The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa

📖 The Scoop

David Livingstone (1813-73) was a Scottish missionary and medical doctor who explored much of the interior of Africa. Livingstone's most famous expedition was in 1866-73, when he traversed much of central Africa in an attempt to find the source of the Nile. This book contains the daily journals that Livingstone kept on this expedition, from his first entry on January 28, 1866, when he arrived at Zanzibar (in present-day Tanzania), to his last on April 27, 1873, four days before he died from malaria and dysentery in a village near Lake Bangweulu in present-day Zambia. In his more than seven-year journey, Livingstone was assisted by friendly African chiefs and at times by Arab slave traders, whose activities he abhorred. His journals contain detailed observations on the people, plants, animals, topography, and climate of central Africa, as well as on the slave trade. The journals also provide Livingstone's account of his meeting with Henry Morton Stanley in the fall of 1871. Stanley had been sent by the New York Herald to find the explorer, but was unable to convince him to return to England. Livingstone's last entry reads: "Knocked up quite, and remain--recover--sent to buy milch-goats. We are on the banks of the Molilamo." After Livingstone's death, his African servants Susi and Chuma saved the journals for transport to England, where they were edited and published by Livingstone's friend Horace Waller.

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