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David Livingstone

David Livingstone was an explorer, missionary, and anti-slavery fighter. He became a great hero of the 19th century for his discoveries in Africa.

David Livingstone was born in 1813 in Scotland, and grew up with several brothers and sisters in a single room in a gloomy building for the workers of a cotton factory. To support his family, he started working at the cotton mill as a child. The work was dull and monotonous, but it taught him patience and sympathy with those who worked hard. Though he had twelve-hour working days, David studied at school during the evenings and weekends. Later, he started studying medicine in Glasgow and completed his medical studies in 1840 in London.

In the official role of a ‘medical missionary’, he set off for Africa, arriving in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1841.

Exploring Africa, Livingstone went north and walked across the Kalahari Desert. He came upon Lake Ngami and, later, the Zambezi River. Livingstone was the first European to see the famous Zambezi falls, which he renamed Victoria Falls, after Queen Victoria.

Livingstone was the first medical missionary to enter southern and central Africa, and he was the first European to meet local tribes. He won their trust as a friendly person and an experienced doctor. He had so many patients among the native people that he had to limit his treatment only to those with serious illnesses.

David Livingstone made two more expeditions to Africa. By 1856, he was one of the first Europeans to cross the African continent from west to east. His motto, which was later written on the base of the statue to him at Victoria Falls, was ‘Christianity, Commerce and Civilization.’ He deeply believed that the navigation of the Zambezi River, as a commercial route into the centre of the continent, would help people achieve these goals. Livingstone also tried to find the source of the Nile River. He never did, but discovered lots of facts about the four great African lakes.

Livingstone’s African expeditions brought him fame as one of the leading explorers of the 19th century. However, according to historians, one of Livingstone's greatest achievements was also promoting antislavery ideas. His books told people about the cruelties and horrors slaves had to suffer.

For several years there were no letters from Livingstone and it was decided in London that the explorer was lost. The two main British newspapers sent the journalist, Henry Stanley, to Africa to find David Livingstone. Stanley found the explorer in late 1871, and upon seeing him, said the now well-known words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

Livingstone refused to leave his beloved Africa and spent the last years of his life almost cut off from the outside world. He died in 1873. Later, his body was transported to London and buried in Westminster Abbey.