David Livingston what he discovered in Africa. Discovery of Victoria Falls by David Livingston. “My wife and I tried to gain the love of everyone around us by helping them in their physical suffering.”

David Livingstone is a Scottish missionary who devoted his life to the study of Africa. He went down in history as a man who filled in many blank spots on the map of this continent, and as a tireless fighter against the slave trade, who enjoyed great love and respect from the local population. Livingston received missionary status in November 1840, and in the spring of 1841 he was in Africa for the first time. In 1849, he was the first European to cross the Kalahari Desert and discover Lake Ngami on the edge of the Okavango Swamps.

In June 1851, having passed northeast from the Okavango Swamp, Livingstone first reached the Linyanti River (the lower reaches of the Kwando, the largest right tributary of the Zambezi) and in the village of Sesheke he met the ruler of the Makololo (Kololo) people, Sebetwane. Soon after their meeting, Chief Sebetwane died, handing over power to his son Sekelet, who also became a friend of the Scottish missionary. Livingston considered the Makololo to be extremely suitable for missionary work and the adoption of Christianity.

In November 1853, with a force of 160 Makololo natives in 33 boats, Livingstone began sailing up the Zambezi through the flat, savanna-covered plain. His goal was to find routes from the Kololo lands to the Atlantic coast, from where it would be more convenient to trade with the outside world and fight the slave trade, and the route would be more convenient than the southern route through the territory of the Boers and the Kalahari. Accompanied by a group of Makololo, Livingstone first went down the Kwando River in boats to its confluence with the Zambezi, after which the expedition set off upstream to the upper reaches of the river. After a month, the boats had to be abandoned, as numerous rapids and the onset of the rainy season made movement along the river too dangerous.

By February 1854, Livingston, with a small detachment (he released most of the people along the road), reached the small left tributary of the Zambezi - Chefumage. Along its valley the detachment moved to a barely noticeable watershed at 11 ° S. sh., behind which all the streams flowed not in the southern direction, as before, but in the northern direction. It later turned out that these were the rivers of the Congo system.

On March 31, 1854, the traveler reached the Portuguese colony - the city of Luanda on the Atlantic coast. On September 20 he set out with his Makololo companions back to Linyanti, where they did not arrive until September 11, 1855.

2 Discovery of Victoria

David Livingston decided to try to find a more convenient road to the ocean - to the east. On November 3, 1855, a large detachment led by a missionary set off. Further travel down the Zambezi was made possible thanks to the support of the Makololo leader Sekeletu. He provided the expedition with porters, pack donkeys and provisions, provided it with a supply of glass beads and iron products that could be used as a means of payment, and also allocated a large quantity of ivory for trade. Sekeletu personally accompanied the expedition to the most outstanding, in his opinion, geographical feature.

Two weeks later, Livingstone and his companions landed on the banks of the Zambezi River next to a grandiose waterfall up to 1800 m wide and up to 120 m high, which the Africans called “Mosi wa Tunya” (Roaring Smoke). Livingston, who was the first European to see it, named this waterfall after the English Queen Victoria.

Livingstone was accompanied directly to the falls by two aborigines - Takeleng and Tuba Makoro. They swam from the upper tail to the island of Kazeruku (now Livingston Island), located at the very crest of the waterfall, and the traveler was able to look into the boiling abyss and survey almost the entire system. “Crawling with fear to the cliff, I looked down into the huge crack that stretched from bank to bank of the wide Zambezi, and saw how a stream thousands of yards wide plunged down a hundred feet and then suddenly contracted into a space of fifteen to twenty yards... I was witness the most wonderful spectacle in Africa!” wrote Livingston.

Victoria Falls is a completely extraordinary natural phenomenon. In the distant past, the deep tectonic forces of the Earth split the strongest rock - basalt - into blocks, and a crack 100-120 m wide from one bank to the other, 120 m deep, formed across the Zambezi channel. The waters of the Zambezi, squeezed by a narrow gorge, boil, seethe, foam, go on a rampage with a wild roar. “The entire mass of water pouring over the edge of the waterfall, three meters below, turns into a semblance of a monstrous curtain of snow driven by a blizzard. Water particles are separated from it in the form of comets with flowing tails, until this entire snow avalanche turns into myriads of small comets rushing in one direction, and each of them leaves behind its core a tail of white foam,” Livingston described what he saw.

In 1857, David Livingstone wrote: “No one can imagine the beauty of the spectacle compared with anything seen in England. The eyes of a European had never seen such a thing before, but such a beautiful sight must have been admired by angels in their flight!”

3 The path to the mouth of the Zambezi

Below the falls, the Zambezi flows through a series of narrow, precipitous gorges. To bypass this difficult section, the expedition deviated to the north and along the Batoka plateau reached the Kafue tributary of the Zambezi. Descending along the Kafue again to the Zambezi, the expedition reached another significant left tributary of the Luangwa, beyond which began the lands known to the Portuguese. Abandoning the study of the lower Zambezi, which had long been mapped, Livingston followed the northern branch of the river to the ocean port of Quelimane. On May 20, 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.

Message quote David Livingstone - tireless Englishman, African traveler

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

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

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


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


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

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

Life story

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

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


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






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

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

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

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





Statue of David Livingstone on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls

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








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




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






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

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








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


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





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


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




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


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


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


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


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


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


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

On November 10, 1871, the famous traveler Henry Stanley began his exploration of Africa with a meeting with the explorer David Livingston, who disappeared there. This event was of keen interest to all of enlightened Europe.

"Dr. Livingston, I presume?"

In 1871, the entire European world was concerned about the fate of the famous Scottish traveler David Livingstone. Very expensive expeditions were regularly sent to Africa, where the explorer disappeared two years ago. One of them was lucky - the leadership of Henry Stanley helped her successfully complete an enterprise in which others had failed miserably. Stanley himself was a man with a destiny worthy of Dickens's pen. Having experienced poverty and betrayal by his mother as a child, always rejected, preaching dubious ideals, Stanley, at first glance, was not very suitable for the role of a brave savior and conqueror of Africa. His biggest flaw was his love of unsubstantiated fiction, which makes it still very difficult to understand how the fate of this reporter from the New York Herald newspaper actually unfolded. One thing is certain: Stanley was brave, resourceful, gifted and patient enough to find one single person on a vast, poorly explored continent. Livingston did not seem to be an old man in appearance: only the graying of his dark brown hair and a completely white beard betrayed his years and the emotions he had experienced.

Dr. Livingston, I presume?

Stanley, who went on the expedition, not least because of his admiration for this man, after communicating with the famous traveler, began to treat him with even greater respect. " Meekness and hope never leave him; no suffering, deprivation and worries, even separation from his homeland and loved ones cause him to complain. “In the end, everything is for the best,” he says, firmly believing in the goodness of Providence... He combines the courage of a Spartan, the steadfastness of a Roman and the endurance of an Anglo-Saxon. He gives free rein to his humor, and when he laughs, laughter covers all of him. Livingston's memory is amazing; Despite the fact that for four years he had no books at all, he can recite entire poems from many English poets by heart. His religion is practical in nature and devoid of any pomposity and obsession; it permeates all his activities and determines his relationships with the people with whom he comes into contact. Without her influence, with his fiery temperament and courage, Livingston might have seemed tough; religion made him soft, compliant and attractive in address,” - This is how Henry Stanley himself would later describe his impressions of the meeting. But Livingston was not destined to read these words: two years later, in May 1873, he died without ever leaving Africa, which perhaps became dearer to him than his homeland.

“To make it possible to read, while working at the factory, I placed a book on the very machine.”

Who, exactly, was David Livingston, and why did people on both sides of the Atlantic care so much about his fate? He discovered Victoria Falls, crossed Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, describing all the lands, peoples and natural phenomena he saw. But the most important thing is that he was a man with a big heart, so he fearlessly went where no European had gone before and brought to people the principles of kindness and mercy. Livingston did not believe that an African was somehow different from a European; he defended the rights of blacks and believed that they could join the world community. For his unprecedented kindness and fearlessness, he was loved both in the most dense African tribes and in the most refined English drawing rooms. Only the slave traders hated him, against whose trade the traveler waged an irreconcilable struggle. But we probably need to start not with this, but with the distant year 1813, when in a place near Glasgow, a boy was born to the poor Livingston couple, whose first steps were a little similar to the beginning of the life of Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov. Just like the great Russian scientist, David Livingston began working at the age of ten: it was necessary to support his family. Surprisingly, the hard life of a factory worker did not dull the curiosity of the future discoverer. On the contrary, when he saved a little money for books and tuition at the local school, he began to spend most of the few hours that remained for him on the classics and natural sciences. Soon, young Livingston learned to read even during his hard, monotonous work:

“To make it possible to read, while working in the factory, I placed a book on the very machine on which I worked, and thus read page after page, not paying attention to the clatter of 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.”

The inquisitive mind of the future traveler could not be satisfied with religious explanations of natural phenomena. Phrases like “God created rocks” or “God created shells” did not help in understanding nature. But it was the book, built on such phrases, that he subsequently carried to other people all his life. For African peoples, the ability to live in peace and love was more useful than scientific discoveries. Livingston himself wrote books about nature, which was as unknown to Europeans as the Bible was to Africans. He was a great mediator between two continents, which, despite their close proximity, did not even try to understand each other. Livingston was able to prove with his life that there are no insurmountable barriers to rapprochement.

“In these villages there has not yet been a single messenger of the Lord’s faith.”

A new life began in 1840, when a ship with Livingston on board landed on the African shores. The researcher understood that his real learning was just beginning. Livingston, who had deep scientific knowledge and medical skills, was a thin and rather puny man, and with such physical characteristics there was no point in thinking about studying wild Africa. Livingston, who knew Latin from his youth, did not speak the languages ​​of the local tribes, so he had to start his linguistic research all over again. He solved these problems at once and quite radically: the traveler simply left his colleagues and went to live with the savages. But it was just on paper. In fact, it is almost impossible to imagine the courage and dedication of a European man who was able to go alone to a tribe of natives with their wild customs and spend several months there. Living among Africans, Livingston shared with them all the hardships of existence. So, one day he almost died in the mouth of a lion when he decided to defend the tribe together with local men. This event is described in detail in the traveler's diary:

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 sniffed 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.

This was not the last meeting of the traveler with the king of beasts. Then the lion broke the scientist’s arm in several places, but it soon recovered. But in 1844, everything ended more tragically: the animal damaged Livingston’s left hand so that it remained crippled forever. The researcher even had to learn to shoot from the other shoulder.

Of course, from this not very long, but very useful journey, Livingston could not help but return a different person. He became stronger and more resilient, learned to get along with the natives and live among them. But his goals remained the same: to bring the mercy of the Word of God into the hearts of the savages. It is impossible to change human souls without living the same life with them, so the traveler sets up a station in close proximity to the local tribes. He actively participates in their lives, helping local rulers regain their illegally seized power. Livingston understood that only friendship with the main people of the tribes would help him spread Christianity to the entire community. One of the first converts was the leader of the Bechuana tribe, Sechele. But, alas, the tribesmen did not share the choice of their leader: they accused Livingston of witchcraft, because of which their lands were visited by a terrible drought; the abandoned wives of Sechele, finding themselves in a very difficult situation, became terrible enemies of Christianity. But what was important for the traveler was that an African, whom Europeans consider a savage, could understand the Holy Scriptures in the same way and live, honoring the commandments with all his heart.

“My wife and I tried to gain the love of everyone around us by helping them in their physical suffering.”

When talking about the life of David Livingston, it is completely unfair to ignore the person who became his most faithful and selfless assistant - his wife Mary. The stories about how she, pregnant, with already born children, faithfully followed her husband deep into the continent, lived among the savages, taught them along with Livingston himself, are almost as incredible as the adventures of Samog? great traveler. Mary was the daughter of another famous African missionary, Robert Moffat. With such a teacher it was difficult for her to choose a different fate, but it is unlikely that Mrs. Livingston complained about her life: she deftly did all the housework, from baking bread to weaving baskets, and happily taught the women and children of those tribes who gave She and her husband shelter:

After lunch and an hour's rest, about a hundred little ones gather around my wife; she shows them something useful; All children look forward to these moments of children's school meetings with pleasure and study with great diligence.

Mary fully supported her husband: his goal was also her goal.

My wife and I tried to gain the love of everyone around us by helping them in their bodily 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.

Life among the natives clearly brought joy to the couple, but, in a cruel irony of fate, it was precisely those people who called themselves Christians who destroyed the establishing connections between the savages and the Europeans. The Boers - descendants of settlers from Holland - had a disgusting habit of using Africans as cattle. The Livingstons resisted this in every possible way, but what can two people do against an entire colony? The couple had to travel further into the Kalahari Desert. Together with their parents, three children already shared the hardships of the journey.

"I will discover Africa or die"

Despite the fact that these places can rather be called a steppe, all members of the expedition suffered from a lack of water. But the local residents (terrible savages, according to the Europeans) were again extremely hospitable, and not only did not allow the travelers to die in difficult conditions, but also helped them make a geographical discovery - on August 1, 1849, the Livingston family became the first Europeans to visit Lake Ngami. The explorer wanted to penetrate across the lake into a tribe belonging to Sechele’s friend, also a converted Christian, Sebituan, but he could not do this without the help of the leader himself. And the grueling journey began again, this time through the swamps, during which the unfortunate children had every chance of dying, if not through the fault of wild nature, then from lack of water. The spirit of their mother did not waver: she was deeply worried about the health of her children, but she never reproached her husband or expressed a desire to go to a safer place. Even the patience of her father, also a missionary, could not stand it: he insisted that his daughter and children stop accompanying Livingston, but Mary stubbornly moved on. This was a great success for the trip: Sebituane accepted Livingstone's determination to take his family with him as a sign of great confidence. This favor could not help but help the spread of Christianity in the lands beyond Ngami. Perhaps the Sebituan tribe, the Makololo, became one of Livingstone's greatest achievements as a missionary: the people here were quite willing to accept Christianity and allowed the explorer to use their lands as a base for preparing journeys into the interior of the mainland.

Livingston, who had been fighting the slave trade all this time, decided to open a route from Central Africa to the Atlantic Ocean in order to facilitate trade relations for local residents. Such activities could not help but strain his relations with the Boers. The situation became so dangerous that the traveler finally realized: his family needed to be sent to Scotland. At this time, Livingston's activity takes on more and more features of obsession, characteristic of the great: neither fevers, nor terrible weather conditions, nor obvious hostility stop the traveler from moving forward and reading sermons. In 1853, he summed up the meaning of his entire life in one succinct phrase: "I will discover Africa or die."

"Christianity, Trade and Civilization"

Livingston stubbornly searched for a way to the Atlantic Ocean. His companions were people from the Makololo tribe, who went with him along the Zambezi River. This long journey ended on March 31, 1854 in the Portuguese colony of São Paulo de Luando, from where the feverish explorer could easily have gone home to his family. But he promised that he would personally return all the natives back to the tribe, which he did, exactly a year later returning to the Makololo capital, Linyanti. He opened the trade route he dreamed of and received gratitude from local residents and a gold medal from the London Geographical Society. Livingston became a hero of two continents, wrote his name in history forever and could retire with a clear conscience. But he was dissatisfied: the path opened by the traveler was too dangerous, so he went east to look for another road to civilization. This expedition would not have taken place without the help of Sebituan's son, Sekeletu, who by that time had become the leader of the tribe. He gave the traveler a large detachment, provisions, and a supply of glass beads, which were used in many parts of Africa instead of money. This trip discovered a waterfall for Europeans, named Livingston in honor of Queen Victoria. There now stands a monument to the great traveler, on which his famous motto is carved: "Christianity, Commerce and Civilization". On May 20, 1856, the expedition reached the mouth of the Zambezi River, thereby completing David Livingstone's grand journey from the Atlantic coast to the Indian Ocean coast. He became the first person to imagine Africa as a continent in the shape of a dish with edges raised towards the ocean. The researcher could return home, although, as history shows, he did not consider his mission completed. There were two more expeditions ahead.

“I affirm that what this man has done is second to none.”

It is unlikely that the modest scientist was ready for the reception that awaited him in his homeland. It was a fantastic success. The Royal Geographical Society held a meeting at which all the scientists unanimously admired the traveler's courage, the perfection of his work in describing the continent and his high moral principles, which did not allow Livingston to break his word to the natives. The researcher responded to these speeches as a humble Christian should: he was simply fulfilling his missionary duty, his successes are only the will of God. The diary entries suggest that this was not false modesty: Livingston truly believed that all his successes should be considered as the grace of God. Despite the fact that the traveler was not satisfied with the biblical explanations of natural phenomena, he remained a sincerely religious person, without which his mission really could not have been such a success. Recognition at home allowed Livingston to provide for his family. His book "Travels and Research of a Missionary in South Africa" written in a simple, artless language consistent with Livingston’s character, it sold a record circulation of 70,000 copies. Anyone would have calmed down, but the traveler’s heart was already back in Africa. He took the proceeds, his faithful wife, and youngest son and set off back in March 1858.

“I’m completely tired...”

Now everything was different. Livingston sailed to Africa no longer as an unknown young man without special means, but as the British consul in the Zambezi region and the head of a well-equipped expedition. But, despite this, Livingston’s second trip turned out to be rather unsuccessful. The scientist planned to sail along the Zambezi, but he was prevented by river rapids and waterfalls. Only later did scientists appreciate the contribution of the expedition in describing the Shire River, which is a northern tributary of the Zambezi. Livingston found that the river valley was fertile and healthy territory in which settlers could be located. But these results were comprehended only later; during the trip itself, sailing along the Shira did not seem particularly successful, because it was also interrupted by an encounter with waterfalls.

The discovery and exploration of Lake Nyasa could be considered a success, but even here everything did not go smoothly: the expedition was unable to open a path to the lake that would not be blocked by the Portuguese. And the research itself, carried out jointly with Livingston’s brother, was cut short due to a lack of provisions.

This expedition was ended by an accident that occurred with the missionaries who were sent by two famous English universities. They crossed the Shire, but along the way they lost all their supplies, fell ill with a fever and died. This led Livingston to despair: he understood that the expedition had failed and there might not be another chance to continue exploring Africa and fighting the slave traders (who were clearly protected by the Portuguese). The traveler's spirit was finally broken on the evening of April 27, 1862: his wife Mary died of fever. There is an opinion that Livingston did not love his family enough because of his all-consuming passion for work, but diary entries on this day indicate the opposite: Livingston dreams of death for the first time in his life. The priest, who was with the couple at the moment of their farewell, recalls that the great traveler sobbed like a child over the body of his faithful friend. On the same day, but eleven years later, he would make his last entry, beginning with the words: “I’m completely tired...”. In letters to family following Mary's death, Livingston shows the same devastation as before his own death, but his diaries contain only working notes. The traveler's spiritual strength was so great that he soon began to engage in the affairs of the expedition again. But they hardly bring him relief: while traveling through the Shire, he sees that the once fertile valleys have been ravaged by robbers and drought.

Livingston desperately tries to ask for help from the Portuguese and English governments, but, as often happens in such cases, it all ends in useless correspondence, and then the expedition is completely recalled. On the way back, during the Zambezi flood, Livingston notes with regret that it is quite possible to explore it if you choose the right time and a skillful team.

“It was kind of a death sentence for me.”

He returns to England in 1864. While writing the second book, "Tales of the expedition to the Zambezi and its tributaries" and preparations for the third expedition, which, due to his merits, they nevertheless helped him organize, another sad news comes. In the USA, Livingston's eldest son, Robert, died fighting on the side of the black liberators. In 1865, the explorer also buried his mother, after which he left England forever.

The researcher’s new goal was to study the central watersheds of Africa and search for the sources of the Nile. Returning to his beloved continent and thinking about the front of work returned Livingston's vitality, undermined by the sad events in his homeland. The beginning of the journey was marked by an alarm: the detachment was attacked by the local Ngoni tribe, forcing some members of the expedition to flee, and then say that the scientist had died. This message, coupled with the message that Livingston was still alive and was continuing to move into the depths of Africa, again forced the entire progressive public to follow events that were becoming more and more tragic.

The beginning of 1867 is marked by the following diary entry:

« With every step I feel my chest hurt and how weak I am; I can barely walk, whereas before I was always ahead of everyone. I have a constant ringing in my ears and I can’t even hear the sound of my watch.”

The researcher, broken by illness, is not stopped even by the loss of a suitcase with medicines, and he moves on, leaving Lake Tanganyika behind him. 1868 becomes the year of the discovery of two great African lakes - Bangweulu and Mweru. But the explorer is very sick, so he is forced, using the help of Arab traders, to return to Tanganyika. In addition, Livingston expects to read news from his relatives, which he has not received for two years. Along the way, the researcher’s inflamed consciousness pictures him of trees with bark made of human faces or his own corpse, but, in spite of everything, he gets to Ujiji, a city on the shores of Tanganyika, and even begins to recover. Around this time, Europeans stopped receiving letters from Livingston. Their keen interest is quite obvious: the traveler was already a very popular figure, but the tragic events of the last expedition only strengthened public participation. Such a desperate adventurer as Henry Stanley simply could not refuse the glory of being the savior of the great traveler. Just like he couldn't help but admire him.

But while Henry Stanley was not even getting ready for his famous expedition, the slowly dying Livingston stubbornly moved west. He again became the first European in those parts, by April 1871 reaching a tributary of the Congo, Lualaba. But modern people know that Lualaba is a tributary of the Congo, but for Livingston this was a very important question, which, alas, he was unable to answer for health reasons. The geography of Lualaba will be told to the world by Henry Stanley, but after the death of Dr. Livingston.

“My duty does not indicate my return home, and therefore I remain”

At this time, the young journalist successfully established relations with the indigenous people of Africa - although, unfortunately, on completely different grounds than Livingston. Stanley valued strength over kindness. But the fact remains: the correspondent found Livingston. He tried to persuade the old scientist to return, but he was adamant: the great traveler had not yet completed his last expedition.

He was still worried about Lualaba: in pursuit of an answer to the question of its geographical origin, Livingston contracted malaria, which killed him. On May 1, 1873, death took perhaps Africa's greatest explorer while he was praying. Contemporaries expressed the full depth of loss and the power of gratitude in the burial ceremony. Shocked by the death of the “Great Lion” (as the scientist was called in Africa), his dark-skinned companions preserved the traveler’s body with salt so that it could reach his homeland. The funeral procession lasted nine months, retrieving the traveler's body from savages and animals. Along with Livingston’s remains, his priceless records also moved to the English ship, which were carefully guarded by the participants in the procession (alas, the Africans in the port were treated poorly, they were not allowed anywhere and they were not even fed). But the traveler did not return home entirely: his heart was buried in Africa, where it was during his life. At home, the great traveler found his last refuge in Westminster Abbey on April 18, 1874. His epitaph says a thousand words about who Dr. David Livingston was, what he fought for, and what he died for.

Carried by faithful hands across land and sea, rests here

DAVID LIVINGSTON, missionary, traveler and friend of mankind.

Thirty years of his life were devoted to a tireless quest to spread the gospel to the peoples of Africa, to explore unsolved mysteries, and to destroy the slave trade that was ravaging Central Africa.

Yulia Popova

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 explored further and further and discovered hitherto unknown regions, 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 in 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 clatter of 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 sniffed 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 a 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.

David Livingston

Livingstone David (1813-1873), explorer Africa. He made a number of long trips around South and Central Africa (since 1840). Explored the Kalahari basin, river. Cubango, river basin Zambezi, Lake Nyasa, discovered Victoria Falls, lake. Shirva, Bangveulu and r. Lualaba, along with G. Stanley explored Lake Tanganyika.

Livingston David, David (1813–1873), Scottish explorer of Africa, national hero of Great Britain, staunch opponent of the slave trade. The London Missionary Society sent him to the South in 1840. Africa. In 1841–52 he established that the Kalahari semi-desert has a flat surface. In 1849 he reached the river delta for the first time. Okavango and lake Ngami. In 1853–54 was the first to become familiar with the watershed between the upper reaches of the Zambezi and Kasai (Congo system). In 1855 he discovered the Victoria Falls (August), followed the course of the Zambezi to the delta and completed the crossing of the mainland near the city of Quelimane (May 1856); awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1859 he opened the river. Shire (northern tributary of the Zambezi), Murchison Falls and Lake. Shirva, completed the opening of the lake. Nyasa and compiled his first map (1860–61). In 1866–71 explored the south and zap. shores of lakes Tanganyika, Mveru, discovered the lake. Bangweulu and R. Lualaba (Haute-Congo). Seriously ill, he went to the east. coast of the lake Tanganyika and stopped in Ujiji, where in October 1871 he was found by G. Stanley. Together they explored the sowing. part of the lake Tanganyika and made sure that it was not connected with the Nile. In February 1872, Livingston handed over his materials to Stanley, and in August he moved to the river. Lualaba, but death prevented the implementation of his intentions. Traveling around the South. In Africa he identified the position of more than 1000 points; the first to find out that it is an elevated plateau with a trough in the center, studied the river system. Zambezi, became the first explorer of lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. Mountains and a ridge in the South are named in his honor. Africa, waterfalls on the river. Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo), reservoir on the river. Three-strands (USA) and 16 of us. points.

Modern illustrated encyclopedia. Geography. Rosman-Press, M., 2006.

Livingstone, David (19.III.1813 - I. V. 1873) - English traveler, explorer of Africa. Beginning in 1840, he made a series of long journeys throughout South and Central Africa, where he conducted geographical, natural history and ethnographic research. In 1849 he crossed the Kalahari Desert and discovered Lake Ngami. In subsequent years, he explored the Zambezi River basin and reached the city of Luanda on the west coast of Africa, discovered Victoria Falls in 1855, and then reached the eastern coast of the mainland. In 1859 he discovered Lake Shirva and Nyasa, in 1867 - Lake Mweru, and in 1868 - Lake Bangweolo and explored the area of ​​Lake Tanganyika. Livingston strongly condemned slavery. Thanks to his humanity, courage and medical work, knowledge of local languages ​​and customs, Livingston enjoyed great popularity among the African peoples, who assisted him in his travels. The results of Livingstone's discoveries were used by British colonialists, who, following his travels, penetrated into interior Africa.

Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 8, KOSSALA – MALTA. 1965.

Works: Travels and Explorations in South Africa from 1840 to 1855, trans. from English, M., 1956; Travels along the Zambezi from 1858 to 1864, trans. from English, (3rd ed.), M., 1956 (jointly with Livingston Ch.).

Literature: Koropchevsky D. A., D. Livingston. His life, travels and geographical discoveries, St. Petersburg, 1891; Adamovich M., Livingston, M., 1939; Simmons J., Livingstone and Africa, N.Y., 1960.

LIVINGSTONE, DAVID (1813–1873), Scottish missionary and explorer of Africa. Born in Blantyre (near Glasgow) on March 19, 1813. From the age of ten he worked in a textile factory. At the age of 23, he graduated from Anderson College and then from the University of Glasgow, receiving a medical degree. He contacted the London Missionary Society, which sent him to South Africa. In 1840, Livingstone settled in Kuruman (modern South Africa) and created a base there for missionary activity. In 1843 he walked approx. 640 km to Mabotsa, in 1849 he explored the northeastern edge of the Kalahari Desert to the Zuga River. From there I reached the northeastern tip of the lake. Ngami. In 1851 he reached the Zambezi River in Sesheke. I walked along the edge of the Kalahari Desert and reached the Linyanti River (a tributary of the Zambezi) in the Caprivi region. In 1853 he reached Sesheke and climbed the Zambezi River until the Kabompo River flows into it. Then in Luanda (modern Angola) he reached the western coast of Africa, crossed the continent in a latitudinal direction and reached its eastern coast in Quelimane (modern Mozambique). Following the Zambezi River, in 1855 he reached Victoria Falls. Livingston was greeted with enthusiasm in England in 1856, and in 1858 he was appointed consul in Quelimane. He explored the Zambezi, Shire and Ruvuma rivers, as well as lakes Chilwa and Nyasa. In 1865 he led an expedition to study the watershed in Central Africa, trying to find the sources of the Nile. Visited lakes Mveru and Bangweulu. During this expedition, Livingston fell ill with a fever and was rescued by journalist G.M. Stanley, who found him on November 3, 1871 in the village of Ujiji on the shore 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. Livingstone's books include Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (1857) and Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries (1865).

Materials from the encyclopedia "The World Around Us" were used.

Livingston David made a number of trips to South and Central Africa. Explored the Kalahari depression, the Kubango River, the Zambezi River basin, Lake Nyasa, discovered Victoria Falls, Lake Shirva, Bangweulu and the Lualaba River; together with G. Stanley explored Lake Tanganyika.

David Livingston was born on March 19, 1813 in the family of a street tea seller. After graduating from a village school, he worked at a weaving factory from the age of ten. With a fourteen-hour working day, he studied a Latin textbook and studied at evening school. At nineteen he dreamed of becoming a missionary, and a scholarship from the London Missionary Society gave him the opportunity to complete his education. He soon met missionary Robert Moffett, who was working in South Africa. Captivated by his stories, Livingstone left for the Cape Colony in 1840. During the voyage, the captain of the ship taught him how to determine the coordinates of various points on the Earth. Later, the best maps of South Africa were compiled from Livingstone's topographic surveys.

In July 1841, he reached Moffett's mission in Kuruman, located on the banks of the river of the same name south of the Kalahari Desert. Livingston spent seven years in the Bechuana country, traveling to organize missionary stations. He had the idea to explore all the rivers of South Africa in order to find natural passages into the interior of the country, bring there the ideas of the Gospel and establish equal trade. Livingston went down in the history of the discovery of Africa as the “Seeker of the River.”

In 1849, Livingstone, having heard from Africans about the “beautiful and vast” Lake Ngami, crossed the Kalahari Desert from south to north. He established for the first time the character of the landscape of this area, which Europeans considered a desert. Elevation measurements convinced Livingston that the Kalahari was bowl-shaped. Lake Ngami, discovered by Livingstone on August 1, 1849, turned out to be a temporary lake fed by the waters of the great Okavango River during the rainy season.

Livingstone's 1851 journey took her to the Zambezi - "a matter of great importance, because the existence of this river in Central Africa was previously unknown. All Portuguese maps represent it rising to the east far from where we were now." Despite the dry season, the river reached 300-600 meters in width and was quite deep. Its level during the rainy season rose by six meters, and the water flooded an area of ​​twenty English miles. Maybe this mighty stream is a tributary of the Nile or is it carrying its waters towards the Congo? At the end of May 1853, the Englishman arrived in Linyanti, the capital of the Makololo, where he was received by the new leader, Sekeletu. Livingston developed a plan for the expedition, the decision to organize which was made at a general meeting of the Makololo. Its goal was to establish direct trade links between the Makololo country and the Atlantic coast.

On November 11, 1853, Livingstone began sailing up the Zambezi. The expedition route ran from the southern regions of today's Zambia to Luanda in Angola. In early 1854 they reached the Lunda Empire. By February 1854, Livingston had ascended the river to its upper right tributary, Chefumage, and along its valley moved to the watershed, beyond which all the streams flowed not in a southerly direction, as before, but in a northerly direction. (It later turned out that these were the rivers of the Congo system.) At the end of May 1854, the detachment reached the Atlantic Ocean near Luanda. But Livingston is haunted by the idea of ​​penetrating the East Coast. Perhaps the entire length of the Zambezi is navigable in this direction? His intention was supported by both the Portuguese authorities and the clergy - everyone was interested in exploring the areas between Angola and Mozambique.

The expedition, whose goal was to trace the course of the Zambezi to the Indian Ocean, was made possible thanks to the help of Sekeletu. The leader of an African tribe financed the crossing of the continent by a European and personally led an expedition to the 120-meter waterfall on the Zambezi, which the Makololo called “Mozi-oa-tunya” - “Roaring Smoke” (“Here the steam makes noise”). Livingston was the first European to see it. Victoria Falls, named after the English queen, is 1.8 kilometers wide and is one of the most powerful in the world. In March 1856 they reached Tete, the first outpost of European civilization. The expedition abandoned further exploration of the main channel of the Zambezi, which had already been mapped, and on May 20, 1856, the northern branch reached the Indian Ocean, ending the journey in the seaside town of Quelimane (a port north of the Zambezi). Thus, for the first time a European crossed the African continent.

Returning to his homeland, Livingston in 1857 published a book that made him famous, “The Travels and Research of a Missionary in South Africa.” In it, he concluded: tropical Central Africa south of the parallel “turned out to be an elevated plateau, slightly lower in the center, and with crevices along the edges along which rivers run down to the sea... The place of the legendary hot zone and burning sands was taken by a well-irrigated area, reminiscent of North America with its freshwater lakes, and with its hot humid valleys, jungles, ghats (highlands) and cool high plateaus of India."

The Royal Geographical Society awarded him a gold medal, and the government commissioned him to explore the interior of the continent, establish contacts with local rulers and persuade them to grow cotton. In May 1858 Livingstone returned to the Zambezi as British Consul in Mozambique. He set out to prove that Liambie and Zambezi are the same river. With the support of the British government, Livingston in 1858-1864. made the trip.

The geographical results of the expedition were great. Livingston recorded sections of the Zambezi flow that he had not previously traced and proved that it was a river known in the upper reaches as Liambie. The map included updated data about Lake Nyasa and the Shire River, Lake Shirve, and the lower reaches of Ruvuma.

In 1865, Livingstone published the book "The Story of the Expedition to the Zambezi and its Tributaries and the Discovery of Lakes Shirva and Nyasa in 1858 - 1864."

Since January 1866, when Livingston again set foot on African soil, he made a number of more trips.

On April 1, 1867, he reached the southern coast of Tanganyika (locally called Liemba). The 650-kilometer-long lake with azure-colored water is part of the Central African volcanic rift, which includes lakes Nyasa, Kivu, Edward and Mobutu Sese Seko. Beyond the lake, extensive “blank spots” began to appear on the maps of Africa at that time.

On November 8, 1867, Livingstone discovered Lake Mweru with many islands, and on July 18, 1868, Lake Bangweulu (Bangweolo) southwest of Tanganyika.

He visited the northwestern shores of Bangweulu and took a short trip around it in a pirogue, but was unable to examine the entire lake: on his map it appears larger than it actually is.

At the end of March 1871, Livingston reached Lualaba near the trading village of Nyangwe. The abundance of water in Lualaba proved that Livingston had discovered one of the largest hydrographic arteries in Central America. He had no idea which system - the Nile or the Congo - this large river belonged to. The researcher only established that the flow moves north and is located at an altitude of about 600 meters. This hypsometric position of Lualaba inclined him to believe that she was a river of the Congo system. Scientists were not yet sure that Lake Victoria, discovered by John Speke, was really the source of the Nile. But Livingstone was right about something: the Luapula (Lovua) River, which flows near Lake Bangweulu, and Lualaba belong to the upper Congo basin.

Europe and America had not heard from him for several years. An expedition led by Stanley went in search of Livingston and found him in Ujiji.

At the end of 1871, the already seriously ill Livingston examined the northern part of Tanganyika and became convinced that the lake was not the source of the Nile, as previously thought. He refused to return to Europe with Stanley because he wanted to finish his research on Lualaba. Through Stanley, he sent diaries and other materials to London.

In 1873 he again went to Lualaba and on the way stopped at the village of Chitambo, south of Lake Bangweulu. On the morning of May 1, 1873, Livingston's servants found him dead. They buried his heart in the vicinity of Lake Bangweulu, treated his body with salt and exposed it to the sun. For nine months they carried Livingstone's body to the coastal city of Bagamoyo, covering about 1,500 kilometers.

From Zanzibar he was taken to London and buried in Westminster Abbey - the tomb of the kings and prominent people of England. His diaries, entitled The Last Voyage of David Livingstone, were published in London in 1874.

Materials used from the site http://100top.ru/encyclopedia/

Read further:

Historical persons of England (Great Britain) (biographical index).

Essays:

Livingston D. Travel and research in South Africa from 1840 to 1855. M., 1955

Livingston D., Livingston C. Travel along the Zambezi from 1858 to 1864. M., 1956

Livingston D. The Last Journey to Central Africa. M., 1968

Literature:

Wotte G. David Livingstone: The Life of an African Explorer. M., 1984

Koropchevsky D. A., D. Livingston. His life, travels and geographical discoveries, St. Petersburg, 1891;

Adamovich M., Livingston, M., 1939;

Simmons J., Livingstone and Africa, N.Y., 1960.