David Livingstone

David Livingstone ( born March 19, 1813 in Blantyre, near Glasgow, † May 1, 1873 in Chitambo on Bangweulusee ) was a Scottish missionary and African explorer.

Youth and Education

He was only cotton spinner, but dealt next with medicine and theology, and went in 1840 in the service of the London Missionary Society as a missionary to South Africa.

Research trips

In 1849, he wandered out of the mission station in Bechuanaland Kolobeng, the Kalahari Desert to Lake Ngami. On a recent trip in 1851 he reached the upper reaches of the Zambezi. His wife and children he brought to Cape Town, from where she departed on 23 April 1852 a sailing ship to England. 1853 to 1856 he crossed over South Africa from the Zambesi to Loanda ( Luanda ) and back to Quelimane. He discovered in November 1855 for Europe, the Victoria Falls of the Zambezi. Back at home, he gave Missionary travels and researches in South Africa ( London 1857, 2 vols, new edition 1875; German, Leipzig, 1859, 2 volumes) out.

In March 1858 he traveled on behalf of the British government with his brother Charles Livingstone and five other Europeans ( including John Kirk and the painter Thomas Baines ) turn to Quelimane and in the area of the Zambezi. He followed the Zambezi to its origin from Lake Malawi (formerly Nyasa ), where he arrived on 16 September 1859 and discovered near the Chilwa Lake ( Schirwasee ); also he followed twice the Rovuma some distance upstream. It was his goal to work against the slave trade and to attract particularly the indigenous population of the farming and the cultivation of cotton, Livingstone but could not reach. Therefore, in 1864 he returned back to the UK and published here with his brother, the Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its tributaries ( Lond. 1865; German, Jena from 1865 to 1866, 2 volumes).

In the autumn of 1865 he embarked again and landed in January 1866 in Zanzibar. On 24 March 1866 he began Mikindani from his last expedition. Shortly thereafter was the rumor that he had been slain; him a nachgesandte expedition was convinced, however, soon of the instability of this rumor. Livingstone was the Rovuma up traveled to Malawi, skirted the southern shore, crossed the discovered already by the Portuguese Chambeshi, one of the headwaters of the Congo, arrived in April 1867, the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, peaking in April 1868 the Moerosee, having previously whose discharge had discovered the Lualaba. In May 1868, he came to Cazembe, then traveled through the territory south and discovered on July 18, the Bangweolosee. From there he turned north and came on March 14, 1869 after suffering Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, where he (until July 1869) lingered for several months.

1871 saw Livingstone in the marketplace of Nyangwe with about 1,500 people, and Arab slave traders galloped into the crowd in the middle. They had previously surrounded the village. Many locals were led by the Arabs, 400 people were killed and 27 villages were burned. Livingstone was outraged and separated from the Arabs.

He then explored the Manyemaland the west, from where he leaned on October 23, 1871, and ruled out returning to Ujiji. Henry Morton Stanley, who had been sent out by James Bennett in New York for finding the force as lost travelers since 1869, met on November 10, 1871 Livingstone in Ujiji to sick and greeted him with the legendary words, " Dr. Livingstone, I presume? " ( " Doctor Livingstone, I presume? "). With Stanley Livingstone explored now in December 1871, the north end of Lake Tanganyika and accompanied Stanley to Unyanjembe.

Death

Despite his failing health, Livingstone wanted to stay in the interior of Africa and continue to search for the sources of the Nile. After Livingstone had waited until the end of August 1872 for six months in Unyanjembe to new agents, he broke into the area where he suspected the source of the Nile. Livingstone went on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika down, then around its southern end in the land of Cazembe and umwanderte the eastern half of Lake Bangweulu. He became ill and physically becoming weaker. Most recently he had to be carried on the march in a hammock. On May 1, 1873, he died in Ilala on the south bank of the Bangweulu of dysentery.

The radiation emitted by the British in support of Livingstone expedition under Veney Cameron came too late. She was then but rise to the first crossing of Africa from east to west.

To clarify the statement Livingstone's "My Heart is in Africa," his body was taken from the heart and buried under a tree. Today there is a monument. His body was embalmed by his faithful companions Susi and Chuma, a liberated from Livingstone slaves, worn under great dangers and hardships to the east coast and embarked from there to Britain, where they on 18 April 1874 in Westminster Abbey in London was buried.

The inscription on his grave stone:

" Brought by faithful hands overland and sea, here rests David Livingstone, missionary, traveler, philanthropist, born March 19, 1813 at Blantyre, Lanarkshire, died May 1, 1873, at Chitambo 's village, Ulala. Other sheep I have ... Which are not of this fold; So them I must bring ( John 10:16 LUT). "

" Brought by faithful hands over land and sea rests here David Livingstone, missionary, traveler, philanthropist, was born on March 19, 1813 in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, died on 1 May 1873 in Chitambo, Ulala. And ... I have other sheep that are not of this fold; also I must bring ( John 10:16 LUT). "

The also rescued diaries and maps from travels in his last eight years of life were by H. Waller under the title: The Last edited Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa from 1865 to his death in 1874 in London, in German in 1875 in Hamburg.

Livingstone was since January 2, 1845 Mary Moffat, daughter of the missionary Robert Moffat, married. She accompanied her husband in the Zambezi expedition and is also buried there.

Eponym

The town of Livingstone on the north bank of the Zambezi River in Zambia today, the place Livingstonia in the north of Malawi as well as the Livingstone Falls on the Congo are named after him, as it was the Rhodes - Livingstone Institute in Lusaka (Zambia ). The music group ABBA honored him with the song " What about Livingstone? "

Remembrance

April 30 in the Protestant calendar name.

Works

• David Livingstone: missionary journeys and researches in South Africa. German edition in two volumes, Leipzig, Verlag Hermann Costenoble 1858 The Excerpt The discovery of the Victoria Falls of the Zambezi River is a short biography published in:. From Greenland to Lambarene. Travelogues of Christian missionaries from three centuries. Edited by John Paul. Evangelical publishing house Berlin 1952 ( page 74-82 ) = cross - Verlag, Stuttgart, 1958 ( page 70-78 ).
• David Livingstone: " The development of the Dark Continent ." Travel diaries 1866-1873 until his death. travel diary history, SDS Verlag, Hamburg / Norderstedt 2006, ISBN 978-3-935959-00-1