What lake was discovered by david livingston in africa. Travel and exploration in South Africa

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

Biography

Youth

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

First African expeditions

Livingston spent the next fifteen years in uninterrupted travels in the hinterland of the South and Central Africa... He had numerous skirmishes with the local Boers and the Portuguese because of their bitter resentment against indigenous Africans, and built a reputation for himself as a committed Christian, courageous explorer and ardent fighter against slavery and the slave trade. Livingston quickly learned the languages ​​of the local population and won their respect.

Livingston's missionary tenacity was put to a dramatic test in 1844 when, while traveling to Mabotsa to set up a mission there, he was attacked and seriously wounded by a lion. The injury to the left arm was then compounded by another accident, leaving it crippled for life. Livingston could no longer hold the barrel of the gun with his left hand, and was forced to learn to shoot from the left shoulder and aim with his left eye.

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

Search for the source of the Nile

There was still a vast unexplored territory on the map of Africa, the task of which Livingston was to explore. He returned to Africa on 28 January 1866, after another short visit to Bombay, as a British consul with wide powers and the support of a large number of public and private institutions. This time he was the only European on the expedition, and the rest of the participants were recruited in India and among the Africans. As before, his goal was to spread Christianity and destroy the slave trade on the eastern shores of Africa (Livingston embarked on a humanitarian mission even before arriving on the continent: in Zanzibar he personally asked the Sultan to stop the slave trade), but now a third task has appeared: the study of the Central African watersheds and finding out the true origins of the Nile. Livingston himself believed that the Nile originated at the source of Lualaba.

The expedition left Mikindani on the east coast and headed west, but the hostility of the local Ngoni tribe forced Livingstone to abandon his initial plans not to 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 Livingston had died in a skirmish with the Ngoni. Although the very next year it turned out that Livingston was safe and sound, this invention added to the drama by the message about the expedition, which arrived in Europe.

However, the expedition acquired real drama later, when Livingston, bypassing Nyasa from the south, went north again. At the beginning of 1867, a box with all the medicines was stolen from him, which was a real disaster for the traveler, but Livingstone did not stop moving north, continuing to advance deep into Central Africa. All this brought Livingston to the region of the great African lakes, where he discovered two new large lakes - Bangweulu and Mweru. The expedition crossed two big rivers, Luangwa and Chambeshi, separated by the Muchinga mountain range, and on April 1, 1867, reached the southern edge of Lake Tanganyika. Traveling southwest from here, Livingston discovered Lake Mweru on November 8, and Lake Bangweulu on July 18, 1868. Further, the traveler intended to explore Lake Tanganyika, but suddenly fell ill with tropical fever and lay down. Tired and exhausted by malaria, Livingston was forced to use the help of Arab traders to return to Lake Tanganyika, which he reached in February 1869.

For about a month, the expedition moved along the lake by boats, first along the western coast to the north, and then straight across the lake to Ujiji on the eastern coast. Some supplies awaited Livingston here, which had been sent for him by passing caravans from Zanzibar, although most of them were plundered or lost on the road. In July 1869 Livingstone left Ujiji and crossed the lake again. Due to the poor health of the traveler and the distrust of the local population, angry with the raids of slave traders, this part of the journey was extremely extended, and only on March 29, 1871, Livingston reached the Lualaba tributary of the Congo near Nyangwe, the extreme northwestern point of his African wanderings. Not a single European had gone so far to the west in these parts by that time.

Livingston still did not know to the basin of which African river - the Congo or the Nile - Lualaba belonged, and was unable to deal with it. difficult question as his health continued to deteriorate. In addition, the expedition was sabotaged by slavers. As a result, Livingston could not find boats to travel along the river, and it was only possible to navigate overland to a detachment of slave traders, to which the missionary would never agree. Livingston established only that Lualaba flows to the north and is located in this place at an altitude of about 600 m above sea level, that is, in theory, it can 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 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 David Livingston. Blantyre, The largest city Malawi, with a population of over 600,000, was named after the city of Livingston. 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) is named after him, which is part of the Scientific and Educational Complex with the Christian Humanitarian and Economic Open University (Odessa).

50,000 copies

As a simple missionary from a poor family, David Livingston managed to write his name in history as a tireless and courageous explorer of the African continent, who until the last days of his life was doing what he loved. Cities, waterfalls and even mountains are named after Livingstone in Africa.

The beginning of the way

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

In 1840, the young man went to Africa, to the Cape Colony. Having landed on the continent, he went to the country of the Bechuan - Kuruman. It housed the London Missionary Society, which took Livingston nearly six months to reach.

Rice. 1. David Livingston.

In search of a new place for his mission, David decided to venture north - where no British missionary had ever been. He stopped at Chonuang, where the Bakwen tribe lived, and quickly struck up friendly relations with the chief.

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

Rice. 2. The Bakwen tribe.

First discoveries

On the maps of the Portuguese, who were the first to conquer the southwest of the African mainland, there were many blank spots. Wanting to fix this, Livingston set off on a trip to northern Africa, during which he made many important discoveries.

TOP-4 articleswho read along with this

• In 1849, the missionary was the first European to explore the northeast of the Kalahari Desert, and also discovered the temporary Lake Ngami.
• In 1851-1856. went on a long journey along the Zambezi River, during which he managed to cross the mainland and reach the east coast of Africa.
• In 1855, Victoria Falls was discovered.

Moving down the Zambezi River, Livingston witnessed a stunning picture - a huge waterfall, whose waters plummeted down from a height of 120 meters. Local tribes treated the “rumbling water” with reverence and fear, and never came close to the waterfall. Livingston named his discovery in honor of Queen Victoria of England.

Rice. 3. Victoria Falls.

Upon his return to his homeland, Livingstone published a book about his travels in South Africa. For his significant contribution to the development of geography, he received the prestigious award - the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and was also appointed consul in Queliman.

Subsequent expeditions to Africa

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

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

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

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 started working at a local cotton factory. He served a weaving machine and knitted scraps of thread from 6 am to 8 pm. Then he studied at the evening school at the factory for another two hours, 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 entire life at the spinning machine. He dreamed of getting out of the factory even to the ends of the world.

From the factory to the savannah

Before the discoveries of Livingstone, the entire southern half of Africa seemed like a lifeless desert. On the maps of that time, only settlements on the coast were plotted, in the center of the continent, in fact, there was a large white spot with dots on it marking the alleged location of the rivers. She seemed to be waiting for her Livingston, who was preparing for his ascetic activity.

After ten years of toil, 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 with his meager funds. Only in 1840, David was granted missionary status, but he went not to China, but to Africa. After disembarking in Cape Town, he went to the missionary station at Kuruman, 800 kilometers away.

Livingston felt happy and enthusiastic. An entry appears in his travel diary: “Traveling is downright pleasure. We enjoy complete freedom: we set up tents and make a fire wherever your heart desires; we go on foot or on horseback, as we please, and hunt any game as we please. " However, in the future, the situation did not seem so rosy to him. White settlers - Boers, who inhabited those places, reacted to the visiting Briton with hostility, and the native leaders were completely hostile. The Christian missionary encroached on their privilege of polygamy.

But Livingston managed to win their favor. From the mission, he traveled every now and then to the lands of the Bechuan tribes, where he not only preached, but also provided medical assistance. He wrote: "Although the Becuana, one might say, are children of nature, they get sick quite often ... In the villages we met along the way, my van was besieged by the blind, lame and paralyzed." Livingston was very helpful in studying medicine. It was soon rumored that he was a real wizard, capable of resurrecting even the dead. However, his good deeds did not resonate with the other missionaries at the station. Those were more concerned with increasing income. They acquired, for example, springs and adapted them for irrigation of adjacent plots, 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 country of the Bechuan. And from there he began to carry out expeditions to the north, to lands unexplored by Europeans.

Miracles from a missionary

More than once on these expeditions, David's life hung in the balance. Once he decided to help one village, which was terrorized by a flock of lions. The natives believed that a neighboring village conjured this attack for them, and therefore did not try to drive away the lions, which attacked their livestock even during the day. Livingston decided to help them and, taking several people with him, went hunting. He managed to shoot one lion, but he, wounded, rushed at David and crushed him under him. Fortunately for Livingston, the predator turned his attention to other hunters, he rushed at them and seriously injured two people, and then collapsed to the ground lifeless. The two bullets that Livingston put into him were still fatal. But for the savages it was a real miracle! To destroy the trail of alleged witchcraft, and the Africans decided that the lion died due to the curse of the wounded white, the slain lion was burned at a large fire. The lion left the marks of eleven teeth on the missionary's shoulder and broke his arm, which remained crippled for life. Livingston was forced to learn to shoot from the left shoulder and aim with his left eye.

Livingston married in 1845. His wife Mary gave him four children. The wife and children became faithful companions in Livingstone's travels across the African continent, although they were repeatedly subjected to hardships and hardships. Once they found themselves in a bakwena village during a drought. The natives fed the starving children of Livingstone with locust and honey or caterpillars, and fried frogs. It was a treat. David said that his children ate such food greedily. Worse, the missionary's impotence in the face of the 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 here, but nobody prays here. "

But on the other hand, the work of a brave missionary finally brought him recognition at home. In 1849, he was the first European to cross the Kalahari Desert and discovered Lake Ngami at the southern edge of the Okavango swamps to the world. For this discovery Livingston 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 great road to connect Europe with inner 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, went 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, Livingston found himself a national hero there. A shower of awards and distinctions poured over him, as if from a cornucopia. In the wake of his popularity, David published the book Traveling and Researching a Missionary in South Africa. It quickly sold out in 70 thousand copies, occupying the same outstanding 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 as 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 for Livingstone 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. In the course of it, he discovered two new large lakes - Bangweulu and Mweru, but most importantly, he faced enormous difficulties. Exhausted, exhausted by a tropical fever, having lost the ability to walk, David in 1871 lay in Ujiji and awaited death. But unexpectedly help came: the journalist Henry Morton Stanley, specially seconded by the American newspaper "New York Herald" in search of Livingston, reached him. Stanley brought food and medicine. David soon began to recover. But barely recovered, he again rushed in search of the sources of the Nile. He never found them. On the way Livingston contracted malaria again.

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

Scottish missionary and explorer of Africa. Born in Blantyre (near Glasgow) March 19, 1813

Born in Blantyre (near Glasgow) on March 19, 1813. From the age of ten he worked in a textile factory. At 23, he graduated from Anderson College, and then the University of Glasgow, receiving a medical degree. He turned to the London Missionary Society, which sent him to South Africa. In 1840 Livingston Obos

He was based in Kuruman (modern South Africa) and created a base for missionary work there. In 1843 he passed approx. 640 km to Mabots, in 1849 he explored the northeastern edge of the Kalahari Desert to the Zuga River. From there I got to the northeastern end of the lake. Ngami. In 1851 he reached the Zambezi River in Seshek. Passed along the cr

th of the Kalahari Desert and reached the Lignanti River (tributary of the Zambezi) in the Caprivi region. In 1853, he reached Sesheke and climbed the Zambezi River to the confluence of the Kabompo River. Then in Luanda (modern Angola) he went to the western coast of Africa, crossed the mainland in the latitudinal direction and went to its eastern coast in Queliman (owls

R. Mozambique). Following the Zambezi river, in 1855 he reached the Victoria Falls. Livingstone was greeted with enthusiasm in England in 1856, and in 1858 was appointed consul at Queliman. He explored the Zambezi, Shire and Ruvuma rivers, as well as Chilwa and Nyasa lakes. In 1865 he led an expedition to study the watershed in Central Africa

ike, seeking to find the sources of the Nile. Visited lakes Mweru and Bangweulu. During this expedition Livingstone fell ill with a fever and was rescued by the journalist G.M. Stanley, who found him on November 3, 1871, in the village of Udzhiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. During the last attempt to find the source of the Nile, he fell ill and died in

the village of Chitambo on the shores of Lake Bangweulu on April 30, 1873. His heart was buried in Ilala, and the remains were taken to Zanzibar, from there transported to London and buried in Westminster Abbey.

Livingston's books include Missionary Travels and Res

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

Having landed in Algoa Bay in 1840, Livingston went to the country of the Bechuan, then settled in the upper reaches of the Limpopo River, where he conducted geographical and natural-historical research. In 1849 he crossed the Kalahari Desert and discovered Lake. Ngami. In 1851 he reached the city of Linyanti and surveyed the upper reaches of the river. Zambezi. In 1853, with the help of the leaders of local tribes, he climbed up the river. Zambezi and in 1854 reached Luanda (on the Atlantic coast). Livingstone figured out the area's hydrography and identified the watershed between the Congo and Zambezi rivers. From there, he sent reports to the English Geographical Society, which awarded Livingstone a gold medal for this voyage. Returning to Linyanti at the end of 1855, Livingston descended the Zambezi to the mouth, discovered the Victoria Falls. In 1856 he returned to England.

In 1858 he set off on his second journey with the aim of a more detailed survey of the river. Zambezi. Having discovered the lake. Shirva and Lake Nyasa (1859), D. Livingston in 1862 returned to the mouth of the river. Zambezi, and in 1864 to England.

In 1866 he again went to Africa to study the watershed of the lake. Nyasa and Lake Tanganyika and identifying a possible connection between the lake. Tanganyika and r. Nile. From 1866 to the end of 1871 D. Livingston did not make himself felt in Europe. He walked around from the south of the lake. Nyasa, reached the lake. Mveru and R. Lualaba (1867), discovered the lake. Bangveolo (1868), surveyed 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. Bangveolo. his body in his arms was taken by his companions to Zanzibar and then to England. Livingston was buried at Westminster Abbey. Livingston was the first explorer of South Africa and one of the first explorers of Central Africa. For 30 years of work, D. Livingston explored the nature of vast spaces in Africa - from Cape Town to almost the equator and from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, paying great attention to the life and customs of local residents. Livingston's personal courage, his humanity, knowledge of local dialects, and medical practice gave him a high prestige among local African tribes and contributed to the success of his work as a traveler and explorer.

Named after Levingston: Livingstone 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. Going to South Africa as a missionary to convert the natives to Christianity, he gradually retired from this work and became a traveler and explorer.

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

By the beginning of the 19th century. Europeans knew only a narrow coastline along the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The interior parts 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 the Negroes, bought slaves from the leaders of the Negro tribes and sometimes penetrated deep into the mainland, but they kept these routes secret and therefore did not give anything new to science. Dutch colonists (Boers) settled in the very south of Africa. Europeans became interested in the interior regions of the mainland, seeking to expand the markets for their goods, only at the end of the 18th century, when an industrial revolution took place in England. In England itself, interest in the study of South Africa increased especially. In 1788, the "Association for the Promotion of Discoveries in the Interior of Africa" ​​was founded in London; in 1795 the British captured South Africa from the Dutch, forcing them to retreat to the north, and in 1834 the Cape Society was opened to study 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 Livingstone arrived in the interior of South Africa, little was known for certain. 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 origins and flow of the Zambezi - was elucidated by Livingstone's travels. In addition, he was the first to cross South Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, 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 the English geographers say, discovered South Africa for the cultural world.

David Livingston is of Scottish descent. He was born on March 19, 1813 in a village near the small industrial town of Blentyre on the river. Clyde in Scotland. Livingston's poor family led a 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 go to a nearby cotton mill. There, from six o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock in the evening, he tied threads torn on looms.
Livingston's thirst for knowledge was so great that, after fourteen hours of tedious and strenuous work, he continued to study at night school. He managed to find time for reading serious books even in the factory, in fits and starts during work, putting the book on the spinning machine. He spent part of his earnings on buying books. Livingston studied thoroughly Latin language so I could read Latin classics fluently. He read everything eagerly, especially the travel descriptions.

Through hard and systematic work on his education, Livingston prepared himself at the age of 23 for entering college. He attended medical school and classes for two years Greek at Anderson College in Glasgow; and theology classes. The choice of these occupations was explained by the fact that Livingstone decided to devote himself to missionary work, which responded to his idealistic inner motivation to serve and benefit in this way people deprived of the benefits of culture.

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 leave for China. It was a great disappointment to him when the Society, against his wishes, decided to send him to Africa.

In the autumn. 1840 he met in London the missionary Moffett, who had come from South Africa. The stories of the latter about negro tribes, standing at an extremely low level of culture, influenced Livingston, and he decided to agree to the offer of the missionary society to go to Africa.

Livingston's contemporaries described Livingston as a young man with a somewhat rude appearance, a clean and clear look. With these external features, he was in harmony with an unusually open, sincere character and good nature. These qualities later helped Livingston a lot during his wanderings and life among the Bushmen and Negroes.

On October 8, 1840 Livingston sailed from the coast of England. He landed at Algoa Bay and in March 1841 traveled to Kuruman, a mission station in the Bechuan country, established 20 years earlier by Robert Moffett. Livingstone arrived there on July 31, 1841. Before going on missionary work, he studied the Bechuan language and became well acquainted with the life of the Kaffirs. He went to villages, set up schools, treated the sick, and at the same time was engaged in geographical and natural-historical research and observations. During two years of such a life, he gained a great influence on 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 suitable climate for his station. This place was chosen the valley of the Mabotse, located near one of the sources of the river. Limpopo, 200 miles northeast of Kuruman.

Shortly after he settled in Mabots, he was once attacked by a lion, badly wounded and broken his left arm. There were no doctors nearby, the arm had grown badly, and this was for him constant source any difficulties for the rest of his life. The damage to the arm bone later served, after his death, as a means of identifying his remains.

Livingston in Mabots built himself a house 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. Livingston worked at Mabots until 1846, and then moved to Choiwan, north of Mabotse. It was the main point of the Bakwien tribe, or Bakwen, ruled by the leader Sechele. The next, in 1847, Livingston 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 trip to the lake. Ngami that no white man had seen before. He first crossed the Kalahari Desert and reached the lake on August 1, 1848. For this discovery and voyage, Livingston received an award of 25 guineas from the Geographical Society of London.

Livingston decided to move to the lake. Ngami and 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 Negro tribe who lived 200 miles across the lake. Ngami, but he only made it to the lake because his children got a fever. In 1851 Livingston again went, accompanied by his family and Oswell, in search of a suitable place of residence; he intended to settle among the Makololo tribe. On this journey he managed to reach the river. Chobe (Quinzo), 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 Lee-wingston the risk he was putting his family on, 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 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. May 23, 1853 he reached Linyanti, the capital of the Makololo tribe, lying on the banks of the river. Chobe. He was warmly welcomed by Chief Sekeletu and all the Makololos. His first task was to find a healthy upland area in order to establish a permanent station. To this end, Livingston headed up the Zambezi Valley, but did not find a single place free of fever and tsetse flies. Then he decided to explore the path from that point in the Zambezi, where it diverged to the west and east. This venture was difficult and risky, as the conditions of the trip were unknown. To accompany Livingston, the Makololo leader Sekeletu selected 27 people from the tribes under his control; in addition to helping Livingstone, Sekelet intended to use this expedition to open a trade route between his country and the coast of the ocean.

On November 13, 1853, the expedition departed from Linyanti westward upstream of the Laibe and on February 20, 1854 reached Lake. Dilolo, in April she crossed the river. Kwango and on May 11 reached the city of San Paolo de Luanda on the Atlantic coast. Along the way, Livingstone was dangerously ill and nearly died of debilitating fever, half-starvation and dysentery.

From Luanda Livingston sent to Cape Town Thomas McLear 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 the highest award, a gold medal, for important scientific discoveries.

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

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

He was the first to figure out the river network of this part of the continent, to establish a divide between the rivers flowing north (to the Congo system) and the rivers belonging to the Zambezi system.
Livingston's conclusions were largely confirmed by later research. Return journey from the lake. Dilolo followed the same route, and in September the expedition returned to Lignanti.

Livingston decided to head further east, following the course of the river. Zambezi to its mouth. On November 8, 1855, he left Linyanti, accompanied by a large group of Negro companions. Two weeks later, Livingston opened the way to the river. The Zambezi is a famous waterfall called "Rushing Smoke" by the natives. Livingston named it Victoria Falls after the Queen of England.

During this journey, Livingston, on the basis of his observations and determination of heights, came to the correct conclusion about the general nature of the relief of South Africa as about a country that looks like a flat dish with raised edges dropping to the oceans.

At the beginning of March 1856 Livingston reached the Portuguese settlement of Tete, in the lower reaches of the Zambezi, with his companions, in an extremely emaciated state. Here he left his people and continued on his way to Kiliman, where he arrived on May 26, thus completing, at 2.5 years old, the most remarkable and fruitful in its results from the travels ever made. His geographical observations and natural-historical research gave a huge scientific material, which is also remarkable for its amazing accuracy, despite the extremely difficult living conditions in the wilds of inner Africa and the painful condition of Livingstone. Through his observations and accurate descriptions, the map of central South Africa received the new kind and content. When Livingstone began his journey, the map of that time in this part was a blank spot; the Zambezi current, with the exception of the lower reaches, was not known; Livingston was the first to map this largest river.

Having finished this, the second, period of research, Livingston decided to go to England both in order to acquaint the European society with the obtained results, and in order to restore his disordered 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 he was spoken of in England, not caring about literary exposition, not 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 royalties received for the book on a new trip.

Livingstone 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 in order to conduct propaganda against the slave trade, in his speeches carried out the idea of ​​equality of blacks and Europeans. He gave numerous examples of good nature, mental abilities blacks and their responsiveness to all the good things they do.

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

Livingston could rest on his laurels if he felt inclined towards a calm, serene and secure existence, taking advantage of the income from his books. But Livingston was not like that. He was drawn back to Africa. He left the London Missionary Society, with which he was already little connected by the nature of the work, and began to prepare for a new expedition.

As "Her Majesty's Consul at Kiliman for the East Coast and Independent Regions of Inland Africa" ​​and chief of an expedition to explore East and Central Africa, receiving a government grant, Livingston and his wife and youngest son March 10, 1858 went to Africa again. In addition to his wife and son, he took part in the expedition Dr. John Kirk and Livingston's brother Charles. The steamer Pearl arrived at the mouth of the Zambezi on 14 May. Livingston set himself the task of examining the river in more detail. Zambezi; for this purpose he took with him a steam boat from England. On September 8, the expedition members were in Tete. Here Livingston was greeted with joy by a group of makololo negroes who accompanied him on his journey across Africa and patiently waited for four years for Livingston to return from Europe, who promised to send them home. The remainder of the year was devoted to exploring the river above Tete and especially the rapids of Kebras. Most of the next year, the expedition devoted to the study of the river. Shire, flowing from the left into the Zambezi, and the 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 on the new steamer "Pioneer" r. Rovuma for 30 miles. Livingstoi with several missionaries went up the river. Wider, which he visited three years ago. The Pioneer turned out to be too large for such a river as 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 the slave traders. Several groups of slaves who were driven to sell were freed and set free by Livingstone and his companions. The bishop who arrived from England and the missionaries accompanying him Livingston helped to arrange a missionary station, and he himself went to the lake. Nyasa. Soon he 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 a fever. Livingstone was aware that the news of the death of the bishop and the failure of the station organization would be received with displeasure in England and would adversely affect the further course of his research.

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

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

Livingston's fears were justified. The British government was dissatisfied with the failure of the organization of the mission station; under the pretext that the implementation of the expedition's plans was proceeding too slowly, the government announced that it could not financially support further work.
The failure of the mission 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 former small steamer. For this he went to India, to the city of Bombay. There he sold the ship very unsuccessfully, but the money that he rescued and invested in the bank was gone, since the bank was 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. On this visit, he wrote a new book, A Story of a Journey in the Zambezi and Its Tributaries, published in 1865.

The British government decided to help him again. Livingston was warmly received by his true friends... The chairman of the Murchison Geographical Society suggested that he should go to Africa once more, and although Livingston had desire to spend the rest of his days at home in calm conditions, the prospect of a new trip forced him to abandon the comforts of life. He began to prepare again to leave.

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

Having received small grants from the government and the Geographical Society, as well as donations from individuals, Livingston, as consul of Central Africa without a salary, at the end of August 1865 left England.

He arrived in Africa at the end of January 1866, landed at the mouth of the Rowuma and on April 4 headed inland, accompanied by 29 Negro and sepoy servants; in addition to camels, Livingstone took bulls, mules and donkeys. But this impressive expedition soon "melted" - the servants fled, and with Livingstone there were only 4 or 5 boys. Despite these setbacks, the loss of four goats, whose milk the sick Livingston ate, as well as the theft of a box with all the medicines, he still continued on his way. He walked around from the south of the lake. Nyasa, in December 1866 crossed the river. Loangwu, intending to reach the southern shores of Tanganyika. Here, to his great indignation, Livingston fell into the society of Arab slave traders, with whom he had to spend some time. Livingstone all the time suffered greatly from fever, which became for him a "constant companion", and from other diseases. His iron health was shaken; sometimes he could not walk on his own, and the negroes had to carry him on a stretcher. Yet he managed to reach the lake. Meru and R. Lualaba. Livingston said that this river was the upper part of the river. Nile, while in reality it flows into the system of the river. Congo. On July 18, he discovered a large lake. Bangveolo. Continuing along the western shores of Tanganyika, he crossed the lake and on March 14, 1869, arrived in the village of Ujidzhi, where he settled. Livingston needed rest and treatment; emaciated, exhausted, sick, he looked, in his own words, like a bag of bones. Ujiji was the center of the slave trade and ivory; here lived the Arabs who were engaged in catching blacks or bought them for a pittance from the negro leaders. Livingston found it hard to watch this catch and sale of people. Once he was in the village of Nyangwe and saw how in the market, where many blacks from the surrounding villages had gathered, a party of Arab slave traders suddenly opened fire on women; hundreds were killed or drowned in the river while trying to escape. Livingston was stunned by this wild scene; it seemed to him that "he went to hell." His first movement was to shoot with a pistol at the murderers, to punish them for senseless cruelty, but he well understood his helplessness. Having described this picture in vivid colors, Livingston sent a message to England, where it caused great indignation; the Zanzibar Sultan was sent a demand to abolish the slave trade, but that was the end of it.

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

Livingston was away from his homeland for seven years; lonely, sick, he experienced incredible hardships. He had no word from England; all these years I have not heard my native language. 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 on his way with a caravan. It was the American Henry Morton Stanley, an employee of the New York Herald, sent by the newspaper's publisher in search of Livingston. Meeting Stanley lifted Livingston's spirits; he received the help he desperately needed. Stanley's caravan delivered bales of various goods, dishes, tents, provisions, etc. Livingston wrote in his diary: "This traveler will not get into such a position as me."
As soon as Livingston recovered a bit, he and Stanley went 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 towards Unyamwezi at the end of the year, where Stanley supplied Livingston with a large supply of food and equipment. Stanley, deciding to return to England, urged Livingston to go with him, he argued that Livingston's health requires more attention. But the latter firmly rejected this proposal, saying that he had not yet fulfilled the tasks set for himself. On March 14, 1872 Stanley left Livingston and headed for the ocean. He prudently took with him the diary and all the traveller's papers for transferring them to England.

Livingston was left alone again. He lived in Unyamwezi for a total of 5 months. Stanley did not forget Livingstone. He sent a detachment 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 fell seriously ill with dysentery. In January 1873 the expedition found itself in the area of ​​huge swampy thickets on the shores of the lake. Bangveolo. Livingston set himself the task of going around the lake and reaching the western shore to make sure that the lake has a drain. But he was getting worse and worse; in April he had to be put back on a stretcher 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 am completely tired ... I remain to recover ... to send milk goats to buy ... We are on the banks of the Molilamo." On April 30, he hardly wound his watch, and early in the morning of May 1, his servants discovered that the "big master," as he was called, was kneeling by his bed, dead.

The news of Livingston's death terribly excited the whole detachment, many cried. His loyal servants, Susi and Plague, decided to deliver the body of the deceased to Zanzibar to be handed over to the British authorities. This endeavor might seem impracticable: how is it possible to deliver a corpse from inland Africa without roads to an ocean more than 1200 km away? The servants embalmed the corpse; the heart was buried in Ilala under a large tree on which the inscription was made, and the body was placed in a coffin made of wood; the funeral procession set off towards Zanzibar; the journey took about nine months. From Zanzibar, Livingston's body was sent by steamer to Aden, from there to England. Susi and Plague kept and delivered all of the deceased's papers, tools and equipment. In England, doubts arose about the authenticity of Livingston's corpse, but its examination and traces of the fused humerus confirmed that it was indeed the remains of a traveler.

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

The diaries and notes left by Livingston were published in 1874 under the title: "The Last Diaries of David Livingston in Central Africa."
The time and place of his death were immortalized with a monument erected in 1902 on the site of a tree on which this event was recorded by his native admirers.
Livingstone's discoveries are of paramount importance. He was a pioneer in the exploration of South Africa and one of the first in Central Africa. His discoveries laid the foundation for further travel. None of the explorers of Africa have given more for geography than Livingstone in his 30 years of work. By routes of his travels, he covered one third of the continent in the space 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 writing down everything that he met on the way. His geographical and natural history 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 terrain, collect and identify plants and representatives of the animal world, determine rocks, conduct geological and geographical observations, etc. In addition, Livingstone 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 leading researchers possessed. Central Asia- his contemporaries: Przhevalsky, Potanin, Singers. Naturally, both his observations and his geographical generalizations were inferior in their systematicity and depth to the works of the named travelers. Among the pioneers of African exploration, however, Livingston undoubtedly holds the most honorable place.
One of Livingston's merit is that he was the first to give a diagram of the geological structure of South Africa, corresponding to the state of geology at that time; his explanations for 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 the vast central Kalahari basin and the watershed upland between the Zambezi and Congo basins. He traced the entire course of the river. Zambezi from its headwaters to the mouth; discovered lakes Ngami, Shirva, Nyasa, Mvero and Bangweolo. He first crossed the Kalahari from south to north. He determined the position of more than a thousand points. As a result of his discoveries, the map of South and part of Central Africa was significantly replenished with new data. " 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 dwellings, shared with them all their joys and sorrows. He was their true friend, and they looked at bliss as a special being, as the highest authority. He repeatedly had to be a judge in their disputes and strife. The book tells about a case of theft from a "stranger" who came to Seneca. The negroes discovered the thief who had already managed to sell the stolen goods. His tribesmen were outraged by the theft that could stain their tribe, and they were preparing to throw the criminal into the river, which was tantamount to death penalty, but understood that this could not compensate the victim for losses. They turned to Livingston, and he passed a sentence that satisfied everyone; the criminal had to cultivate the land until he worked out the value of the stolen things. This method of punishment was then introduced into practice.

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

Livingston was a humane, noble man in his convictions. His deep belief that all people, regardless of their skin color, are equal, guided all his actions. For all thirty years of his 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 is not his fault that this shameful phenomenon for mankind did not stop as a result of the means he used - persuasion and agitation ... The consequences of the preaching led during his lifetime to a formal order from the British government to the Zanzibar Sultan 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 cruelly treated blacks and took them into slavery, "The Boers ... decided, - wrote Livingston, - to create their own republic, in which they could "treat blacks appropriately" without hindrance. Needless to say, “proper handling” has always included an essential element of slavery, namely forced and unpaid labor.

“For a man of any civilized country,” he wrote further, “it is difficult to imagine that people possessing universal human qualities,“ and the Boers are not at all devoid of the best properties of our nature, - having showered their children and wives with caresses, everyone, as one, set off in cold blood shoot men and women. " Livingston was especially outraged by the fact that the Boers took children prisoner, took them away from their parents so that they, growing up, would forget their parents. "We make them (blacks) work for us," the Boers cynically declared to 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 (with our companion) came to the conclusion that if we supply the slave market with the products of European factories through legal trade, then the trade in slaves would become impossible.

It seemed feasible to supply goods in exchange for ivory and other products of the country and thus suppress the slave trade at the very beginning. This could be done 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 British imperialism into Africa and the colonial policy of the British government. We saw that Livingstone was appointed consul of the land East Africa... The countries through which Livingston passed, and after him other explorers, soon became the colonial possessions of Great Britain. The British said that Livingston's activities dealt a mortal blow to the slave trade, but if open trade in slaves was forbidden, then it was replaced by more modern forms the cruel exploitation of the labor of the indigenous population by the British administrators and "enlightened" colonialists.

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

Livingston's spiritual simplicity and modesty are best reflected in his travel descriptions. They are written in artless simple language; the author never emphasizes the significance of his discoveries, he never puts himself forward; calmly describes all the stages and events experienced by him and his companions. Even in the most dramatic moments, he does not change his tone. Artlessness and simplicity - distinctive features his style. His Journey is an epic poem reminiscent of Homer's Odyssey, a kind of African Odyssey.

Isn't this the unfading beauty of his narratives? When reading, you forget that three quarters of a century have passed since their birth, that much, and a lot, since that time has changed both in nature and in the way of life of nationalities, the ways of movement in Africa have changed, those numerous herds of wild animals have disappeared as Livingston saw - all this is already in the past.

Bibliography

1. Barkov A.S. David Livingston (introductory article in the book: D. Livingston Travels and Explorations in South Africa from 1840 to 1855 - M.: Geografgiz, 1955 - 392 p.)
2. Biographical Dictionary of Scientists and Technicians. T. 1. - Moscow: State. scientific publishing house "Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 1958. - 548 p.