What David Livingston discovered in Africa briefly. David Livingstone and his discoveries in South Africa

about medical education. In 1840 he was sent by the London Missionary Society to South Africa, in 1841-52 he lived among the Bechuanas in the Kalahari region, which he explored from the south. to the north. In 1849 he first reached the lake. Ngami and in 1851. Linyanti, lower reaches of the Kwando (right tributary of the Zambezi). From its mouth, Livingston in 1853–54 ascended the river. Zambezi to its upper tributary Shefumage; beyond the lake Dilolo, at 11° S. sh., opened the watershed between the upper reaches of the Zambezi and the river. Kasai (Congo system) and, turning west, reached the Atlantic Ocean near Luanda. In 1855 he returned to the upper reaches of the Zambezi, followed the entire course of the river to the delta, discovered (1855) Victoria Falls and reached the Indian Ocean near the city of Quelimane in May 1856, thus completing the crossing of the mainland.

Returning to Great Britain, Livingston published the book “Travel and Research of a Missionary in South Africa” in 1857; for this journey the Royal Geographical Society awarded him a gold medal. Livingston was appointed English consul in Quelimane and head of the government research expedition, which arrived in the Zambezi Delta in May 1858. In 1859 he discovered the lake. Shirva and visited the lake. Nyasa (discovered by the Portuguese G. Bocarro in 1616); in 1860 he climbed the Zambezi to the river. Linyanti, completed the discovery of the lake in 1861. Nyasa. Livingstone returned to Great Britain in 1864; in 1865, a book written together with his brother and companion Charles, “The Story of a Travel along the Zambezi and Its Tributaries,” was published.

In 1866 he again arrived in East Africa and soon lost contact with Europe. In 1867–71 he explored the southern and western shores of the lake. Tanganyika, discovered a lake to the southwest of it. Bangveulu and the large river flowing to the north. Lualaba (upper Congo, but Livingstone did not know about this). Seriously ill, he turned back and stopped in Ujiji, on the eastern shore of the lake. Tanganyika, where G. Stanley found him in October 1871. Together they explored the northern part of the lake. Tanganyika and became convinced that this lake was not connected to the Nile. In February 1872, Livingston sent his materials from Stanley to Great Britain, and in August 1872 he moved to the river. Lualaba to continue her research.

Died in Chitambo, south of the lake. Bangweulu; Livingstone's remains were brought to Britain and buried in Westminster Abbey. In 1874, his notes 1865–72 were published under the title “The Last Diaries of David Livingstone in Central Africa.”

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 and studied the river system. Zambezi, laid the foundation scientific research large lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. A city in Zambia, mountains in East Africa, waterfalls on the river. Congo (Zaire). Livingston was a staunch humanist, condemned and fought against the slave trade. In Scotland, near Glasgow, there is memorial museum Livingston.

David Livingston(David Livingstone; English David Livingstone; March 19, 1813, Blantyre - May 1, 1873, present-day Zambia) - Scottish missionary, explorer of Africa.

Biography

Youth

David Livingstone was born in the village of Blantyre (English Blantyre, South Lanarkshire) into a poor Scottish family and at the age of 10 began working in a weaving factory. He taught himself Latin and Greek, as well as mathematics. This allowed him to enter the university, and for two years he studied theology and medicine there, while continuing to work in a factory, after which Livingston received his doctorate.

First African expeditions

On November 20, 1840, Livingston was granted missionary status; at the end of that year he sailed for Africa, arriving in Cape Town on 14 March 1841.

Livingston spent the next fifteen years in continuous travel through the interior regions of the South and Central Africa. He had numerous skirmishes with the local Boers and the Portuguese because of their ill-treatment with the indigenous Africans, which aroused his intense hostility, and created a reputation for himself as a staunch Christian, a courageous explorer and an ardent fighter against slavery and the slave trade. Livingston quickly learned the languages of the local population and won their respect.

On July 31, 1841, Livingstone arrived at Moffett's mission at Kuruman on northern border Cape Colony, and in 1843 founded his own mission in Kolobeng in the Bechuana Country (Tswana) (the future protectorate of Bechuanaland, now Botswana). Almost immediately after his arrival, he began to carry out expeditions to the north, to areas unknown to Europeans and, as it was believed, more densely populated areas, still untouched by the preaching activities of Christian missionaries. His goal was to propagate the faith through "local agents" - converted Africans. By the summer of 1842, Livingston had already traveled further north into the inhospitable Kalahari Desert than any European before him, becoming familiar with local languages and customs.

In 1843, he visited the settlement of the Kwena (Bakwena) tribe of the Tswana people and became friends with its leader Sechele, who eventually became the first of the Tswana tribal leaders to convert to Christianity. Sechele gave Livingstone comprehensive information about the “land of great thirst” in the north - the Kalahari - and Lake Ngami.

Livingstone's missionary tenacity was tested dramatically in 1844 when, while traveling to Mabotsa to establish a mission there, he was attacked and seriously injured by a lion. The damage to her left arm was then compounded by another accident, leaving her crippled for life. Livingston could no longer hold the barrel of his gun with his left hand, and was forced to learn to shoot from his left shoulder and aim with his left eye.

On January 2, 1845, Livingston married Robert Moffett's daughter Mary. For seven years, despite pregnancy and her father's protests, she accompanied Livingston on his travels and bore him four children. The Livingstons first settled in the mission at Mabotsa, then moved briefly to Tcheongwane, and from 1847 lived in Kolobeng. The main reason the transfer of the mission to Kolobeng was the presence there drinking water from the river of the same name, necessary for irrigating crops. It was in Kolobeng that Sechele was baptized on the condition that he refuse to take part in any pagan ceremonies such as rainmaking, and divorce all his wives, leaving one. These conditions caused discontent among some of the Tswana tribes, who considered Livingstone to be responsible for the terrible drought and drying up of the Kolobeng River, which occurred in 1848 and claimed lives large quantity people and livestock. Besides, ex-wives The Sechele, who suddenly found themselves without a husband, faced significant difficulties in the patriarchal Tswana society.

In June 1849, Livingstone (as a topographer and scientist), accompanied by African guides, was the first European to cross the Kalahari Desert and explore Lake Ngami on the southern edge of the Okavango Swamps, discovered on August 1. For this discovery he was awarded the British Royal Geographical Society Gold Medal and cash bonus. This event marks the beginning of Livingstone's European fame and his collaboration with the Geographical Society, which continued throughout his life. The society represented his interests in England and promoted his activities in Europe. In the desert, Livingston met the Bushmen and Bakalahari tribes, who lived in the Stone Age, and for the first time introduced the outside world to their foundations.

LIVINGSTON
David Livingston(b. March 19, 1813 - d. May 1, 1873) - Scottish missionary, outstanding explorer of Africa.

David was born in the village of Blantyre into a poor Scottish family and began working in a weaving factory at the age of 10. But he independently learned Latin and Greek, as well as mathematics. This allowed him to enter the University of Glasgow and study theology and medicine there, and Livingston received a doctorate. And in 1838 he received the priesthood.

In 1840, Livingston, who dreamed of studying Asia and had by that time joined the London Missionary Society, was supposed to go to China on the instructions of this society, but the Opium War broke out there, and plans had to be changed. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the main features of northwestern Africa were clarified. The British were exploring the part of the mainland lying to the south. Here, the future largest explorer of Central Africa, David Livingston, began his missionary activity.

In 1841 he landed in Altoa Bay, inhabited by the Bechuana tribe (the future territory of Benchuanaland in South Africa). He quickly learned their languages and won their respect. In July 1841 he arrived at Moffett's mission on the border of the Cape Colony, and in 1843 he founded his own in Colonberg.

In June 1849, Livingston, accompanied by African guides, was the first European to cross the Kalahari Desert and explore Lake Ngami. He met the Bushmen and Bakalahari tribes. In 1850 he wanted to found a new settlement on the coast open lake. However, this time he took his wife Mary and children with him. In the end, he sent them back to Scotland so that they would not suffer from the terrible living conditions. In 1852 Livingston set off on a new journey. He penetrated the Zambezi River basin and in May 1853 entered Minyanti, the main village of the Makololo tribe. There the missionary fell ill, but Chief Sekeletu made every effort to save Livingstone.

The traveler, who received the well-deserved nickname “Great Lion” from grateful Africans, climbed up the Laibe River and reached the Portuguese colony - the city of Luanda on Atlantic coast. The main scientific result of this journey was the discovery of Lake Dilolo, which lies on the watershed of two river basins: one of them belongs to Atlantic Ocean, the other - to Indian. The western drainage of the lake feeds the Congo river system, the eastern - the Zambezi. For this discovery, the Geographical Society awarded Livingston a Gold Medal.

Next, Livingston decided to try to find a more convenient road to the ocean - to the east. In November 1855 large squad led by Livingston set off. Two weeks later, Livingston and his companions landed on the banks of the Zambezi River, where they saw a grandiose waterfall up to 1000 m high, which the Africans called “Mosi wa Tunya” (rumbling water). Livingston named this waterfall after the English Queen Victoria. Nowadays, a monument to the Scottish explorer is erected near the waterfall.

In May 1856 Livingstone reached the mouth of the Zambezi. So he completed a grandiose journey - he crossed the African continent from the Atlantic to Indian Ocean. Livingston was the first to come to the correct idea of Africa as a continent shaped like a flat dish with raised edges towards the ocean. In 1857 he published a book about his travels.

But there was still a vast unfilled territory on the map of Africa - the sources of the Nile. Livingston believed that the Nile took its source from the sources of Lualaba. But he also carried out a humanitarian mission: in Zanzibar he asked the Sultan to stop the slave trade. All this led Livingston to the region of the great African lakes. Here he discovered two new large lakes- Bangweulu and Mweru and was about to explore Lake Tanganyika, but suddenly the traveler fell ill with tropical fever.

On October 23, 1871, Livingston returned to Ujiji exhausted and sick. Due to a fever, the great explorer lost the ability to walk and expected death. For a long time he did not make himself known, since only one of the traveler’s 44 letters reached Zanzibar. Unexpectedly, an expedition led by journalist Henry Morton Stanley, specially sent to search for Livingston by the American newspaper The New York Herald, came to his aid. Stanley greeted Livingstone with a phrase that would later become world famous: "Dr. Livingston, I presume?"

Livingston recovered and, together with Stanley, explored Lake Tanganyika in the Unyamwezi region. Stanley offered Livingston to return to Europe or America, but he refused. Soon, David Livingston again fell ill with malaria and on May 1, 1873 died near the village of Chitambo (now in Zambia) not far from Lake Bangweulu, which he discovered. Livingston's dark comrades Chuma and Susi found the great traveler dead near his bed and embalmed his body with salt. David Livingstone's heart was buried in Chitambo, and the preserved body, after nine months of transportation, covering a distance of about 1,500 km, was taken to the port of Bagamoyo on the ocean coast, from where it was sent to Great Britain. Livingstone was buried with honors in Westminster Abbey on April 18, 1874. In the same year, The Last Diaries of David Livingstone was published.

Livingston devoted most of his life to Africa, traveling mainly on foot over 50 thousand km. 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 north-eastern shore of Lake Nyasa are named in honor of David Livingstone. Blantyre, The largest city Malawi, with a population of more than 600,000 people, was named after Livingstone's hometown.

“I am always in doubt and worry about the sources of the Nile. I have too many reasons to feel insecure. The Great Lualaba may turn out to be the Congo River, and the Nile is ultimately more short river. The springs flow north and south, and this seems to favor the idea that Lualaba is the Nile, but the strong deviation to the west speaks in favor of the Congo” (Last Diaries of David Livingstone. Entry dated May 31, 1872) .

In 1856, the Englishmen John Speke and Richard Burton set off from the eastern coast of Africa to the interior of the continent in search of the sources of the Nile. In February 1858, they were the first Europeans to reach the huge elongated Lake Tanganyika, one of the deepest in the world. Speke did not calm down and moved on. He opened even more large lake, Victoria. Four years later, Speke visited here again and discovered that the White Nile originated from the northern part of the lake. However, many scientists and travelers, most notably Burton, doubted Speke's correctness. When the latter shot himself, everyone decided that Burton’s suspicions were unfounded.

So, in the 1860s. the question was still open. Such an authoritative researcher as Livingston did not rule out that the great river begins much south of the lake Victoria. He was going to solve this problem at all costs, but finding funds for a new expedition after the failure of the previous one was extremely difficult. Livingston failed to sell Lady Nyasa profitably; moreover, the small money raised was lost due to the bankruptcy of the bank, and the royalties from the new book were small. And yet, having received a subsidy from the Royal Geographical Society, as well as donations from private individuals, Livingston left England in August 1865. Just before his departure, news reached him about the death of his son Robert, who fought in America on the side of the northerners...

At the end of January 1866, the traveler landed at the mouth of the Ruvuma and in April moved inland. He circled Lake Nyasa from the south, crossed the wide Luangwa in December, as well as Chambeshi, and finally, in early April 1867, reached the shores of Tanganyika. Livingston was already a man of old age, unhappiness recent years and enormous overexertion, coupled with all sorts of African ailments, thoroughly undermined his once strong body. He felt worse and worse. But at the end of 1867 the traveler managed to reach Lake Mveru, and in July of the following year he discovered another one, Bangweulu.

Having explored the western coast of Tanganyika, in March 1869 Livingston crossed the lake and arrived in the village of Ujiji, the center of the ivory and slave trade. Here he had to spend some time among Arab slave traders, who, by the way, rescued him several times. No matter how disgusting such a society was to his soul, there was no choice left. Sick and exhausted, Livingston needed rest and serious treatment. His hatred of the slave trade and his determination to fight this terrible evil only grew stronger. One day, in some village, he witnessed the massacre of Africans by slave traders. At a local market, where many blacks from surrounding villages had gathered, several people suddenly opened fire on the crowd. Dozens were shot and hundreds drowned in the river trying to escape. But Livingston could do nothing. The only thing he could do was send a message about the execution to England, after which the British government demanded that the Zanzibar Sultan abolish the slave trade, but everything went on as before.

Having recovered slightly, Livingston continued his explorations west of Tanganyika. In 1871, he came to the huge - even in the upper reaches - Lualaba, going to the north. Livingston believed that this river was the beginning of the Nile. His illnesses worsened, sometimes he could not walk on his own, and then his constant assistants, the Africans Susi and Chuma, carried him on a stretcher. We had to return to Ujiji again. Livingston could no longer walk; the situation seemed hopeless. And suddenly... “Doctor Livingstone, I presume?” (“Dr. Livingston, I presume?”) - this phrase became famous. With these words, more appropriate somewhere at a social event, the great traveler, barely standing, almost toothless and extremely thin, was greeted by a young tanned American who arrived at the head of a huge caravan and armed to the teeth. The Savior - his name was Henry Stanley - brought provisions, medicines, bales with various goods, dishes, tents and more. Livingston wrote: “This luxuriously equipped traveler will not find himself in the same position as I, not knowing what to do.”

Who was this Henry Stanley? An American journalist, an employee of the New York Herald, who, on the instructions of editor-in-chief Bennett, went to Africa in order to find Livingston. He was born in 1841 in Wales, and his name was then John Rowlands. His mother sent the boy to a workhouse, and at the age of 15 he ran away to the United States, where he ended up in the service of a merchant named Stanley. The owner liked the quick and smart young man. He adopted him, and the young man took a new name, Henry Morton Stanley. When the war between the southerners and the northerners began, Henry fought on the side of the southerners, was captured and switched sides, and then deserted and worked a lot until he became a journalist. He gained popularity by reporting on the military operations of the British in Abyssinia. When Bennett needed someone who could find a missing person in Africa famous traveler, he chose Stanley, who knew how to write smartly and, when it was profitable, go ahead.

What can I say! He really saved Livingston; his appearance in September 1871 breathed new strength into the traveler. When the Scot felt better, he and Stanley went to explore the northern part of Tanganyika. They then moved east to Unyamwezi.

The journalist persuaded Livingston to sail with him to England, but the latter rejected this offer, since he had not yet completed his tasks. In March 1872, Livingston gave Stanley his diary and all the papers, and he left for the ocean. A little later, a detachment sent by Stanley, consisting of several dozen guides, appeared in Unyamwezi.

In August, Livingston headed south along the Tanganyika coast to Lake Bangweulu. He planned to go out to the western shore of the lake to determine whether it had a drainage. During the journey, his illness worsened, Susi and Chuma had to carry him on a stretcher again.

On April 29, 1873, they reached the village of Chitambo on the shore of the lake. Two days earlier, the traveler left the last entry in his diary: “I’m completely tired... I just need to get better...”. Early on the morning of May 1, his servants found Livingston kneeling at his bedside. They decided that he was praying, but it was not prayer, but death.

Susi and Chuma decided to hand over the body of the deceased to the English authorities. The traveler's heart was buried in Chitambo, under a large tree (there is now a monument there), and his body was embalmed. It took nine months to get him to Zanzibar. From there it was sent by ship to Aden and through the Suez Canal, built in 1869, to England. Susi and Chuma kept the deceased's papers, tools and equipment. In April 1874, Livingstone was buried with honors in Westminster Abbey. Above his grave hangs a marble plaque with the inscription: “Carried by faithful hands across land and sea, here lies David Livingstone, missionary, traveler and friend of mankind.”

What about Stanley? Upon returning, he published a series of articles about his voyage to Africa and the miraculous rescue of the famous traveler. Soon a book with the loud title “How I Found Livingston” was published, which enjoyed enormous success. Of course, Stanley basked in the glory of Livingston, but it is hardly reasonable to blame him for this: he had a task, and he coped with it brilliantly.

In 1874, Stanley decided to complete the missionary's research and find out where the Nile began. The expedition was equipped with money from the New York Herald and the Daily Telegraph. In November she left Zanzibar, and a huge caravan left Bagamoyo Bay (in modern Tanzania) for Lake Victoria. The detachment reached the largest African body of water and confirmed that the unfairly accused Speke was right: the Nile really begins from Victoria. Stanley then explored Lake Tanganyika. He tried to move as quickly as possible and did not spare people, did not care about rest and sufficiency of the diet. At the slightest threat from local tribes, Stanley opened fire without wasting time on negotiations. From Tanganyika, the caravan, already thoroughly thinned out - many fled, some died from disease or died in clashes - headed west to Lualaba. Having reached the river, Stanley entered into an agreement with the largest local slave trader, purchasing from him for a round sum the right to pass through his domain, as well as new guides and porters.

Descending the Lualaba, either by boat or by shore, avoiding rapids and waterfalls, often engaging in battles with local tribes, Stanley reached the equator, where the river changes direction from north to northwest, and then to the place where it turns west. Here Lualaba is already becoming great river Congo, along which Stanley descended to the Atlantic Ocean. So he managed to prove Livingston’s assumptions wrong. The entire journey from Zanzibar to Boma (in the Congo estuary) took 999 days. Almost symbolic. During this period, Stanley managed to achieve almost more than Livingston did in more than 20 years. Soon, having entered the service of the Belgian king, Stanley, with several hundred daredevils, conquered for him the vast territory of the Congo Basin. Is it reasonable to blame him for this? He had a task, and again he completed it brilliantly. It wasn't his fault that he wasn't like Livingston. It is to Livingston's credit that he was not like Stanley and the vast majority of others. As it turned out, it was also a disaster.

Spouse Mary Livingstone [d]

David Livingston (David Livingstone; English David Livingstone; March 19 (1813-03-19 ) , Blantyre - 1st of May, present-day Zambia) - Scottish missionary, explorer of Africa.

Biography

Youth

First African expeditions

Livingston spent the next fifteen years in continuous travel through the interior of South and Central Africa. He had numerous skirmishes with the local Boers and the Portuguese due to their brutal treatment of native Africans, which aroused his strong dislike, and built a reputation for himself as a staunch Christian, an intrepid explorer and an ardent fighter against slavery and the slave trade. Livingston quickly learned the languages of the local population and won their respect.

Returning to Britain in the summer of 1864, Livingstone wrote his second book, The Tale of the Expedition to the Zambezi and Its Tributaries, with his brother Charles. Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries, ). During his stay at home, he was strongly advised to undergo surgery to combat hemorrhoids, from which he suffered throughout the expedition. Livingston refused. It was probably severe hemorrhoidal bleeding that caused his death during his third and final African journey.

Searching for the sources of the Nile

There was still a vast unexplored territory on the map of Africa, the task of exploring which was faced by Livingston. He returned to Africa on 28 January 1866, after another short visit to Bombay, as British Consul with broad powers and the support of a large number of public and private institutions. This time he was the only European in the expedition, and the rest of the participants were recruited in India and among Africans. As before, his goal was to spread Christianity and eliminate 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 appeared: the study of the Central African watersheds and finding out the real sources of the Nile. Livingstone himself believed that the Nile originated from the sources of Lualaba.

The expedition left Mikindani to east coast and went west, but the hostility of the local Ngoni tribe forced Livingston to abandon initial plans do not pass through 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 1866, some of the porters left it. To avoid punishment for desertion after returning to Zanzibar, they lied that Livingstone had died in a skirmish with the Ngoni. Although the following year it turned out that Livingston was safe and sound, this fiction added drama to the message about the expedition that arrived in Europe.

However, the expedition acquired real drama later, when Livingston, having bypassed Nyasa from the south, went north again. At the beginning of 1867, a box with all his medicines was stolen, which was a real disaster for the traveler, but Livingston did not stop moving north, continuing to advance deeper into Central Africa. All this brought Livingston into the realm of the greats. African lakes, where he discovered two new large lakes - Bangweulu and Mweru. The expedition crossed two big rivers, Luangwa and Chambeshi, separated by the Muchinga mountain range, and on April 1, 1867 reached the southern edge of Lake Tanganyika. Going southwest from here, Livingstone discovered Lake Mweru on November 8, and Lake Bangweulu on July 18, 1868. Next, the traveler intended to explore Lake Tanganyika, but suddenly fell ill with tropical fever and fell ill. Weary and weakened by malaria, Livingstone was forced to take 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 the western shore to the north, and then straight across the lake to Ujiji on the eastern shore. Here Livingstone was awaiting some supplies that had been sent for him in passing caravans from Zanzibar, although most of them were plundered or lost along the way. In July 1869, Livingston left Ujiji and crossed the lake again. Due to the traveler's poor health and the distrust of the local population, angry at the raids of slave traders, this part of the journey was extremely drawn out, and only on March 29, 1871 Livingston reached the Lualaba tributary of the Congo near Nyangwe - the extreme northwestern point of his African wanderings. At that time, no European had ever gone so far west in these parts.

Livingstone still did not know which African river basin - the Congo or the Nile - Lualaba belonged to, and was unable to deal with this complex 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 the only way to travel by land was by joining a detachment of slave traders, which the missionary would never agree to. Livingston only established that the Lualaba flows to the north and is located in this place at an altitude of about 600 m above sea level, that is, theoretically it could belong to the basin of both the Congo and the Nile. The fact that the river flows into the Congo was discovered after Livingston's death by Henry Morton Stanley.

Livingston and Stanley

The cities of Livingstonia in Malawi and Livingstone (Maramba) in Zambia, as well as waterfalls in the lower Congo and mountains on the northeastern shore of Lake Nyasa are named in honor of David Livingstone. Blantyre, Malawi's largest city with a population of over 600,000 people, was named after the city of Livingstone. The mineral livingstonite, a double sulfide of mercury and antimony, is named in his honor. In the USA, the American University of Florida (American David Livingstone University of Florida), which is part of the Scientific and Educational Complex with the Christian Humanitarian Economic Open University (Odessa), is named after him.