What D Livingston discovered in Africa. David Livingstone - tireless Englishman, African traveler

Livingston, David - English traveler, African explorer, missionary. Scottish by birth. In 1836-38. studied medicine at Anderson College, Glasgow. In 1838 he was a candidate of the London Missionary Society, which in 1840, after receiving his diploma as a doctor, sent him to Africa.

Having landed in Algoa Bay in 1840, Livingstone headed to the country of the Bechuanas, then settled in the upper reaches of the Limpopo River, where he conducted geographical and natural history research. In 1849 he crossed the Kalahari Desert and discovered the lake. Ngami. In 1851 he reached the city of Linyanti and explored the upper reaches of the river. Zambezi. In 1853, using the help of local tribal leaders, he climbed up the river. Zambezi and in 1854 reached Luanda (on Atlantic coast). Livingston found out the hydrography of the area and determined the watershed between the Congo and Zambezi rivers. From here he sent reports to the English Geographical Society, which awarded Livingstone a gold medal for this journey. Returning to Linyanti at the end of 1855, Livingstone descended the Zambezi to the mouth and discovered Victoria Falls. In 1856 he returned to England.

In 1858 he went on his second trip with the aim of a more detailed examination of the river. Zambezi. Having opened the lake. Shirva and lake Nyasa (1859), D. Livingston returned to the mouth of the river in 1862. Zambezi, and in 1864 to England.

In 1866 he again went to Africa to study the watershed of Lake. Nyasa and lake Tanganyika and identifying a possible connection between the lake. Tanganyika and r. Nile. From 1866 until the end of 1871, D. Livingston did not make himself known to Europe. He walked around the lake from the south. Nyasa, reached the lake. Mveru and R. Lualaba (1867), discovered the lake. Bangweolo (1868), explored the lake. Tanganyika, its northern shores. Here D. Livingston met the English traveler G. M. Stanley, who was sent to search for him.

D. Livingston died on the shore of the lake. Bangweolo. his body was carried in the arms of his companions to Zanzibar and then to England. Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abbey. Livingston was the first explorer South Africa and one of the first explorers of Central Africa. Over 30 years of work, D. Livingston examined the nature of vast spaces in Africa - from Cape Town almost to the equator and from the Atlantic to Indian Ocean, paying great attention to the life and customs of the local residents. Livingston's personal courage, his humanity, knowledge of local dialects, and medical activities created for him high authority among local African tribes and contributed to the success of his work as a traveler-explorer.

The following are named after Livingston: Livingston Falls on the river. Congo and mountains in East Africa.

The name of the English explorer David Livingston will forever remain in history as an example of selfless feat in the name of science and service to humanity. Having gone to South Africa as a missionary to convert the natives to Christianity, he gradually retired from this work and became an explorer.

To understand and appreciate the significance of what Livingstone discovered during his many years of stay in South Africa, we must remember what the cultural world knew about this part of the African continent by the forties of the last century.

TO early XIX V. Europeans knew only a narrow coastline along the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The interior of the continent remained a solid blank spot on the maps. The Portuguese, who then established themselves on the eastern and western shores, traded with blacks, bought slaves from the leaders of black tribes and sometimes penetrated far into the interior of the mainland, but kept these routes secret and therefore did not give anything new to science. Dutch colonists (Boers) settled in the very south of Africa. Europeans began to become interested in the interior regions of the continent, seeking to expand markets for their goods, only at the end of the 18th century, when the industrial revolution took place in England. In England itself, interest in the study of South Africa has especially increased. In 1788, the “Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of Africa” was founded in London; in 1795 the British captured South Africa from the Dutch, forcing them to retreat north, and in 1834 the Cape Society was opened to explore Central Africa. Merchants were sent to Africa, followed by missionaries, thus preparing the consolidation of the territory in the form of a colony.

By the time Livingston arrived in interior areas South Africa had little reliable information about them. Four scientific problems related to the main rivers of Africa - the Nile, Niger, Congo and Zambezi - remained unresolved. One of these problems - the study of the sources and course of the Zambezi - was clarified by Livingstone's travels. He was also the first to cross South Africa from Atlantic Ocean to the Indian, passed the Kalahari from south to north, established the main features of the morphology of this part of the continent and was the first to give an explanatory description of nature and population. He, as English geographers say, opened South Africa to the cultural world.

David Livingston is of Scottish origin. He was born on March 19, 1813 in a village near the small industrial town of Blentyra on the river. Clyde in Scotland. Livingston's poor family led modest life. His father was a small tea merchant, and the income from trade was barely enough to support the family. Therefore, as a ten-year-old child, Livingston had to leave school and enter a nearby cotton factory. There, from six o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock in the evening, he tied threads that were torn on machines.
Livingston's thirst for knowledge was so great that, after fourteen hours of tedious and intense work, he continued to study at evening school. He managed to find time to read serious books even at the factory, in fits and starts while working, placing the book on the spinning machine. He spent part of his earnings on buying books. Livingston thoroughly studied Latin, so that he could freely read the Latin classics. He read everything voraciously, especially travel accounts.

By persistent and systematic work on his education, Livingston prepared himself at the age of 23 to enter college. For two years he attended medical and Greek classes at Anderson College in Glasgow, as well as theological classes. The choice of these activities was explained by the fact that Livingston decided to devote himself to missionary work, which corresponded to his idealistic inner motivations to serve and bring benefit to people deprived of the benefits of culture in this way.

In September 1838 he was accepted as a candidate for the London Missionary Society. In November 1840, Livingston received his medical degree and wanted to go to China. It was a great disappointment to him when the Society, against his wishes, decided to send him to Africa.

In autumn. 1840 he met in London with the missionary Moffett, who came from South Africa. The latter's stories about black tribes at an extremely low level of culture influenced Livingston, and he decided to agree to the missionary society's proposal to go to Africa.

Contemporaries described Livingston as a young man with a somewhat rough appearance and a clean and clear look. With these external features He was in harmony with his unusually open, sincere character and good nature. These qualities later helped Livingston a lot during his travels and life among the Bushmen and blacks.

On October 8, 1840, Livingston sailed from the coast of England. He landed at Algoa Bay and in March 1841 headed to Kuruman, a mission station in the Bechuana country established 20 years earlier by Robert Moffett. Livingston arrived there on July 31, 1841. Before going on missionary work, he studied the Bechuana language and became well acquainted with the life of the Kaffirs. He walked around villages, set up schools, treated the sick, and at the same time was engaged in geographical and natural history research and observations. During two years of such a life, he acquired great influence over the Kaffirs. The latter loved and respected him for his meekness, kindness and help in their affairs and needs. They saw him as their friend and called him “the big doctor.”

For two years, Livingston traveled in search of a climate-suitable location for his station. The Mabotse Valley, located near one of the sources of the river, was chosen as such a place. Limpopo, 200 miles northeast of Kuruman.

Soon after he settled in Mabotse, he was attacked by a lion one day, severely wounded and broken. left hand. There were no doctors nearby, the arm did not heal well, and this was a constant source of all sorts of difficulties for him for the rest of his life. Damage to the arm bone later served, after his death, as a means of identifying his remains.

Livingstone built himself a house in Mabotse with his own hands. In 1844 he married Mary Moffett, daughter of Robert Moffett of Kuruman. His wife took part in all his affairs, traveled with him and helped in collecting collections; shared with him all the hardships and difficulties of life. Livingstone worked in Mabotse until 1846, and then moved to Choiuan, which lies north of Mabotse. It was the chief station of the Bakwain, or Bakwen, tribe, ruled by Chief Sechele. The following year, 1847, Livingstone moved to Kolobeng, located west of Chonuane.

Livingston's authority and respect for him were so great that the entire tribe followed him. From here Livingston, accompanied by two English hunters - William Oswell and Mongow Murray - and several natives, made his first big journey to the lake. Ngami, whom none of the whites had seen before. He was the first to cross the Kalahari Desert and reached the lake on August 1, 1848. For this discovery and journey, Livingston received from the London Geographical Society reward of 25 guineas.

Livingston decided to move to the lake. Ngami in April of the following year made an attempt, this time accompanied by his wife and children, to get to Sebituan, the leader of a black tribe who lived 200 miles beyond the lake. Ngami, but he only made it to the lake because his children were sick with fever. In 1851, Livingston again went, accompanied by his family and Oswell, in search of a suitable residence; he intended to settle among the Makololo tribe. On this journey he managed to reach the river. Chobe (Quintso), a southern tributary of the Zambezi, and then the Zambezi itself near the city of Sesheke. The long and tedious journey through the Kalahari showed Livingston the risks he was exposing his family to, and he decided to send his wife and children to England. Livingstone headed south to Cape Town, where the travelers arrived in April 1852. This ended his first period of activity in Africa.

Having sent his family home, Livingston left Cape Town in June 1852 and headed north again, deciding to devote himself entirely to the exploration of South Africa. On May 23, 1853, he reached Linyanti, the capital of the Makololo tribe, which lay on the banks of the river. Chobe. He was warmly received by Chief Sekeletu and all the Makololo. His first task was to find an elevated area favorable to health in which to establish a permanent station. For this purpose, Livingston headed up the Zambezi Valley, but did not find a single place free from fever and tsetse flies. Then he decided to explore the path from that point of the Zambezi, where it diverged to the west and to the east. This undertaking was difficult and risky, since travel conditions were unknown. To accompany Livingstone, the Makololo leader Sekeletu selected 27 people from the tribes under his control; In addition to helping Livingstone, Sekeletu intended to use this expedition to open a trade route between his country and the ocean coast.

On November 13, 1853, the expedition set off from Linyanti to the west upstream of the Laibe and on February 20, 1854 reached Lake. Dilolo, in April she crossed the river. Kvango and on May 11 reached the city of San Paolo de Luanda on the Atlantic coast. During the journey, Livingston was dangerously ill and nearly died from debilitating bouts of fever, half-starvation and dysentery.

From Luanda, Livingston sent Thomas Maclear to Cape Town his astronomical calculations to determine the latitude and longitude of points and a report on his journey to the Royal Geographical Society, which awarded him its highest award for important scientific discoveries - a gold medal.

During his trip to the west, Livingston, near the Portuguese possessions, first saw slave fishing, how captured blacks were taken away to be sold into slavery. He saw with his own eyes pictures of what he had only heard about before. These shameful pictures made a strong impression on Livingston, and he decided to fight against slavery by all means. It seemed unnatural to him that Europeans, instead of taking advantage of the rich natural resources Africa, consider this continent only as a field for hunting for slaves. He decided to devote his entire life, along with research, to the fight against the slave trade.

In September 1854, Livingston, having somewhat recovered from his illness, left Sao Paolo de Luanda and headed back, but remained in Portuguese possessions for a long time. The expedition deviated somewhat to the north from its previous route and in June 1855 again arrived at the lake. Dilolo. Here Livingston began a thorough study of the country, studying the hydrography of this area.

He was the first to figure out the river network of this part of the continent, establishing the watershed between rivers flowing north (to the Congo system) and rivers belonging to the Zambezi system.
The conclusions that Livingston reached were largely confirmed by later research. Return trip from the lake. Dilolo followed the same route, and in September the expedition returned to Linyanti.

Livingston decided to further head east, following the flow of the river. Zambezi to its mouth. On November 8, 1855, he left Linyanti, accompanied by a large group of black companions. After two weeks of travel, Livingston opened on the river. The Zambezi is a famous waterfall, called “Noisy Smoke” by the natives. Livingston named it Victoria Falls in honor of the English queen.

During this trip, Livingston, based on his observations and determination of altitudes, came to the correct conclusion about the general character of the relief of South Africa as a country that has the appearance of a flat dish with raised edges ending towards the oceans.

At the beginning of March 1856, Livingston and his companions reached the Portuguese settlement of Tete, in the lower reaches of the Zambezi, in an extremely exhausted state. Here he left his people and continued his journey to Kiliman, where he arrived on May 26, thus completing in 2.5 years the most remarkable and fruitful journey ever made. His geographical observations and natural-historical studies provided enormous scientific material, which was also distinguished by amazing accuracy, despite the extremely difficult living conditions in the wilds of inner Africa and Livingston’s painful condition. Thanks to his observations and accurate descriptions, the map of central South Africa received a new look and content. When Livingston began his journey, the map of that time in this part was a blank spot; nothing was known about the course of the Zambezi, with the exception of the lower reaches; Livingston struck first largest river to the map.

Having completed this second period of research, Livingston decided to go to England both in order to familiarize European society with the results obtained, and in order to restore his damaged health. He arrived in London on December 9, 1856, after 16 years in Africa. Everywhere he was greeted as a hero, as a famous traveler. He described and published his life and travels “with straightforward simplicity,” as they said about him in England, without caring about the literary nature of the presentation, without thinking that he had done anything extraordinary (“Travels and Research of a Missionary in South Africa ", London, 1857). The book was an extraordinary success, and a new edition was soon required. Livingston decided to use part of the fee received for the book on a new journey.

Livingston was talked about everywhere, he became known in all circles of society, he was constantly invited to give reports on his travels. He used this to conduct propaganda against the slave trade, and in his speeches he promoted the idea of ​​equality of blacks and Europeans. He brought numerous examples good nature, mental abilities blacks and their responsiveness to everything good that is done to them.

His speeches about the equality of whites and blacks were met sympathetically, but more platonically. The British government decided to use Livingston's authority for colonialist purposes and offered him the post of consul on the East African coast.

Livingston could have rested on his laurels if he had felt inclined to a calm, serene and prosperous existence, benefiting from the income from his books. But Livingston was not like that. He was drawn back to Africa. He resigned from the London Missionary Society, with which he had little connection due to the nature of his work, and began to prepare for a new expedition.

As "Her Majesty's Consul at Kiliman for east coast and independent regions of inner Africa" ​​and the head of the expedition to explore East and Central Africa, having received a subsidy from the government, Livingston with his wife and youngest son set off for Africa again on March 10, 1858. On the expedition, in addition to his wife and son, he took participation dr. John Kirk and Livingston's brother Charles. The steamer Pearl arrived at the mouth of the Zambezi on May 14th. Livingston set himself the task of examining the river in more detail. Zambezi; For this purpose, he took a steam boat with him from England. On September 8, the expedition members were in Tete. Here Livingstone was joyfully greeted by a group of Makololo blacks who accompanied him on his journey across Africa and patiently waited for four years for Livingstone to return from Europe, who promised to send them home. The rest of the year was devoted to exploring the river above Tete and especially the Kebras rapids. The expedition spent most of the next year exploring the river. Shire, flowing from the left side into the Zambezi, and lake. Nyasa. Lakes Nyasa and Shirva were discovered and first explored by Livingstone.

Livingston was busy fulfilling his promise to build houses for those Makololo blacks who wanted to stay with him. He explored the river on the new steamship "Pioneer". Rovuma for 30 miles. The Livingstoys and several missionaries went up the river. Shire, which he visited three years ago. The Pioneer was too big for a river like the Shire and often ran aground. At Chibasa, Livingston and his companions saw a picture of the devastation of the country as a result of the activities of slave traders. Several groups of slaves who were forced to sell were freed and set free by Livingston and his companions. Livingston helped the bishop who arrived from England and the missionaries accompanying him to set up a mission station, and he himself headed to the lake. Nyasa. He soon received news that the bishop did not get along with the natives and was forced to leave the station. On the way back, the bishop and his companions died of fever. Livingston was aware that the news of the bishop's death and the failure to organize the station would be received with displeasure in England and would have an adverse effect on the further course of his research.

When examining the lake. Nyasa and while sailing along the rivers, Livingston observed terrible scenes of slave hunting. Slave traders attacked black villages, killed men, and took women and children into slavery. The corpses of the dead floated along the river. “Wherever we went,” Livingston wrote, “we saw human skeletons in all directions.” It was clear to him that the Portuguese themselves, on whose land these crimes were committed, encouraged the slave traders.

In January 1862 he returned to the mission house at the mouth of the river. Zambezi to his wife. At this time, parts of the new river steamer Lady Nyasa, which Livingston ordered at his own expense, arrived from the sea.

Livingston's fears came true. The English government was unhappy that the organization of the mission station was unsuccessful; Under the pretext that the implementation of the expedition's plans was proceeding too slowly, the government reported that it could not financially support further work.
The failure to establish a missionary station, the refusal to support his research and the death of his wife - all these blows fell one after another on Livingston, but they did not break his energy. He was left almost without funds and decided to sell his old small steamer. To do this, he went to India, to the city of Bombay. There he sold the ship very unsuccessfully, but the money that he earned and invested in the bank was lost, since the bank closed.

Then Livingston decided to go to England. At the end of April 1864 he sailed from Zanzibar and arrived in London in July. He was saddened to realize that the results of this expedition were not as significant as the previous ones. But still, what was revealed to them this time was of great importance.

In London he was greeted with the same honor, but without the same enthusiasm as before. During this visit, he wrote a new book, “The Story of a Travel along the Zambezi and Its Tributaries,” published in 1865.

The British government decided to once again assist him. Livingston was warmly received by his loyal friends. The Chairman of the Geographical Society, Murchison, invited him to go to Africa again, and although Livingston had a strong desire to spend the rest of his days in his homeland in calm conditions, the prospect of a new journey forced him to abandon the comforts of life. He began to prepare to leave again.

This time the expedition set itself two tasks: the first was to determine the watershed between Nyassa and Tanganyika and clarify the issue of the supposed connection of Tanganyika with the Nile; the second goal of the expedition was to combat the slave trade through the development of education and propaganda. Livingston did not realize that the English government was interested in the expedition for completely different - colonial - purposes.

Having received small subsidies from the government and the Geographical Society, as well as donations from private individuals, Livingstone left England as consul for Central Africa without salary at the end of August 1865.

He arrived in Africa at the end of January 1866, landed at the mouth of the Rovuma and on April 4 headed deep into the mainland, accompanied by 29 black servants and sepoys; In addition to camels, Livingston took oxen, mules and donkeys. But this impressive expedition soon “melted away” - the servants fled, and only 4 or 5 boys remained with Livingston. Despite these failures, the disappearance of four goats, whose milk fed the sick Livingston, as well as the theft of a box with all the medicines, he still continued on his way. He walked around the lake from the south. Nyasa, in December 1866 crossed the river. Loangwu, intending to reach the southern shores of Tanganyika. Here, to his great indignation, Livingston found himself in the company of Arab slave traders, with whom he had to spend some time. Livingston suffered greatly all the time from fever, which became a “constant companion” for him, and from other illnesses. His iron health was shaken; sometimes he could not walk on his own, and the blacks had to carry him on a stretcher. Still, he managed to reach the lake. Meru and R. Lualaba. Livingston said that this river was top part r. Nile, whereas in reality it flows into the river system. Congo. On July 18, he discovered a large lake. Bangweolo. Continuing his journey along the western shores of Tanganyika, he crossed the lake and on March 14, 1869, arrived in the village of Ujiji, where he settled. Livingston needed rest and treatment; emaciated, exhausted, sick, he looked, in his own words, like a bag of bones. Ujiji was a center for the slave and ivory trade; Arabs lived here, engaged in catching blacks or buying them for next to nothing from the black leaders. It was hard for Livingston to watch this catching and selling of people. Once he was in the village of Nyangwe and saw how, in the market, where many blacks from surrounding villages had gathered, a party of Arab slave traders suddenly opened fire on women; hundreds of them were killed or drowned in the river while trying to escape. Livingston was stunned by this wild scene; it seemed to him that “he was in hell.” His first move was to shoot the killers with a pistol, to punish them for senseless cruelty, but he was well aware of his helplessness. Having described in bright colors This picture, Livingston sent a message to England, where it caused great indignation; A demand was sent to the Zanzibar Sultan to abolish the slave trade, but that was all.

Failures continued to haunt Livingston. He instructed an Arab to deliver the supplies he needed to Ujiji, but the Arab, having purchased them and believing that Livingston was no longer alive, sold most of the supplies, and Livingston could only get from him small quantity sugar, tea, coffee and cotton fabrics.

Livingston was away from his homeland for seven years; lonely, sick, he experienced incredible hardships. He had no news from England; I haven’t heard my native speech all these years. His health was undermined, and he was forced to lie in bed.

On September 24, 1871, his servant came running with the news that an Englishman was heading towards them with a caravan. It was the American Henry Morton Stanley, an employee of the New York Herald newspaper, sent by the publisher of this newspaper to search for Livingston. The meeting with Stanley lifted Livingston's spirits; he received the help he desperately needed. Stanley's caravan delivered bales with various goods, dishes, tents, provisions, etc. Livingston wrote in his diary: “This traveler will not find himself in the same situation as I.”
As soon as Livingston recovered a little, he and Stanley set off to explore the northern part of the lake. Tanganyika; they managed to find out the course of several rivers flowing into the lake. Both of them headed east at the end of the year to Unyamwezi, where Stanley supplied Livingstone with a large supply of food and equipment. Stanley, having decided to return to England, convinced Livingston to go with him, he argued that Livingston's health required more attention. But the latter resolutely rejected this proposal, saying that he had not yet completed the tasks he had set for himself. On March 14, 1872, Stanley left Livingston and headed to the ocean. He prudently took with him the traveler's diary and all the papers to transfer them to England.

Livingston was left alone again. He lived in Unyamwezi for a total of 5 months. Stanley did not forget about Livingston. He sent a detachment consisting of 75 strong, healthy and reliable people selected by Stanley himself.

On August 15, Livingston went with them to the lake. Bangweolo, walking along the east coast of Tanganyika. During this trip he became seriously ill with dysentery. In January 1873, the expedition found itself in an area of ​​huge swampy thickets on the shore of lake. Bangweolo. Livingston set himself the task of going around the lake and reaching the western shore to make sure whether the lake had a drainage. But he got worse and worse; in April he had to be put on a stretcher again and carried. On April 29, he was brought to the village of Chitambo, on the eastern shore of the lake. The last entry in Livingston’s diary was on April 27: “I’m completely tired... I just need to get better... send to buy milk goats... We are on the banks of Molilamo.” On April 30, he wound his watch with difficulty, and early on the morning of May 1, his servants discovered that “ big boss", as he was called, was kneeling by his bed, dead.

The news of Livingston's death terribly excited the entire detachment, many cried. His faithful servants, Susi and Chuma, decided to take the body of the deceased to Zanzibar to hand it over to the English authorities. This undertaking might seem impossible: how is it possible to transport a corpse from the interior of Africa without roads to the ocean, more than 1200 km away? The servants embalmed the corpse; the heart was buried in Ilala under a large tree on which an inscription was made, and the body was placed in a coffin carved out of wood; the funeral procession set off towards Zanzibar; this journey took about nine months. From Zanzibar, Livingstone's body was sent by steamer to Aden, and from there to England. Susie and Chuma saved and delivered all the deceased's papers, tools and equipment. In England, doubt arose about the authenticity of Livingston's corpse, but examination of it and traces of a fused humerus bone confirmed that these were indeed the remains of a traveler.

On April 18, 1874, Livingstone's remains were buried with great honors in Westminster Abbey. Above his grave there is a black marble plaque with the inscription:
Carried by faithful hands across land and sea, here lies David Livingston, missionary, traveler and friend of mankind.

The diaries and notes left by Livingstone were published in 1874 under the title: “The Last Diaries of David Livingstone in Central Africa.”
The time and place of his death were immortalized by a monument erected in 1902 on the site of the tree on which this event was recorded by his native admirers.
Livingston's discoveries are of paramount importance. He was a pioneer in the exploration of South Africa and one of the first to explore Central Africa. His discoveries laid the foundation for further travels. No other explorer of Africa contributed more to geography than Livingstone during his 30 years of work. With his travel routes, he covered one third of the continent, from Cape Town almost to the equator and from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. He made his travels mostly on foot, leisurely, carefully observing and recording everything he encountered along the way. His geographical and natural-historical observations are highly accurate.
A pioneer traveler like Livingston had to do everything; he must be familiar with various sciences, be able to determine geographical coordinates areas, collect and identify plants and fauna, identify rocks, conduct geological and geographical observations, etc. In addition, Livingston observed the life and customs of the local population, which was one of his main tasks. He did not have the special geographical training that the largest explorers possessed. Central Asia– his contemporaries: Przhevalsky, Potanin, Pevtsov. Naturally, both his observations and his geographical generalizations were inferior in their systematicity and depth to the works of the named travelers. However, among the pioneers of African exploration, Livingstone undoubtedly holds the most honorable place.
One of Livingstone's merits is that he was the first to give a diagram of the geological structure of South Africa that corresponded to the state of geology of that time; his explanations of the geological phenomena he observed were largely confirmed later. His geographical observations are also invaluable. He was the first to note the main morphological features of this part of Africa - the uplift of the marginal regions, the existence of a vast central Kalahari basin and a watershed upland between the Zambezi and Congo basins. He traced the entire course of the river. Zambezi from its headwaters to its mouth; discovered lakes Ngami, Shirva, Nyasa, Mvero and Bangweolo. He was the first to cross the Kalahari from south to north. They determined the position of more than a thousand points. As a result of his discoveries, the map of Southern and part of Central Africa was significantly replenished with new data. The “white spot” on the map has been greatly reduced.

He lived the same life with the Negro tribes, ate the same food with them, lived in their homes, shared with them all their joys and sorrows. He was their true friend, and they looked at him as a special being, as the highest authority. He repeatedly had to be the judge in their disputes and feuds. The book tells about a case of theft from one “stranger” who came to Seneca. The blacks discovered the thief, who had already managed to sell the stolen goods. His fellow tribesmen were outraged by the theft, which could put a stain on their tribe, and were preparing to throw the criminal into the river, which was tantamount to the death penalty, but they realized that this could not compensate the victim for the loss. They turned to Livingston, and he passed a verdict that satisfied everyone; the criminal had to work the land until he paid off the value of the stolen items. This method of punishment was then introduced into practice.

“I made many discoveries,” Livingston wrote, “but the most important of these discoveries was that I discovered good qualities among those people who were considered by civilized people to be tribes at a low level of culture.”

Livingston was a humane man, noble in his convictions. His deep belief that all people, regardless of the color of their skin, are equal, guided all his actions. Throughout his thirty years of life in Africa, he fought alone against the slave trade, despite the fact that the true, social roots of slavery remained hidden to him, and it was not his fault that this shameful phenomenon for humanity did not stop as a result of the means he used - persuasion and agitation . The consequences of the sermon led during his lifetime to a formal order from the English government to the Sultan of Zanzibar to stop the slave trade.

Livingston, as an Englishman, probably considered himself superior to other European colonialists, but, without a doubt, his negative comments about the Boers were based on the fact that they brutally treated blacks and took them into slavery, “The Boers ... decided,” wrote Livingston, to create their own republic in which they could “treat blacks properly” without interference. There is no need to add that “proper treatment” has always included an essential element of slavery, namely forced and free labor.

“For a person in any civilized country,” he further wrote, “it is difficult to imagine that people possessing universal human qualities - and the Boers are not at all devoid of best properties our nature - showering affection on their children and wives, everyone, as one, set off to shoot men and women in cold blood.” Livingston was especially outraged by the fact that the Boers captured children and took them away from their parents so that they would forget their parents as they grew up. “We force them (the blacks) to work for us,” the Boers cynically told Livingstone, “on the grounds that we allow them to live in our country.”

Livingston mistakenly believed that slavery could be combated by developing trade in European goods in Africa. “We (my companion) came to the idea that if we supplied the slave market with products from European factories through legal trade, then the trade in slaves would become impossible.

It seemed quite feasible to supply goods in exchange for ivory and other products of the country and thus stop the slave trade at the very beginning. This could be achieved by creating a large road from the coast to the center of the country.”

Livingston set himself at first educational, then mainly research tasks; he was far from political plans to seize African territories, but objectively he contributed to the penetration of English imperialism into Africa and the colonialist policy of the English government. We saw that Livingston was appointed consul of the land East Africa. The countries through which Livingston, and other explorers followed him, soon became colonial possessions of Great Britain. The British said that Livingston's activities dealt a mortal blow to the slave trade, but if the open trade in slaves was prohibited, it was replaced by more modern forms of brutal exploitation of the labor of the native population by English administrators and “enlightened” colonialists.

Livingston had an open character. He was, according to those who knew him, as simple-minded as a child, easy to deal with people, and unusually attractive for his directness, sincerity and, at the same time, rare modesty. He was not a person of a cheerful character, but at the same time he loved humor, appreciated a joke and laughed contagiously. For all his gentle character, he was persistent in achieving his intended goal; His nature combined gentleness and good nature towards others, and severity towards himself.

Livingston's spiritual simplicity and modesty were reflected in his descriptions of his travels in the best possible way. They are written artlessly, in simple language; The author nowhere emphasizes the significance of his discoveries, he does not put himself forward anywhere; calmly describes all the stages and events experienced by him and his companions. Even in the most dramatic moments, he does not change tone. Artlessness and simplicity are the hallmarks of his style. His Journey is an epic poem reminiscent of Homer's Odyssey, a kind of African Odyssey.

Isn’t this where the unfading charm of his stories lies? When reading, you forget that three quarters of a century have passed since their birth, that a lot, a lot, has changed since that time both in nature and in the way of life of peoples, the methods of movement in Africa have changed, those numerous herds of wild animals have disappeared that Livingston saw are all in the past.

References

1. Barkov A. S. David Livingston (introductory article in the book: D. Livingston Travel and research in South Africa from 1840 to 1855 - M.: Geographgiz, 1955 - 392 pp.)
2. Biographical dictionary of figures in natural science and technology. T. 1. – Moscow: State. scientific publishing house "Big Soviet Encyclopedia", 1958. - 548 p.

David Livingston was born into a poor family on March 19, 1813 in Scotland, in the factory village of Blantyre. And at the age of 10 he began working at a local cotton factory. He serviced the weaving machine and tied scraps of thread from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Then he studied for another two hours at the evening school at the factory, and when he came home, he studied on his own until midnight, thanks to which he learned Latin and Greek. It is clear that the guy striving for knowledge was not tempted by the prospect of spending his whole life at the spinning machine. He dreamed of escaping from the factory, even to the ends of the world.

From the factory to the savannah

Before Livingstone's discoveries, the entire southern half of Africa seemed a lifeless desert. On the maps of that time only settlements on the coast, in the center of the continent there actually gaped a large white spot with dots marked on it indicating the supposed location of the rivers. It was as if she was waiting for her Livingston, who was preparing for his ascetic activity.

After ten years of exhausting work, Livingston decided to go as a missionary to China. But he wanted not only to carry the word of God, but also to really help people, and therefore sought to receive medical education. And he managed to learn on his meager means. Only in 1840 was David granted missionary status, but he went not to China, but to Africa. After landing in Cape Town, he went to the mission station at Kuruman, located 800 kilometers away.

Livingston felt happy and inspired. An entry appears in his travel diary: “Travel is downright pleasure. We enjoy complete freedom: we pitch tents and make a fire wherever our heart desires; we walk or ride as we please, and hunt any game we please.” However, later the situation no longer seemed so rosy to him. The white settlers, the Boers, who inhabited those places, reacted with hostility to the visiting British, and the native leaders were completely hostile. A Christian missionary encroached on their privilege - polygamy.

But Livingston managed to win their favor. From the mission, he continually traveled to the lands of the Bechuana tribes, where he not only preached, but also provided medical care. He wrote: “Although the Bechuanas, one might say, are children of nature, they get sick quite often... In the villages encountered along the way, my van was besieged by the blind, the lame and the paralyzed.” The study of medicine greatly benefited Livingston. Soon word spread that he was a real wizard, capable of resurrecting even the dead. However, his good deeds did not resonate with other missionaries at the station. They were more concerned with increasing their income. They acquired, for example, springs and adapted them to irrigate adjacent areas, and then leased these lands to local residents.

And then Livingstone decided to establish his own station, which he did in 1843 in Kolobeng, in the Bechuana country. And from there he began to carry out expeditions to the north, to lands unknown to Europeans.

Miracles from a missionary

More than once during these expeditions, David’s life hung by a thread. One day he decided to help a village that was being terrorized by a pack of lions. The natives believed that a neighboring village had conjured this misfortune upon them, and therefore did not try to drive away the lions that attacked their cattle even during the day. Livingston decided to help them and, taking several people with him, went hunting. He managed to shoot one lion, but the wounded one rushed at David and crushed him under him. Fortunately for Livingston, the predator turned its attention to the other hunters, he rushed at them and seriously injured two people, and then collapsed to the ground lifeless. The two bullets that Livingston fired into him turned out to be fatal. But for the savages it was a real miracle! To destroy the trace of supposed witchcraft, and the Africans decided that the lion died due to the curse of the wounded white, the killed lion was burned on a large bonfire. The lion left eleven teeth marks on the missionary's shoulder and broke his arm, which remained crippled for life. Livingston was forced to learn to shoot from his left shoulder and aim with his left eye.

Livingston married in 1845. His wife Mary gave him four children. His wife and children became faithful companions in Livingston’s travels across the African continent, although they were more than once subjected to hardships and hardships. One day they found themselves in a Bakwena village during a period of drought. The natives fed the starving children of Livingston food from locusts with honey or from caterpillars, as well as fried frogs. It was a treat. David said that his children ate such food greedily. What was worse was that the missionary's powerlessness in the face of drought undermined his authority in the eyes of the natives. And faith. “Look,” they said, “our neighbors have heavy rain, but we don’t. They pray with us, but no one prays with them.”

But the activities of the brave missionary finally brought him recognition in his homeland. In 1849, he was the first European to cross the Kalahari Desert and discover Lake Ngami on the southern edge of the Okavango Swamps to the world. For this discovery, Livingstone was awarded a gold medal and a cash prize by the British Royal Society.

The tireless missionary went deeper and deeper. He discovered the Zambezi River, which he considered a major road for connecting Europe with inland Africa. On the Zambezi River, he saw a grandiose waterfall up to 1800 meters wide and up to 120 meters high, which he named after the English Queen Victoria. Finally, leaving his family, he, accompanied by only a few natives, walked through the whole of Africa - first from east to west, and then from west to east over an area of ​​eighteen thousand miles.

The Hero's Last Return

Returning to Britain in 1856, Livingstone became a national hero there. A shower of awards and distinctions poured onto him, as if from a cornucopia. In the wake of his popularity, David published the book Travels and Research of a Missionary in South Africa. It quickly sold 70 thousand copies, occupying the same extraordinary place in the history of publishing as in the history of geographical discoveries. The British government found it useful to use his authority among African tribes and appointed Livingstone consul of the Zambezi region. So, in 1858 he again found himself in Africa. On this continent, he undertook several more expeditions, which turned out to be not particularly successful both for Livingston himself - during one of them his wife died of malaria, and for the British crown, for which they became unprofitable.

Livingston's reputation as a great traveler was undermined. And in order to revive it, he set out to explore another unexplored territory of Africa and find the sources of the Nile. During it he discovered two new large lakes- Bangweulu and Mveru, but most importantly, I faced enormous difficulties. Exhausted, exhausted by tropical fever, and unable to walk, David lay in Ujiji in 1871 and awaited death. But unexpectedly help came: journalist Henry Morton Stanley, specially sent by the American newspaper New York Herald to search for Livingston, reached him. Stanley brought food and medicine. David soon recovered. But having barely recovered, he again rushed in search of the sources of the Nile. He never found them. On the way, Livingston again fell ill with malaria.

On May 1, 1873, he died near Lake Bangweulu, which he discovered. He was found kneeling next to the bed. It was as if the missionary continued to pray even after death. The Africans, who revered him as a god, embalmed his body. His heart was buried in the African city of Chitambo, and his body was taken to the port, from where it was transported to Britain. There he was buried in Westminster Abbey, and a memorial plaque was installed on his grave with the inscription: “Carried by faithful hands across land and sea, here rests DAVID LIVINGSTONE, missionary, traveler and friend of mankind.”

Message quote David Livingstone - tireless Englishman, African traveler

Africa! The dark continent, on the geography of which the Creator took special pains! Here are the greatest deserts, and the highest mountains covered with glaciers, and the famous Rift Valley, which split Africa from the Red Sea to Mozambique, and the craters of volcanoes, unlike their counterparts in other parts of the world, filled to the brim not with the ashes of past terrifying deeds, but with violent jungle, and finally the ancient Nile, carrying its waters from the great freshwater Lake Victoria to Mediterranean Sea today as well as in the time of Pharaoh Ramses... Every country in Africa has some kind of miracle of nature!

It is characteristic of the destinies of truly great people that over time their names do not fade. On the contrary, interest in them is growing, and not so much in their affairs, but in their life and personality.

How many people can you name who “made themselves”? Well, Lomonosov, that’s understandable... And what else? Are you at a loss? I want to tell you about famous traveler David Livingstone, tireless explorer of Africa.


The story of his life is very well known - a century and a half is not such a long time for its contours to blur. The canonical embodiment of the Victorian spirit, which is Dr. David, is still easily absorbed in our consciousness, and we do not often think how strange this lanky figure must have seemed to the inhabitants of Kuruman, Mabotse, Kolobeng, Linyanti - his missionary outposts in Africa. He did not become a “European African”: his legendary adherence to the archetypal suit of an impeccable gentleman, even in situations where it could not be called appropriate, is by no means an eccentricity, but a natural personality trait. But still changes were happening latently. A man possessed came from England to Africa good intentions young man. In Africa he became a figure of the era, a symbol and driving force of dialogue - in all its forms. Kind and arrogant, truly useful and, in truth, destructive, everything in which the European was really ahead of his Negro contemporary, and everything that seemed superior - everything was contained in the figure of Livingston.


David Livingstone is a Scottish missionary who devoted his life to the study of Africa. He went down in history as a man who filled in many blank spots on the map of this continent, and as a tireless fighter against the slave trade, who enjoyed great love and respect from the local population.
"I will discover Africa or die."
(Lingvinston)

Livingston David
(March 19, 1813 – May 1, 1873)
Livingston devoted most of his life to Africa, traveling mainly on foot over 50 thousand km. He was the first to decisively speak out in defense of the black population of Africa.
British physician, missionary, eminent African explorer
He explored the lands of Southern and Central Africa, including the Zambezi River basin and Lake Nyasa, discovered Victoria Falls, lakes Shirva and Bangweulu, and the Lualaba River. Together with Henry, Stanley explored Lake Tanganyika. During his travels, Livingston determined the position of more than 1000 points; he was the first to point out the main features of the relief of South Africa, studied the Zambezi River system, and laid the foundation for scientific research large lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika.
The cities of Livingstonia in Malawi and Livingston (Maramba) in Zambia, as well as waterfalls in the lower reaches of the Congo and mountains on the northeastern shore of Lake Nyasa are named after him. Blantyre, largest city Malawi, with a population of more than 600,000 people, was named after Livingstone's hometown.

Life story

David Livingstone was born into a very poor Scottish family and, at the age of ten, experienced much of what befell Oliver Twist and other children in Dickens's books. But even grueling work in a textile factory for 14 hours a day could not prevent David from attending college.

Having received medical and theological education, Livingston entered the service of the London Missionary Society, whose leadership sent him as a doctor and missionary to South Africa. Since 1841, Livingstone lived at a mission in the mountainous region of Kuruman among the Bechuanas. He quickly learned their language related to language family Bantu. This was very useful to him later during his travels, since all Bantu languages ​​are similar to each other, and Livingston could easily do without a translator.
In 1843, nearby, in the Mabotse Valley, Livingston, together with native assistants, built a hut for a mission station. During a hunt for lions, which often devastated the area around the village, Livingstone was attacked by a wounded animal. Due to an improperly healed fracture, Livingston had difficulty shooting and swimming for the rest of his life. It was by the crushed shoulder joint that Livingston’s body was identified and brought to England.


Livingston's traveling companion and assistant in his work was his wife Mary, the daughter of a local missionary and explorer of South Africa, Robert Moffett. The Livingston couple spent 7 years in the country of the Bechuanas. During his travels, David combined his work as a missionary with the study of nature in northern regions Bechuan lands. Listening carefully to the stories of the native inhabitants, Livingston became interested in Lake Ngami. To see it, in 1849 he crossed the Kalahari Desert from south to north and described it as a very flat surface, cut through by dry river beds and not as deserted as was commonly believed. Semi-desert is a more appropriate description for the Kalahari.
In August of the same year, Livingstone explored Lake Ngami.






It turned out that this reservoir is a temporary lake, filled with water during the rainy season big river Okavango. In June 1851, Livingstone traveled northeast from the Okavango Swamp through tsetse fly-infested territory and for the first time reached the Linyanti River, the lower reaches of the Kwando, a right tributary of the Zambezi. In the large village of Sesheke, he managed to establish good relations with the leader of the powerful Makololo tribe and receive help and support from him.

In November 1853, Livingstone began a boat trip along the Zambezi. A flotilla of 33 boats, carrying 160 black Makololo tribesmen, moved up a rapids river through a vast plain - a typical savannah of South Africa. As the rapids were overcome, Livingston sent black sailors and warriors home. By February 1854, when very few people remained, the expedition ascended the river to the upper right tributary of Chefumage. Walking along its valley to the watershed, Livingston saw that behind it all the streams flowed in a northerly direction. These rivers turned out to be part of the Congo system. Turning west, the expedition reached the Atlantic Ocean near Luanda.

Having followed the short Bengo River to its headwaters, in October 1855 Livingston walked to the upper section of the Zambezi and began rafting down the river. After passing Sesheke, he discovered a majestic waterfall 1.8 km wide.
When local natives took him to the waterfall and showed him 546 million liters of water, which every minute crashes into a 100-meter abyss with a roar, David Livingston was so shocked by what he saw that he immediately christened it after Queen Victoria.
In 1857, David Livingstone wrote that in England no one could even imagine the beauty of this spectacle: “No one can imagine the beauty of the spectacle in comparison with anything seen in England. The eyes of a European had never seen such a thing before, but such a beautiful sight must have been admired by angels in their flight!”

“Crawling with fear towards the cliff, I looked down into the huge crack that stretched from bank to bank of the wide Zambezi, and saw how a stream thousands of yards wide plunged down a hundred feet and then suddenly contracted in a space of fifteen to twenty yards... I was witness the most wonderful spectacle in Africa!”





Statue of David Livingstone on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls

This waterfall, named Victoria in honor of the queen, is now known as one of the most powerful in the world. Here the waters of the Zambezi rush down from a ledge 120 m high and flow like a stormy stream into a narrow and deep gorge.








The falls, named Livingston Victoria in honor of the British queen, are a stunning sight: gigantic masses of water fall into a narrow gap in the basalt rocks. Breaking into myriads of spray, they form thick white clouds, illuminated by rainbows and producing an incredible roar.




A continuous veil of refreshing spray, an iridescent rainbow, rain-forest, constantly shrouded in a ghostly haze of fog. Delight and boundless surprise cover anyone who happens to see this miracle. Below the waterfall, the Zambezi flows through a narrow gorge with rocky banks.






view of the Zambezi River
Gradually going down the river through mountainous country with many rapids and waterfalls, on May 20, 1856, Livingston reached the Indian Ocean near the port of Quelimane. Thus the crossing of the African continent was completed.

In 1857, having returned to his homeland, Livingston published the book Travels and Research of a Missionary in South Africa, which short time went out to everyone European languages and made the author famous. Geographical science has been replenished with important information: tropical Central Africa south of the 8th parallel “turned out to be an elevated plateau, slightly lower in the center, and with crevices along the edges along which rivers run down to the sea... The place of the legendary hot zone and burning sands was taken by a well-irrigated area resembling its freshwater lakes North America, and with its hot, humid valleys, jungles, ghats (highlands) and cool high plateaus, India.”








Wild Africa discovered by an English explorer
Over the decade and a half he lived in South Africa, Livingston fell in love with the locals and became friends with them. He treated his guides, porters, and rowers as equals, and was frank and friendly with them. The Africans responded to him in full reciprocity. Livingston hated slavery and believed that the peoples of Africa could achieve liberation and independence. The English authorities took advantage of the high reputation of the traveler among the blacks and offered him the post of consul in Quelimane. Having accepted the offer, Livingston refused missionary activity and began to work closely on research. In addition, he promoted the penetration of English capital into Africa, regarding this as progress.


But the traveler was attracted by new routes. In May 1858, Livingstone arrived in East Africa with his wife, young son and brother Charles. At the beginning of 1859, he explored the lower reaches of the Zambezi River and its northern tributary, the Shire. They discovered several rapids and Murchison Falls.





In the spring, Livingston discovered and described Lake Shirva in the basin of this river. In September, he examined the southern shore of Lake Nyasa and, having made a series of measurements of its depth, obtained values ​​of more than 200 m (modern data brings this value to 706 m). In September 1861, Livingston returned to the lake again and, together with his brother, advanced along the western shore to the north for more than 1,200 km. It was not possible to penetrate further due to the hostility of the aborigines and the approach of the rainy season. Based on the survey results, Livingston compiled the first map of Nyasa, on which the reservoir stretched almost 400 km along the meridian (according to modern data - 580 km).


Cape Maclear on Lake Nyasa, which David Livingstone discovered and named after his friend the astronomer Thomas Maclear.
On this journey, Livingston suffered a heavy loss: on April 27, 1862, his wife died of tropical malaria and faithful companion Mary Moffett-Livingston. The Livingston brothers continued their journey. At the end of 1863, it became clear that the steep shores of Lake Nyasa were not mountains, but only the edges of high plateaus. Next, the brothers continued the discovery and study of the East African fault zone, that is, a giant meridional system of fault basins. In England in 1865, the book “The Story of the Expedition to the Zambezi and its Tributaries and the Discovery of Lakes Shirva and Nyasa in 1858–1864” was published.
Lake Nyasa




When David Livingston, during his next expedition to Africa, discovered Lake Malawi, he asked local fishermen about the name of this impressive body of water. To which they answered him - “Nyasa.” Livingston named this lake that way, not realizing that the word “Nyasa” in the language of the local residents means “lake”. Lake Malawi (as it is called today) or Lake Nyasa (as it continues to be called in Tanzania and Mozambique to this day) plays a very important role in the lives of Africans. Several tens of thousands of tons of fish are caught here every year.


The ninth largest in the world, Lake Malawi is about 600 km long and up to 80 km wide. Maximum depth 700 meters, height above sea level 472 meters, water surface area approximately 31,000 square meters. km. The state borders of three countries pass through the waters of the lake. The main part of the lake and coastline (western and southern) belongs to the state of Malawi, the northeastern part belongs to Tanzania, and a relatively large part of the eastern coastline is under the jurisdiction of Mozambique. The two largest islands, Likoma and Chizumulu, as well as the Taiwan Reef, are located in the waters of Mozambique, but belong to the state of Malawi.


Lake Nyasa, one of the deepest lakes in the world
In 1866, Livingstone, having landed on the eastern coast of the continent opposite the island of Zanzibar, walked south to the mouth of the Ruvuma River, and then, turning west and rising to its upper reaches, reached Nyasa. This time the traveler walked around the lake from the south and west. During 1867 and 1868, he examined in detail the southern and western shores of Tanganyika.


Wanderings around tropical Africa always fraught dangerous infections. Livingston did not escape them either. For many years, suffering from malaria, he became weak and so emaciated that he could not even be called a “walking skeleton,” because he could no longer walk and moved only on a stretcher. But the stubborn Scot continued his research. To the southwest of Tanganyika, he discovered Lake Bangweulu, whose area periodically varies from 4 to 15 thousand square meters. km, and the Lualaba River. Trying to find out whether it belonged to the Nile or Congo system, he could only assume that it might be part of the Congo.
In October 1871, Livingstone stopped for rest and treatment in the village of Ujiji on the east coast of Tanganyika.


At this time, Europe and America were concerned about the lack of any news from him. Journalist Henry Stanley went on a search. He quite by chance found Livingstone in Ujiji, and then together they walked around the northern part of Tanganyika, finally making sure that the Nile did not flow from Tanganyika, as many thought.


Stanley invited Livingston to go with him to Europe, but he limited himself to transferring diaries and other materials with the journalist to London. He wanted to finish his exploration of Lualaba and went to the river again. On the way, Livingston stopped in the village of Chitambo, and on the morning of May 1, 1873, his servants found him dead on the floor of the hut. The Africans, who adored the white defender, embalmed his body and carried his remains on a stretcher to the sea, covering almost 1,500 km. The great Scot was buried in Westminster Abbey. In 1874 his diaries, entitled The Last Voyage of David Livingstone, were published in London.


To a young man pondering his life, deciding who to make his life with, I will say without hesitation - make it with David Livingston!

Votte Herbert

David Livingstone (Life of an African Explorer)

Herbert Wotte

David Livingston

Life of an African Explorer

Abridged translation from German by M. K. Fedorenko

Candidates of Geographical Sciences M. B. Gornung and I. N. Oleinikov

The outstanding Scottish geographer David Livingston spent more than thirty years among Africans, studied their customs and languages, and lived their lives. Having experienced hard work and poverty from childhood, he became a passionate advocate of social justice and humanism, an opponent of the slave trade, racism and cruelty of the colonialists.

Arriving in Africa as a missionary, Livingston, unlike most of his brothers, soon realized that introducing local residents to world civilization must begin with material culture. The search for routes to the peoples of inner Africa led him to major geographical discoveries.

D. Livingston - an outstanding traveler and humanist of the 19th century

FACTORY WORKER BECOME DOCTOR AND MISSIONARY

Stubborn Scot

Across South Africa by ox cart

Adventure with a lion

Christian slave hunters

Chief Sechele converts to Christianity

A MISSIONARY BECOME AN EXPLORER-TRAVELER

Livingstone's first discovery of Lake Ngami

Great Chief Sebituan

Death of Sebituan

FROM CAPE TOWN TO ANGOLA

Boer attack on Kolobeng

Lions, elephants, buffalos, rhinoceroses...

Visiting the Makololo

Through unknown lands to the west coast

End of the earth!

THE FIRST EUROPEAN CROSSES AFRICA

Return of the Makololo

Mozi oa tunya - "thundering steam"

From Victoria Falls to the Indian Ocean

Sixteen years later - back home

CELEBRITY

IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE SLAVE TRADE

Bypassing the rapids

Discovery of Lake Nyasa

Livingston kept his promise "Ma-Robert" is drowning

Livingston frees the slaves

Slave hunters on Lake Nyasa

1862 is an ill-fated year

Deep disappointment and collapse of plans

"Captain" Livingston

PASSED AND NEW PLANS

IN SEARCH OF RIVERS

Bad choice

Bloody trail of slave traders

"...It's like I've just been read a death sentence..."

Discovery of Lakes Mweru and Bangweolo

Nile or Congo?

Bloody massacre at Nyangwe

"Dr. Livingston, I presume?"

Last trip

Susi and Chuma

INTERMENT IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY

Afterword

Notes

________________________________________________________________

David Livingstone - outstanding traveler and humanist of the 19th century

It is characteristic of the destinies of truly great people that over time their names do not fade. On the contrary, interest in them is growing, and not so much in their affairs, but in their life and personality. 1983 marked the 110th anniversary of the death of David Livingstone. In our time, interest in his personality has flared up with renewed vigor, because right now the formation of independent Africa and the reassessment of the history of the continent with which almost all of Livingston’s life is connected are taking place.

Livingston's activities in Africa were meticulously recorded by himself in three books, which constitute the traveler's invaluable literary heritage. In our country, interest in Livingston was always very great and his books were translated into Russian almost immediately after their publication in England, and then reprinted several times*.

* In 1857, Livingstone’s first book, “Travels in South Africa from 1840 to 1856,” was published in London, and already in 1862 its Russian translation appeared in St. Petersburg, re-released in 1868. In 1947 and 1955, this book was published in the USSR in a new translation. Two years after the publication in London of Livingstone's next book, written by him with his brother Charles, “Travels along the Zambezi from 1858 to 1864.” - its translation appeared in Russia in 1867, and in Soviet times it was republished twice in 1948 and 1956. The posthumous book, “The Last Diaries of David Livingstone in Central Africa from 1865 to His Death,” prepared for publication by Horace Waller, was published in London in 1874. In 1876, a short retelling of this book was published in Russia, and in 1968 it was published full translation entitled "The Last Journey to Central Africa".

However, now we practically do not have a simple book designed for the widest circles of readers about Livingston, whose life is an example of courage and perseverance in achieving a noble goal, an example of philanthropy and the fight against racial intolerance and oppression. Apart from Adamovich’s book, published in 1938 in the series “The Life of Remarkable People” and essentially long ago becoming a bibliographic rarity, the Soviet reader has nowhere to learn about Livingston’s life, except for meager encyclopedic articles and information about his biography and personality scattered in various scientific articles and books, or in prefaces to volumes of his diaries.

Herbert Wotte's book about Livingston, published in the German Democratic Republic on the centenary of the traveler's death and republished in Russian by the Mysl publishing house, fills this gap in our generally extensive popular science literature about great travelers. In his assessments of the period of Livingston’s travels, that is, the era of the beginning of the colonial division of Africa, Wotte proceeds from the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism, taking positions on other issues of African history that are common to scientists in socialist countries. The desire to popularize the presentation is characteristic of the entire content of Votte’s book.

Biographical information about Livingston's life before his move to Africa takes up relatively little space in the book, which is understandable. Firstly, the main thing in Livingston’s biography is his life and work in Africa. Secondly, information about his early years is indeed sparse, but Wotte has collected almost everything known about this period of Livingston's life. On a few pages, the author was able to clearly show the beginning of the formation of the strong character of the future brave traveler and explorer.

The rest of the book is based primarily on Livingston’s own materials, presented, as in the books of the traveler himself, in chronological order, but in a unique literary manner, which is typical of successful biographical books. In the final chapters of the book, Wotte uses almost verbatim English newspaper reports from 1874 about the burial of Livingstone's remains in Westminster Abbey in London and includes sections on Livingstone's African companions, Susi and Plague. They are rightly spoken of very warmly as people who accomplished the feat of carrying the ashes of the great traveler from the depths of Africa to the ocean.

Talking in detail about Livingston's life, Wotte quite naturally did not set himself the goal of analyzing the scientific significance of his specific geographical discoveries, in particular in connection with the general picture of the state of geographical exploration of Africa in the 19th century, although he touches on these issues. It seems, however, that it would be useful to do this at least briefly in this preface in order to emphasize the importance of Livingstone in world science as a researcher, and not just a traveler, especially since in the history of African exploration the middle and beginning of the second half of the 19th century century is usually called the "Livingstonian period" of African exploration.

By this time, in northern Africa, only the inner, very sparsely populated areas of the world’s greatest desert, the Sahara, remained a truly “blank spot” on the map. In the west of the continent, the most important geographical problem of the region has already been solved - the flow of the Niger River over its entire vast length has been determined. However, south of the equator, most of Africa remained a "blank spot" on the map of the continent. The sources of the Nile, the configuration of the great lakes of East Africa, the upper course of the Congo River, the hydrographic network of the Zambezi basin and many other problems of the geography of this part of Africa, which then caused heated discussions among European scientists, were a mystery to science.

The “Livingston period” in the history of African exploration, which spanned approximately three decades, is scientifically characterized by the fact that almost all unclear questions, the answers to which served as the basis for compiling modern map Central Africa south of the equator were resolved precisely then. This happened thanks to the travels of Livingston himself or research one way or another related to scientific activities Livingston, with his discoveries or with the geographical guesses he expressed.

During his travels, Livingstone not only “deciphered” the complex pattern of the hydrographic network of the “white spot” in the center and south of Africa, but also for the first time told the world many details about the nature of this territory. Already after his first big journey, which covered the Zambezi basin, he made the most important conclusion for science that inner Africa is not a system of mythical highlands, like for a long time it was supposed to be a huge plateau with raised edges, sloping steeply towards the ocean coast. For the first time, the Zambezi River was mapped, indicating the places where its largest tributaries flow into it. The outlines of Lake Nyasa, about which Europeans had only vague ideas, were established. One of the largest waterfalls in the world was discovered on the Zambezi.

Continuing his exploration of the Zambezi, the missionary paid attention to its northern branch and followed it to the mouth of the river, reaching the coast of the Indian Ocean. On May 20, 1856, the grand transition of the African continent from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean was completed.

Already on December 9, 1856, the queen's loyal subject David Livingston returned to Great Britain. What did this tireless traveler and missionary discover in Africa? He wrote a book about all his adventures in 1857. The royalties from the publishing house allowed him to provide well for his wife and children. David was showered with awards and titles, he was granted an audience with Queen Victoria, gave lectures in Cambridge, and addressed local youth with a call for missionary work and the fight against the slave trade.

Second trip to Africa

From March 1, 1858 to July 23, 1864, David Livingston made a second trip to Africa, on which his wife, brother and middle son went with him.

During the expedition, Livingstone continued his exploration of the Zambezi and its tributaries. On September 16, 1859, he discovered and clarified the coordinates of the Shire and Ruvuma rivers. During the trip, a huge baggage of scientific observations was collected in such areas as botany, zoology, ecology, geology, and ethnography.

The expedition, in addition to the joyful impressions of new discoveries, brought Livingston 2 misfortunes: on April 27, 1862, his wife died of malaria, a little later David received news of the death of his eldest son.

After returning home, the missionary, co-authored with his brother, wrote another book about Africa in the summer of 1864.

Third trip to the Dark Continent

From January 28, 1866 to May 1, 1873, the famous explorer made his third and final trip to the continent. Delving deeper into the steppes of Central Africa, he reached the region of the Great African Lakes, explored Tanganyika, the Lualaba River, and searched for the source of the Nile. Along the way, he made 2 high-profile discoveries at once: on November 8, 1867 - Lake Mveru, and on July 18, 1868 - Lake Bangweulu.

The difficulties of the journey exhausted David Livingston's health, and he suddenly fell ill with tropical fever. This forced him to return to camp in the village of Ujiji. On November 10, 1871, help suddenly came to the exhausted and exhausted researcher in the person of Henry Stan, who was sent to search for a Christian missionary by the New York Harold newspaper. Stan brought medicines and food, thanks to which David Livingston, short biography which is described in the article, began to recover. He soon resumed his research, but, unfortunately, not for long.

On May 1, 1873, the Christian missionary, fighter against the slave trade, famous explorer of South Africa, discoverer of many geographical objects, David Livingston, died. The natives buried his heart in a tin flour box with honors in Chitambo under a large mvula tree. The preserved body was sent home and was buried in Westminster Abbey on April 18, 1874.