of the local population, angry with the raids of slave traders, this part of the journey was extremely extended, and only on March 29 Livingston reached the tributary of the Congo Lualaba near Nyangwe, the extreme northwestern point of his African wanderings. So far to the west in these parts by this time no European had gone.

Livingston still did not know which African river basin - the Congo or the Nile - Lualaba belonged to, and was unable to deal with this difficult issue, as his health continued to deteriorate. In addition, the expedition was sabotaged by slave traders. As a result, Livingston could not find boats to travel along the river, and it was possible to move on land only by joining a detachment of slave traders, which the missionary would never agree to. Livingston established only that the Lualaba flows to the north and is located in this place at an altitude of about 600 m above sea level, i.e. theoretically it can belong to the basin of both the Congo and the Nile. The fact that the river flows into the Congo was clarified already after the death of Livingston by Henry Morton Stanley.

Livingston and Stanley

The cities of Livingstonia in Malawi and Livingston (Maramba) in Zambia are named after David Livingston, as well as waterfalls in the lower reaches of the Congo and mountains on the northeastern shore of the lake