Eighteen years ago, an inconspicuous ship, one of those ships that thousands come to and from London every year, left the mouth of the Thames. A poor and unknown young man sailed from Europe on this ship. The ship landed on the African coast, the young man came to land and went deep into the distance, into unknown deserts, and disappeared among wild tribes, whose names were not even known in Europe. The rumor about the poor young man also disappeared.
As time went. Europe was actively engaged in resolving its political and religious, civil and military issues. As before, many ships entered and left the Thames; business people were moving in crowds from the outskirts of London into the city itself, and - could anyone think of some young man who, eighteen years ago, left for Africa? Suddenly, a hundred thousand rumors glorified this young man: business crowds began to repeat in thousands of voices the name of Dr. David Livingston, an enterprising, intrepid traveler, full of selflessness and dedication to his work as a missionary. Within a few days, scientists and unscientific people throughout Europe knew about his discoveries and were unanimously surprised by them. At once all the churches of the evangelical denomination in England agreed to publicly express their gratitude to the man who had rendered so much service to the holy cause of missionary work.
Livingston
Before Livingston's discoveries, the entire southern half of Africa seemed a monotonous, lifeless desert; maps of this part of the world depicted the expected river flows with timid dots, but at some distance from the banks there were no dots. Rare settlements and stations were known along the shores, as well as river mouths where sailors stocked up on water. Further inland, it’s as if everything is just steppes and steppes, burned by the scorching rays of the sun, without water, without vegetation, without life, where only fierce animals, the kings of deserts and steppes, reign supreme. Livingston dared to make his way into these wild, unknown regions of southern Africa.
Livingstone's task was to penetrate into the interior of Africa with the gospel and pave the way for enlightenment to end the disgusting slave trade, and he accomplished his task in a victorious manner. The road has been paved and Africa is open to trade and civilization.
From 1840 to 1849, Livingston studied the dialects and customs of the natives and made, one after another, four large trips. Each journey, taken separately, is so significant that one could glorify a person forever.
On his first and even more important journey, undertaken in 1849 with his wife and children, Livingston managed to reach one of the inland lakes of Africa, Lake Ngami, located 1300 miles in a direct direction from the city of Capa on the Cape of Good Hope. He vaguely guessed about this lake from conversations and stories of the natives. Then, still together with his family, he further and further explored and discovered hitherto unknown lands, and thus discovered the magnificent Zambezi River, which he considers a great road for connecting Europe with inland Africa. Finally, from 1852 to 1856, leaving his family in Kapstadt, Livingston alone, accompanied by several natives, amid countless difficulties, walked through the whole of Africa, first from east to west, and then from west to east over an area of eighteen thousand miles. Thanks to Livingston, it is now known that interior Africa is irrigated by deep rivers and covered with luxurious, varied vegetation; it is known that the banks of these rivers are inhabited by numerous tribes who have an understanding of trade and certainly have a clear understanding of war; in short, it is known that southern Africa is not a barren, waterless, desolate and impenetrable desert, but a country with a rich future, open to enterprise, trade and missionaries.
I
Livingstone was born in 1813 in Blantyre, near Glasgow, Scotland. His father and mother were poor people who had to send their ten-year-old son to work at a paper mill in order to support the meager existence of the family with his earnings. He had to work from six o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock in the evening. With a different character, the boy would have completely died out and gone wild in such work; but little Livingston, on the contrary, worked energetically to acquire for himself a good stock of knowledge. “Having received my wages for a week (Livingston writes), I bought myself a Latin grammar and studied this language persistently for several years in a row, then went to school from 8 to 10 o’clock in the evening, and also worked with the lexicon until midnight, until my mother would not will take away my books. Thus I read many classics and at the age of seventeen I knew Horace and Virgil much better than I know them now.
“Our school teacher, who received a salary from the factory where I worked, was a very kind, attentive person and extremely lenient regarding fees from students, so anyone who wanted to was accepted into his school.”
Livingston read everything he could get his hands on, everything except novels. Scientific books and travel were his pleasure. After reading, most of all he loved to study nature itself. Very often, together with his brothers, running around the outskirts of the village, he collected samples of minerals. Once he climbed into the limestone quarries and, to the great surprise of the workers, enthusiastically rushed to collect shells, of which there were many there. One of the workers looked at him with pity, and Livingston asked him why there were so many shells here, and how did they get here?
When God created these rocks, at the same time he created the shells,” the worker answered with imperturbable calm.
“How much work geologists would save and how far we would all go if it were possible to answer everything with such explanations,” Livingston notes in his notes.
“To make it possible to read while working at the factory,” the author writes, I placed the book on the very machine on which I worked, and thus read page after page, not paying attention to the clattering of the machines from all sides. To this circumstance I owe the invaluable ability to go deep into myself and completely retire in the midst of all noise; This ability was extremely useful to me in my travels among savages.”
Livingston dedicated his life to suffering humanity and chose the surest path for his service: he decided to become a doctor and missionary, and for this he did not spare his strength. At nineteen he got a job as a spinner and, with the first increase in salary, began to save money. Livingston works tirelessly all summer; and in winter he listens to lectures on medicine, Greek classics and theology.
“No one has ever helped me,” says Livingstone with legal and full consciousness, “and I, in time, by my own efforts, would have achieved my goal, if some of my friends had not advised me to enter into relations with a society of missionaries in London , as with an institution based on the broadest Christian principles. This society has no shade of sect and sends to the pagans not Presbyterians, not Lutherans, not Protestants, but the very Gospel of Christ. - “That’s exactly what I wanted and with this very direction I dreamed of establishing a society of missionaries. Now, when I remember this working period of my life, I bless these moments, and rejoice that a large part of my life was spent in the works and occupations with which I achieved my education. If I had to relive all that, what I experienced, I would be very glad and would not have chosen another way of life, perhaps an easier and more carefree one. " Through willpower and tireless work, the Glasgow spinner overcame all the obstacles that threatened to destroy his dreams of being a missionary, and Livingstone successfully passed the medical exam . He wanted to first choose China as a field of missionary activity, but the war for opium blocked all paths there, and Livingston turned in the direction where the venerable Moffat worked and worked - to Africa.
II
After a three-month voyage, in 1840, Livingston reached the African coast in Kapstadt. From there he soon went to the Kuruman station, established inland, 1200 miles from Cap, by Hamilton and Moffat, whose mission he joined.
In order to better get used to his new life, Livingston decided to move away from his friends and lived for six months alone among the savages, energetically studying their language, habits and customs. During these six months he became so accustomed to the savages and began to communicate with them so well and easily that it did not cost him much difficulty to enter into relations with various other tribes of inner Africa, which also made it possible to go to places where no one dared to go. European.
Livingston's Adventure with the Lion
He needed to get used to hard and long hikes in order to endure them without fatigue; As a result, he undertook voyages of discovery, accompanied by several natives. Livingston was thin and generally weakly built and had little hope for his physical strength. One day he heard the savages laughing among themselves at his weakness. “All my blood began to boil in me,” says Livingston, and having gathered my last strength, completely forgetting the fatigue that seemed to be beginning to overcome me, I walked forward so quickly and cheerfully that the savages who laughed at me admitted to me that they did not expect me to he was such a nice walker." During such inevitably tedious marches it was often necessary that his life was in danger. Among many similar cases, one cannot fail to mention Livingston’s meeting with a lion, and he was saved by some miracle.
A flock of lions has been haunting the residents of one village for some time. At night, the lions made their way into the fence where the livestock was locked and chose their prey there. Finally they began to appear and attack animals even during the day. This is such a rare case in southern Africa that the natives, explaining such a misfortune to themselves, came up with the idea of blaming the neighboring village, as if the local residents had conjured this misfortune on them and that they were all doomed to be sacrificed to the lions. It was necessary, at all costs, to get rid of such trouble. Usually, you need to kill at least one lion from the pack, and then all the comrades of the killed one go somewhere else. When Livingston heard about a new attack by lions, he himself went on a lion hunt to give some courage to the unfortunate savages who decided to get rid of them.
“We noticed lions on a small hill covered with dense trees. All the people stood around the hill and began, little by little, to converge on the lair. I stayed at the bottom of the hill,” writes Livingston, with a native school teacher, a wonderful man named Mebalve; we both had there were guns. - We noticed one of the lions in a prone position on a rock. My comrade fired first, but took poor aim, and the bullet only knocked off a piece of stone. Like a dog rushes at a stone thrown at it, so the lion rushed, baring its teeth, to the place , which was hit by a bullet, then in a few jumps he found himself in the circle of hunters, who were so timid that everyone seemed to have forgotten about their weapons. The other two lions also remained unharmed, thanks to the cowardice of the hunters, who did not even try to shoot arrows at them or use spears into action. Seeing that the hunt was not at all successful, I went back to the village, and suddenly I saw that the fourth lion was hiding and lying behind a bush. I aimed at him thirty paces away and hit him with both shots of my gun.
Wounded, wounded! the whole crowd shouted; let's go finish it off! But, seeing that the lion was waving its tail in rage, I shouted to them to wait while I loaded my gun again, and was already putting a bullet in the barrel, when a general cry made me turn around. The lion jumped towards me, grabbed me by the shoulder, and we both rolled. I can now hear the terrible roar of a lion. He tossed and tossed me like an angry dog tosses its prey. I was so shocked that I became completely morally numb; This is exactly the kind of stupor a mouse probably finds itself in when it falls into the claws of a cat. I felt like I had fainted and felt neither pain nor fear, although I clearly understood everything that was happening to me. I can compare this situation with the position of a patient who has snorted chloroform and consciously sees how the surgeon takes away his penis, but does not feel any pain. I could even look without shuddering at the terrible beast that held me under him. I believe that all animals are under this strange impression when they fall prey to predators, and if, in fact, their state is similar to mine in these terrible moments, then this is a great happiness, because it alleviates the death throes and the horror of death.
“The lion’s paw lay with all its weight on the back of my head; Turning my head instinctively to get rid of this pressure, I saw that the lion’s gaze was fixed on Mebalve, who was taking aim at him ten or fifteen paces away. Unfortunately, Mebalve's gun had flint and broke twice. The lion left me, rushed at my brave comrade and grabbed him by the thigh. Then one native, whose life I had previously saved by repelling him from the pursuit of an angry buffalo, shot an arrow at the lion. The enraged lion left his second victim, grabbed the savage by the shoulder and would surely have torn him into pieces if he had not fallen dead next to him, as a result of two mortal wounds caused by my bullets. The whole incident was a matter of a few seconds, but the last efforts of the lion's fury were terrible. To destroy the trace of the supposed witchcraft, the next day the savages burned the killed lion on a large bonfire; the lion was huge; The savages insisted that they had never seen lions of such size. “After this story, I had traces of eleven teeth of this monstrous beast on my shoulder, which at the same time broke the bone of my arm in several places. My clothes, on which the harmful saliva of the enraged beast remained, helped me a lot, and my wounds soon healed; but my comrades, who were without clothes, recovered slowly. The one whose shoulder was bitten by a lion showed me the next year that the wounds opened again in the very month in which the lion bit him. This fact would be worth observing and studying."
When Livingston could speak the native language completely fluently, got used to all the difficulties and dangers of his position, and was not afraid of fatigue, he decided to establish a new station, further in the depths of the interior of Africa, about another 350 miles from the Kuruman station. In 1843, Livingstone was founded for the first time in the town of Mabotse; and two years later he moved his entire establishment to the banks of the Kolobeng River to live among the Bekuen (Bakwena) tribe. There he became friends with the chief (chief) of this tribe, Sechele. His father died in a riot when Sechele was still a child; for a long time his power was enjoyed by another, but then Sechele, with the help of one ruler of the inner region, named Sebituan, regained power over the Bekuen tribe.
The friendly relations of these two leaders subsequently helped Livingston find in countries that were previously completely unknown, populations that were willing to accept him and patronize him. In the meantime, Livingston dreamed and thought only about how to convert Sechele and the tribe under his control to the path of the Gospel.
“The first time I started talking about Christian teaching in the presence of my friend Sechele,” says Dr. Livingston, “he noticed to me that, according to the custom of the region, everyone has the right to question anyone who says something unusual; and he asked me , did my ancestors know about all this and did they have any idea about the future life and the Last Judgment, which is what I preached about on that very day?
“I answered him in the affirmative with the words of Holy Scripture and began to describe to him the Last Judgment.
“You terrify me,” Sechele said; these words make me tremble. I feel that my strength is weakening! Your ancestors lived at the same time as mine, why didn’t they teach them, explain these truths to them? My ancestors died in ignorance and did not know what would happen to them after death.
“I got out of such a difficult question by explaining the geographical obstacles that separate us, and at the same time represented to him that I firmly believe in the triumph of the Gospel throughout the whole earth. Pointing his hand towards the great steppe, Sechele said to me: “You will never pass to that distant country that is beyond this steppe, and you will not get to the tribes living there; even we, the blacks, cannot go in this direction except after heavy rains, which are very rare among us. To this I again answered that The Gospel will penetrate everywhere. Afterwards the reader will see that Sechele himself helped me cross the desert, which for a long time was considered an insurmountable obstacle."
Soon Sechele began to learn to read and studied with such diligence that he abandoned his hunting life, and from such a quiet activity, from a thin man he became plump. He could not see Livingston without forcing him to listen to several chapters of the Bible. Isaiah was his favorite author, and Sechele often repeated: “Isaiah was a great man and knew how to speak well.” Knowing that Livingston wanted the entire tribe under his control to believe in the Gospel, he once said to him: “Do you think that this people will listen to your words alone? All my life, I could not get anything from them except by beatings. If you want, I will order all the leaders to appear, and then we will just force them all to believe with litupes” (these are long whips made of rhinoceros skin). I assured him, of course, that this method was not suitable, that the whip-like conviction had a bad effect on the soul and that I would achieve the goal only with words; but it seemed to him extremely wild, incredible and impossible. However, he did not make quick, but solid progress and in every case confirmed that he deeply believed in all the truths preached by the Gospel, and he himself always acted with directness and frankness. “What a pity,” he often said, “that you did not come here before I entangled myself in all our customs!”
In fact, native customs were not entirely in harmony with Christian ones. In order to assert his influence over his subjects, and according to the custom of all tribal leaders in Africa, Sechele had several wives, all daughters of significant people of the region and for the most part daughters of leaders who were faithful to him in his bad and unhappy days. As a result of his new convictions, he would like to keep one wife for himself and send the others to their parents; but this was too difficult a step both in relation to himself and in relation to his fathers, to whom such an act could seem ingratitude and could shake his power. In the hope of converting other natives to Christianity, Sechele asked Livingston to start home worship with him. Livingston gladly hastened to take advantage of such a favorable opportunity, and was soon struck by the chief’s prayer, which was simple, in noble, gentle expressions and showed all the eloquence of the native language, which Sechele was fully fluent. However, no one was present at these services except the chief’s own family, and he said with sadness: “Before, when the chief loved hunting, everyone under his command became hunters; if he liked music and dancing, everyone also liked dancing and music. Now it's completely different! I love the word of God and not one of my brothers comes or wants to unite with me.” For three years Sechele remained faithful to his new accepted belief in Christ. But Dr. Livingston did not rush him to be baptized; he understood the difficulty of his position and pitied the boss’s wives. But Sechele himself wished to be baptized and asked Livingston to act as the word of God and his own conscience commanded him: and he himself went to his house, ordered new clothes to be made for all his wives, divided among them everything that they should have, endowed them He sent everyone that he had the best to his parents and ordered them to say that he was sending these women away not because he was dissatisfied with them; but only because respect for the word of God forbids him to have them in his possession.
“On the day of the baptism of Sechele and his family, many people gathered. Some of the natives, deceived by slanderers and enemies of the Christian faith, thought that the converts would be given water infused with human brains to drink. And everyone was surprised that during baptism we use only clean water. Some old people wept bitterly for the boss who was bewitched by the doctor.”
Soon parties were formed against Sechele, something that had not happened before the baptism. All the relatives of the sent wives became his enemies and enemies of Christianity. The number of prayer listeners and school students was limited to members of the chief's family. However, everyone respected Livingston and treated him friendly; but the poor and once terrible Sechele sometimes had to listen to such things for which previously any impudent person would have paid with his life.
III
While Sechele's conversion to Christianity was making Livingstone so happy, an unexpected test struck the new mission. These were extraordinary droughts that lasted almost three years.
Rain, it goes without saying, is the main necessity of the inhabitants of Africa, and they imagine that some people have the ability to attract clouds through witchcraft. These rainmakers have a stronger influence on the entire people than the influence of the boss, who himself is often obliged to obey them. Every tribe has its own rainmaker or rainmaker, and sometimes there are two or even three of them in one place. Like any rogues, they know how to take advantage of the gullibility of their fans. One of the most famous cloud-attractors and rain-makers, as the famous missionary Moffat relates, was summoned to Kuruman by the Bekuen tribe. As luck would have it, on the day when the arrival of the expected wizard was announced, clouds gathered over Kuruman, thunder roared and several large drops of rain fell to the ground. Shouts of joy were heard from everywhere. However, the clouds swept past, and the drought continued, despite the fact that the wizard looked at the clouds every day and did some tricks, waving his arms. The wind did not change, the drought continued.
One day, while he was fast asleep, it began to rain. The chief went to congratulate the cloud attracter; but was very surprised when he found him sleeping. “What is this, my father? I thought you were busy with the rain: but you’re sleeping!”
The Dodger woke up; but seeing that his wife was immediately churning butter, he was not at all lost and answered: “It’s not me, it’s my wife, you see, she continues my work and beats so that it rains; and I got tired from this work and lay down to rest a little.”
But these deceivers do not always manage to get off so easily, and most of them die in cruel torture. Sooner or later their deception is discovered, and they are killed by angry savages who so easily believe them at first. Despite this, others appear and find admirers, who again, at the first failure, curse them and kill them without mercy.
Sechele was one of the famous attractors of clouds and rain, and what is strangest of all, he himself blindly believed in his ability. Subsequently, he admitted that of all the pagan prejudices, faith in his own strength and the ability to attract rain was most deeply rooted in him, and that it was most difficult for him to part with this prejudice.
During the first time of drought, on the advice of Livingston, the entire Bekuen tribe moved and settled on the banks of the Kolobeng River, 700 miles further into Africa.
By watering the fields, through cleverly placed dams and weirs, flourishing plantations were successfully maintained for some time. But in the second year there was not a drop of rain, and the river in turn dried up; all the fish, of which there were a lot, died; The hyenas who had fled from neighboring places could not devour all this mass of dead fish. Between these remains there was even a huge crocodile, which also died from lack of water. The inhabitants of this unfortunate area began to think that Livingstone had brought disaster upon Sechele and had deprived him of his ability to attract rain; Soon a significant deputation from the people appeared and begged Livingston to allow the chief to attract clouds and rain in order to revive the earth, at least for a short time. “The crops will die,” they told Livingston, “and we will have to disperse, flee from these places! Let Sechele bring the rain one more time, and then we all, men, women and children, will accept the Gospel and pray and sing as much as you want.”
Livingston tried in vain to assure the savages that he was not to blame for any of this, that he himself suffered in exactly the same way as they did; but the poor savages attributed his words to indifference to their common misfortune. It often happened that clouds converged over the heads of the poor inhabitants, thunder roared and seemed to foreshadow the desired rain; But the thunderstorm passed by and the savages were finally convinced that there was some kind of mysterious connection between them, the preacher of the word of God and their misfortune. “Look,” they said, “our neighbors have heavy rain; but it doesn’t happen here. They pray with us, but no one prays with them. We love you, just as if you were born between us; You are the only white man with whom we can live together, and we ask you: stop praying and speak no more of your sermons.” One can imagine Livingston's unpleasant position under such circumstances, and could he fulfill the desire of the savages? But, to the credit of the entire Bekuen tribe, it must be added that despite their pagan prejudices and the constant drought that was disastrous for them, they did not cease to be kind and show their affection towards the missionary and his family.
Next to the noble personality of Livingston there is always a creature close to him and all his actions, this creature is his devoted wife, the daughter of the venerable missionary Moffat. Removed from the vanities of the world, completely devoted to family concerns, this woman personifies the high, ideal purpose of a wife, to be an assistant in everything and never an obstacle in the useful actions of her husband.
Here is an extract from Livingston’s notes about his home life: “We cannot get the most necessary items for life here for any money. We need bricks to build a house for ourselves; for this we need to make a mold, and for one mold we need to cut down a tree, saw it ourselves on boards, and having sawed, do it properly. One after another, all the skills will be needed: but it is impossible to count on the natives; they are so accustomed to the natural round shape that the quadrangular shape confuses them: they do not understand how to get down to business. All three the houses that I had to build were built with my own hands from the foundation to the roof; every brick I shaped and laid in place myself, every log was hewn and laid with my own hands.
“I cannot help but notice in this case that it is not at all as difficult and difficult as they think to rely only on oneself, and when, in a deserted region, a husband and wife owe only their mutual help and labors the majority of their hard-won well-being, then their existences are connected even more closely and take on an unexpected charm. Here is an example of one of these days of our family life:
“We get up at sunrise to enjoy the beauty of the morning coolness, and have breakfast between six and seven o’clock. Then follows the time of study, at which everyone is present: men, women and children. The study ends at eleven o’clock. While my wife is busy with household chores, I work , sometimes as a blacksmith, sometimes as a carpenter or a gardener, sometimes for himself, sometimes for others. After dinner and an hour's rest, about a hundred little ones gather around my wife; she shows them something useful and to teach, whom to teach, who to sew; all the children They look forward to these moments of children's school meetings with pleasure and study with great diligence.
“In the evenings, I walk around the village, and whoever wants to talk to me either about religion, or about general subjects of life. Three times a week, after the cows are milked, I perform a church service and speak a sermon or explain subjects incomprehensible to savages through paintings and prints.
“My wife and I tried to gain the love of everyone around us by helping them in their physical suffering. The missionary should not neglect anything; the slightest service, a kind word, a friendly look, everything kind - this is the missionary’s only weapon. Show mercy to the most notorious opponents of Christianity, helping them in illness, comforting them in sorrow, and they will become your friends. In such cases, you can most certainly count on love for love.”
In the midst of his labors, our missionary encountered a misfortune greater than that which threatened him due to the drought; he needed to get rid of the attacks of the Boyers (Boers). The Boyers (Boers), i.e. farmers, were the original Dutch settlers in the area around the Cap before the British occupied the area. Since then, some of the Dutch colonists, in order not to be under the rule of new conquerors, left the lands of the colony and went into Africa, to 26 degrees. south latitude, and settled at Magaliesberg, in the mountains lying east of Kolobeng station.
Over time, the new colony was replenished with English fugitives, vagabonds of all kinds, multiplied and increased to the point that an independent republic was formed. One of the important goals of all these people is to keep in their bondage the Hottentot slaves, who, according to English law, should be free.
They speak thus of their attitude towards the natives from whom they have taken the land: “We allow them to live in our dominions; therefore it is only right that they should cultivate our fields.”
Livingston saw several times how these settlers unexpectedly invaded the village, collected several women and took them away to weed their gardens; and these poor women had to give up their own work, follow them and drag babies on their backs, food for themselves and also tools for work, and do all this without any remuneration, without payment for their labor. To this profitable method of having free workers they added an even more profitable one. Sometimes a huge gang of such Boyer robbers goes to distant villages and kidnaps children there, especially boys, who soon forget their native language and more easily get used to captivity.
We must add to these disgusting acts the fact that these colonists call themselves Christians and are not ashamed to admit that they hunt people. They justify themselves by saying that blacks are an inferior breed of people; but does this justify the deed itself, and isn’t this just a justification for unscrupulous people? As a result, they persecute everything that serves the development of blacks, and therefore they persecute missionaries who preach that there are no slaves. The successes of the missionaries are offensive to the Boyers and seem to them to be simply an enemy attack. They try to harm, persecute and, finally, openly attack and start a war with those tribes that live on friendly terms with the missionaries. All these troubles and significant obstacles gave Livingston the idea, and even forced him, to look for a new route into Africa, new countries, further to the north, where the tribes could escape from the persecution of their enemies.
IV
But where was there to go? To the west and to the north, between the station and the distant tribes, for whose friendly disposition Sechele vouched, the Kalahari steppe stretched like an insurmountable barrier. This is the name of the vast plane lying between 20° and 26° longitude, and 21° and 27° south. lat. There are no rivers, no mountains, no valleys and, strangest of all, not a single stone. But this steppe is not some barren and deserted sultry Sahara. No, the grass there is in some places as thick, lush and tall as in India; Impenetrable forests cover vast areas, giant mimosas, blooming luxurious shrubs, and a variety of flowers grow.
But the Kalahari fully deserves the name of steppe, due to the complete lack of water. Thirst, languid thirst, more than all other obstacles, stops travelers. “Dryness or a complete lack of water,” writes the missionary Lemu from southern Africa, does not come from the fact that there is no rain there: but precisely from the too smooth plane of the edge. No hill, no slope, nowhere the slightest depression where water could accumulate; Light, loose and sandy soil absorbs water everywhere and does not release it anywhere.
During heavy rains, the earth immediately absorbs the entire mass of falling water, to the point that if there is heavy rain during the day, the traveler in the evening will no longer find anything to quench his painful thirst.
However, here and there, at great distances, there are places of not entirely sandy soil, where rainwater is retained and stored. During the rains, these puddles become small lakes. Then the man, the lion, the giraffe, all the inhabitants of this country come one after another to quench their thirst, and at such meetings, of course, terrible and deadly fights happen. It is also clear that, with the scorching African sun, the water in these pools soon evaporates, and it is impossible to rely on the water of these places; It also happens that in some places this water dissolves the salt contained in the soil, becomes salty and inflames thirst even more.
But even in these inhospitable places people live! They belong to two tribes, which, although for centuries subject to the same climatic conditions, have retained a noticeable difference, by which one can judge their different origins.
The first of these are the Bushmen, the primitive tribe of this part of the continent; The people are nomadic, live by hunting and move from place to place following the game on which they feed. They are active, tireless, attack lions without fear and instill fear in all their enemies with their poisonous arrows.
The second tribe, the Bakalihari, belongs to the Bekuen family. These are the remnants of that tribe, which, as a result of wars and oppression, had to seek refuge and freedom in these deserts. They retained all their previous inclinations: a love of agriculture and the ability to care for domestic animals. By nature, timid to the extreme, they are distinguished by meekness of morals and hospitality. And there is almost no owner nearby who would not consider them to be his slaves. Each of the bosses, no matter how insignificant he may be, when speaking about them, you will certainly say: My workers are bakalihari. Their lands are called: Kalihari, the land of slaves.
The Bakalihari, however, love their wild deserts, which, due to their vastness, give them the opportunity to hide from oppressors. They very skillfully find places where at least a little water is kept, and the women collect it in leather bags or skillfully drilled ostrich egg shells, and carefully hide it underground to preserve its freshness and hide it from enemies.
If a traveler comes to them with friendly intentions, and these poor people become convinced of this after a while, they will take out water from somewhere where it is impossible to suspect it, and let it quench their thirst. One day, a gang of robbers attacked one of these poor villages and demanded water. They were answered in cold blood that there was no water and no one was drinking it. The newcomers watched over the inhabitants all day and all night, with vigilant attention, which was aroused by a terrible thirst; but they couldn’t notice anything; the inhabitants seemed accustomed to living without drinking and did not suffer from thirst as they did. Without waiting for a single drop, the enemies had to leave and look for water somewhere in the puddles themselves.
What is most strange about the attachment of the Bakalihari to their lands is the multitude of animals to which they are constantly exposed. Not counting elephants, lions, leopards, tigers, hyenas, there are so many snakes of all kinds that their incessant hissing instills mortal fear in the traveler. Some snakes are green, like the leaves in which they hide, others are bluish and similar in color to the branches around which they twine. The bite of almost all of these snakes is fatal. Lemu mentions one of them, the most dangerous snake, called the Chosa Bosigo or snake of the night. “She is completely black and terrifies people with her disgustingly bulging, completely round, disproportionately large eyes; the fixed gaze of this snake is unbearable and cannot be compared with anything in all of nature. Moreover, it is of such enormous size that I once saw (says Lemu) how the natives killed such a snake with darts at a great distance.
The type of plants varies in Africa according to the requirements of climate and soil: for example. the grapes there do not have the same roots as ours: there their roots were formed by tubers, like our potatoes: perhaps it was an effort of nature to retain some moisture in reserve, so necessary during prolonged droughts. The other two plants are a complete blessing for the inhabitants of this steppe. The stem of one rises barely three inches from the ground; and it goes almost 7 inches deep and grows like a tuber into a large child’s head; the cellular tissue of this fruit is filled with thick juice, which, thanks to the depth in which it ripens, is unusually fresh.
Another plant is even better, it's like watermelon. After heavy rains, which sometimes happen, the desert is covered with these fruits and presents a charming, lively and even tasty picture.
When the first rays of the sun begin to gild the tops of the trees, the dove will coo sadly and tenderly, and her feathered friends will answer this morning greeting with the same gentle coo. Dark blue starlings and beautiful jays fly from tree to tree. The nests of crossbills hanging on the branches sway in the wind, which hangs the nest from a branch on some kind of flexible stalk to protect its offspring from the attack of snakes; and on other trees, nests of birds of a strange design are quietly attached, living in families and often forming significant colonies. “In the forest there is a noisy sound of the beaks of a woodpecker and a toucan, which, under the rough bark of a mimosa, are looking for all sorts of insects and caterpillars.”
Livingston had to go through such places to get to the tribes living inside Africa. In order to avoid the difficulties that would have to be endured in the event of prolonged droughts, he decided to take an indirect route; but go around the outskirts of the steppe and thereby, if possible, prevent all the disasters of traveling in such regions.
On June 1, 1849, Livingston, with his family and two of his friends, Oswell (Oswell) and Murray (Murray), set off on a journey to unknown lands. They walked more than five hundred miles among terrible waterlessness; but one can imagine their delight when, after thirty days of a terribly difficult journey, the bleak, barren, deserted places ended, and they approached the banks of a wide and deep stream, the Zug, overshadowed by magnificent trees, among which were completely unknown to our travelers.
The residents received the strangers with complete and sincere cordiality and said that the Zuga flows from Lake Ngami, which lies 500 versts further to the north. Livingston, delighted at such an unexpected discovery, allowed his companions to slowly make their way in a heavy carriage along the meanders of the river: and he, with several guides, got into a boat made of tree bark and sailed to the lake. As they went upstream, the river became wider and upstream, the river became wider and deeper, and villages were more often visible along the banks. Finally, on August 1, a small caravan, after a two-month difficult journey, stopped on the shores of a beautiful and magnificent lake, where no European had ever been before. - Livingston’s wife and their three children, who shared with their father all the hardships of the difficult journey, shared with him the honor of discovering the lake. Lake Ngami is about 35 miles long; but despite its vastness, it is shallow and therefore there will never be correct navigation; and the shores could have been a center for the ivory trade.
And in fact, there are so many elephants there that one merchant who joined Livingston’s expedition bought ten elephant tusks for a gun that barely cost five rubles. There is a great abundance of all kinds of fish in the lake and river, and all the inhabitants eat fish, contrary to the customs of more southern tribes, among whom fish is considered an unclean food. One fish caught Livingston's particular attention: it looked like an eel with a thick head and no scales; the natives call it mosala, and naturalists call it glanis siluris (catfish). This fish is sometimes very large; when the fisherman carries it, holding his head on his shoulder, the tail of the fish drags along the ground; in its head, due to the special structure of its gills, a certain amount of water is always stored, so that it can live for quite a long time, buried in the thick mud of a drying swamp.
Livingston really wanted to penetrate beyond the lake, to the settlement of a significant king named Sebituan, a friend of Sechele who had converted to Christianity. But the hostility of one of the local chiefs of the village, the impossibility of getting wood to build a raft and the late season were all obstacles, so we had to postpone this trip until another, more convenient time, and our travelers went back along the road to Kolobeng.
The next year, 1850, they again tried to get through in the same direction; the converted Sechele joined them; but hope again deceived Livingston. Some of the travelers fell ill with fever, and the draft oxen were almost all destroyed by a poisonous fly called tsetse. We had to hurry to get back somehow.
The tsetse fly, glossina morsitans, which always plays a remarkable part in all stories of travel in Africa, is no more than our common fly, brownish in color, like a bee, with three or four yellow stripes on its abdomen. Its sting is not at all harmful to a person: but if it stings an ox or a horse, then there is no salvation for them. It has also been noted that tsetse is not dangerous to wild animals, and does not even harm calves that are still suckling their mothers. This fly is found only in certain, sharply limited areas; Livingston himself saw that the southern side of the Hobe River was inhabited by them, and the opposite bank was free, so that the oxen ate completely safely at a distance of 70 steps from their mortal enemies. At first, the tsetse sting does not produce any particularly harmful effect on the ox; but a few days after that, signs of illness appear. The ox loses more and more weight from day to day, and after a few weeks or months, completely weakened, dies. There is no remedy for such a disaster. Where cattle breeding is the only wealth of the people, one can imagine what misfortune can happen if the herds somehow wander beyond the safe line, into a zone inhabited by a poisonous fly: then a rich tribe can lose everything at once and suffer terrible hunger.
A traveler whose oxen pull his wagon and at the same time provide his food with their meat, in case of an unsuccessful hunt, can easily die of hunger if this harmful fly comes across him on the road.
V
Livingston and his comrades had just returned from the road after the second failed expedition when people sent from Sebituan, to which Livingston wanted to get, arrived at Kolobeng station. Sebituane knew about both attempts of the missionary to go to him, and therefore sent a significant number of oxen as a gift to the three commanders under his command, past whose villages our travelers would have to go, so that they would not interfere with and would also help the missionary’s expedition.
Before these gifts, the bosses actually did their best to prevent Livingston from penetrating into the country, because they wanted to be the only ones to retain all the benefits of relations with the Europeans.
Encouraged by such persistent appeal, in the early spring of 1851, Livingston, with his friend Oswell, set out on the road, with the firm intention of finally establishing a missionary station among the newly discovered tribes. Livingston took his wife and children with him, deciding to stay with them among the savages and deserts of Africa.
Our travelers noticed with surprise a whole chain of swamps covered with salt crystals; one of these swamps stretched 175 versts in length, and was 25 versts wide. Due to the guide’s mistake, the travelers walked along the most bleak side of the desert, without any vegetation; only here and there were small bushes sticking out, crawling along the sand; the monotonous silence of the steppe was not enlivened either by the voice of a bird or the flight of an insect. The guide finally admitted that he himself did not know where he was leading, and in addition, on the fourth day he disappeared. Fortunately for the small caravan, Livingston noticed the tracks of a rhinoceros, which never goes far from the water. They unharnessed the oxen, and some of the servants followed the tracks of the animal, confident that they would find at least some puddle nearby.
Five days passed in this direction, five terrible days for the father, who saw that the small supply of water carefully preserved for the children was being exhausted. The poor mother uttered neither reproach nor murmur; but a few quiet tears proved her desperate fears about the fate of everyone dear to her heart. Finally, on the fifth day, the messengers arrived with a good supply of water. The fleeing guide also returned with them, and everyone reached the bank of the Chobe (Linyanti), a wide and deep river that flows into the Zambezi. Near this river is the village of Linyanti, the seat of Sebituan, the king of the Makololo tribe.
The reception given to the missionary clearly showed the disposition and impatience with which he wanted to see Livingston. Sebituane asked permission to be present at the service of mass, which Livingston scheduled for the next day after his arrival, and celebrated it in the presence of the king and the entire village.
“Early, before dawn,” says Livingston, “Sebituane came and sat with us by the fire and told us the story of his past life.
“Sebituan was undoubtedly the most wonderful person of all the blacks I have ever met. He was about forty-five years old; his tall stature and Herculean physique showed a lot of strength: his complexion was olive, and his head was slightly bald. In his manner he is usually cold and cautious; but he treated us very kindly and answered everything with such frankness that I have not found in my relations with any of the black bosses. Sebituan was the bravest warrior in the entire region and always led his army himself in all battles: although this was against the general custom of the country, he neglected customs and never acted according to the example of others. Often he fought, and always happily; but to his credit it must be said that war was not a pleasure for him: he fought not for glory, but only out of necessity: he was forced to defend himself from the Boyers and other, more dangerous enemies, the Matebele and their king Mozelekatsi.”
At the time Livingstone saw Sebituan, he conquered all the small tribes inhabiting the swampy area where the Chobe flows into the Zambezi. Concentrating all his strength in this place, he favorably received everyone who sought his protection: he was loved by everyone for his kindness and justice. Sebituane was very pleased that Livingston was not afraid to take his family with him; he accepted this as a proof of confidence, which flattered his noble character.
Sebituane showed Livingstone around and left him to choose a site for establishing a missionary station wherever he wanted; but soon he unexpectedly fell ill due to long-standing wounds. All the missionary's enterprises stopped; and Livingston’s position was very unpleasant: as a foreigner, he did not dare to treat the patient, so that in the event of his death he would not be accused by the people. “You are doing well,” said one of the native doctors to Livingston, “not treating the boss; the people will accuse you, and there will be trouble.”
“After lunch, on the day of the death of the leader and leader of the people,” writes Livingston, “I went with my little Robert to visit his sick man. “Come,” he said, and see if I still look like a man? My end has come!”
“Seeing that he understood his position, I began to talk about death and the future life, but one of those present remarked to me that there was no need to talk about death, because Sebituane would never die. I stayed a few more minutes near the patient, then I wanted to leave: then the sick man rose, called one of the servants and said: “Take Robert to Maunka (one of his wives) so that she can give him milk.” These were the last words of Sebituane.
Although the death of such a powerful patron temporarily destroyed Livingston’s assumptions, it did not deprive him of the favor and friendly relations of the natives. The daughter, the heir of the deceased king, allowed the missionary to inspect her possessions.
In contrast to the barren deserts of southern Africa, this part is a veritable labyrinth of rivers, and the natives very correctly call their region by a name that means “river upon river.” Following the main course, our travelers discovered the magnificent Zambezi River, which flows into the Gulf of Mozambique, as Livingstone later discovered.
The Zambezi River changes its name several times; her name is sometimes Liba, sometimes Liambi, sometimes Zambezi. All these names mean river in different dialects of the tribes that live along its banks. Livingston describes this river as follows:
“The width of the Zambezi is from 170 to 230 fathoms; despite droughts, water is always abundant. The banks are from 2 to 3 fathoms high; and during floods, traces of which are visible everywhere, the banks are flooded for about twenty miles in both directions. When there is wind, the waves are so strong that crossings are dangerous. Once I crossed to the other side in good weather; and on the way back, after the sacred service, I barely persuaded the natives to transport me back on their boats.”
It is impossible to imagine the happiness that filled Livingston’s soul at the sight of this magnificent river, which in his dreams was a natural and convenient way to these inaccessible countries. Now, then, the key to this mysterious land has been found.
Returning for the third time to Kolobeng, the missionary cried with delight and decided, at all costs, to persistently continue further discoveries.
Here is a letter from Livingstone sent to the Missionary Society in London, dated October 4th, 1851.
“You see what vast countries are open to us by the will of good Providence; but I feel that I am not able to do anything unless I am freed from all household worries. Since we already had the intention of sending the children to England, I I find that now sending them away with their mother will be the smartest thing to do. Then I can go about my business alone and devote two or three years to these new countries. The very thought of separation from my wife and children breaks my heart; but this sacrifice is necessary.
“Consider what a multitude of people in the lands of Sebituan are disposed to accept the Gospel; consider that, in all likelihood, the influence and efforts of the missionaries can stop the trade in blacks in the greater part of Africa. Consider that especially with this newly opened path is the possibility of intercourse between Christians and savages; and then, I am sure, I will not have to wait long for an answer to this letter.
“My ambition is limited to the desire to translate the Bible into their language, and when I achieve that it is understandable to this people, then I will die in peace.”
The missionary society could not respond unsatisfactorily to such a call from a man devoted to the idea of Christianity.
(to be continued) Pabout 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 rose up the river in 1853–54. Zambezi to its upper tributary Chefumage; 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 he was found by G. Stanley 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 for the scientific study of the large lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. A city in Zambia, mountains in East Africa, and waterfalls on the river are named in honor of L. Congo (Zaire). Livingston was a staunch humanist, condemned and fought against the slave trade. In Scotland, near Glasgow, there is the Livingston Memorial Museum.
Historical reference
David Livingston was born on March 19, 1813. At the end of his life, he received many scientific awards and titles and gave lectures. He had the opportunity to attend an audience with Queen Victoria. Young Livingston began his path to scientific fame on his own. He came from a poor Scottish family - there was no money for education. Already at the age of ten, the boy was forced to start working at a weaving factory. But it was at this age that the future traveler began to show character traits such as stubbornness, determination and independence, which would save him more than once in future African missions. Livingston, combining work with education, learned ancient Greek and Latin and was able to comprehend mathematics at a fairly high level. This knowledge and good speaking skills allowed me to enter the university and graduate successfully.
At the age of 27, Livingston, already a certified physician, first went to Africa as a Christian missionary. Such expeditions were designed to find out the degree of probable Christianization of the indigenous population of the continent. Possessing a freedom-loving character, Livingston earned the respect of the indigenous population during all three of his long campaigns, and in several cases, tribal leaders simply saved his life.
The first mission lasted fifteen years. During this time, the traveler was able to reach places, for example, in the Kalahari Desert, where no European had ever been before. During this protracted expedition, enormous linguistic and regional studies material was collected. Sechele, the leader of one of the tribes, converted to Christianity, and in the future, thanks to this man, Livingston was able to protect himself from deadly malaria. And in one of the transitions, David, in a fight with a lion, received a serious injury to his arm, which after that practically became paralyzed.
Significance for modern times
Numerous difficulties did not prevent Livingston from opening several lakes, including Dilolo. Its peculiarity is the connection of two water basins - the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. For this discovery, Livingstone was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. But the traveler considered his main discovery to be the Victoria Falls he and his companions found at the end of 1855. Today there is a monument to the discoverer here.
Later there were two more long trips to Africa: one with the aim of studying the lakes of the mainland, during the other they tried to find the source of the Nile. Livingston was repeatedly ill during his last mission, and in 1871 a fever made further travel impossible. The expedition never answered the question about the source of the Nile, although it collected extensive material that later helped to find the answer. Several expeditions were sent to help Livingston in Africa, and one of them, led by journalist and colonialist Henry Morton Stanley, managed to find and cure the traveler in 1871. However, two years later, having contracted malaria, his health undermined by many years of hardship, David Livingston died. This happened on May 1, 1873, near Lake Bangweulu, which he discovered in the territory of modern Zambia.
Many tourists come to this and other countries of Central Africa today, and part of the credit for accessibility goes to the great Scottish explorer. Eco-tourism, safari tours to many national parks and, of course, excursion visits to Victoria Falls are becoming widespread. African countries gained the independence that Livingston believed in and fought for. But these days they are experiencing a lot of economic difficulties, so tourism, including ethnographic trips to remote areas, brings good profits.
Conclusion
According to local customs, Livingston's heart was buried separately. This grave is today located in the town of Chitambo. The body, embalmed by Africans, made the nearly year-long journey to Britain and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
David Livingstone- 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 shores of an 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 the 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 the Atlantic Ocean, the other to the Indian Ocean. 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, a large detachment 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. Thus he completed a grandiose journey - he crossed the African continent from the Atlantic to the 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 Mveru 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 delivered to the port of Bagamoyo on the ocean coast, from where it was sent to the UK. 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 northeastern shore of Lake Nyasa are named in honor of David Livingstone. Malawi's largest city, with a population of more than 600,000 people, Blantyre, was named after Livingstone's hometown.
Being 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 did what he loved until the last days of his life. In Africa, cities, waterfalls and even mountains are named after Livingstone.
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 evangelistic missionary.
In 1840, the young man went to Africa, to the Cape Colony. Having landed on the continent, he headed to the country of the Bechuanas - Kuruman. The London Missionary Society was located there, the journey to which took Livingston almost six months.
Rice. 1. David Livingston.
In search of a new place for his mission, David decided to go deeper to the north - where no British missionary had ever been. He stopped at Chonuan, where the Bakwena tribe lived, and quickly struck up friendly relations with the chief.
For six months, Livingston deliberately stopped all communication with European society in order to thoroughly study the language of the aborigines, their laws, way of life, life values, and 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 routes into the interior of the country.
Rice. 2. Bakwena tribe.
First discoveries
There were many blank spots on the maps of the Portuguese, who were the first to conquer the southwest of the African continent. Wanting to correct this, Livingston set off on a trip to northern Africa, during which he made many important discoveries.
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- 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.
- Victoria Falls opened in 1855.
Moving down the Zambezi River, Livingston witnessed a stunning picture - a huge waterfall, whose waters rapidly fell down from a height of 120 meters. Local tribes treated the “rumbling water” with respect and fear, and never came close to the waterfall. Livingston named his discovery in honor of the English Queen Victoria.
Rice. 3. Victoria Falls.
Upon returning home, Livingstone published a book about his travels in South Africa. For his significant contribution to the development of geography, he received a prestigious award - the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and was also appointed consul in Quelimane.
Subsequent expeditions to Africa
In 1858, Livingstone and his family returned to the Dark Continent, where over the next six years he explored the Shire, Zambezi and Ruvuma rivers, as well as lakes Nyasa and Chilwa. In 1865, he published a book in which he described all the details of this journey.
In 1866, the missionary participated in several more expeditions, during which he discovered lakes Bangwelu and Mweru, but his main task was to search for the sources of the Nile.
An expedition was sent to search for Livingston, from whom no one had heard for several years. He was found in a weakened state - the fever undermined the strength of the tireless researcher, who died in 1873. His body was taken to London and buried in Westminster Abbey.
