Dr stanley livingstone biography

On this day in 1871, journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his famous search through Africa for the missing British explorer Dr.

David Livingstone. The Doctor kept the letter bag on his knees, then presently opened it, looked at the letters contained there, and read one or two of his children's letters, his face in the meantime lighting up. Yet his life and achievements are too little known and even his nationality has been mistaken.

Often thought of, and as portrayed as, an American, Stanley was born in Denbigh, Wales.

We halt at a little brook, then ascend the long slope of a naked ridge, the very last of the myriads we have crossed. After nearly eight months he found Livingstone in Ujiji, a small village on the shore of Lake Tanganyika on November 10, 1871. A man dressed in a long white shirt and with a turban around his head was smiling.

How long, I wonder, had it remained at Unyanyembe had I not been dispatched into Central Africa in search of the great traveler? There is no reason to suggest that Stanley did not say the words, as they appeared in the New York Herald dispatch written shortly after the first meeting. Every hair of his head and beard, every wrinkle of his face, the wanness of his features, and the slightly wearied look he wore, were all imparting intelligence to me, - the knowledge I craved for so much ever since I heard the words, 'Take what you want, but find Livingstone.'

A contemporary illustration of the meeting

I called 'Kaif-Halek,' or 'How-do-ye-do,' and introduced him to Dr.

Livingstone, that he might deliver in person to his master the letter bag he had been intrusted with. I can surely afford to wait a few hours longer. Though Stanley urged Livingstone to return with him to London, the explorer vowed to continue his original mission. Newspapers headlined the question "Where is Livingstone?" while the public clamored for information on the whereabouts of their national hero.

When Stanley and Livingstone met face to face, Stanley offered his hand and asked the question, “Dr. James Gordon Bennett, Jr., editor of the New York Herald, decided to capitalize on the public's craze for news of their hero. He was placed in the local workhouse at an early age by his grandparents and remained there until he absconded, made his way to Liverpool, and signed on as a cabin boy on an American ship bound for New Orleans, Louisiana.

I pushed back the crowds, and, passing from the rear, walked down a living avenue of people until I came in front of the semicircle of Arabs, in the front of which stood the white man with the gray beard. He enlisted in the Sixth Arkansas Volunteer Infantry.

During the Civil War, Stanley was captured by the Northern forces and sent to Camp Douglas in the vicinity of Chicago, Illinois.

While there, he became an expert marksman, using guns and ammunition from the store. (see The Battle of Shiloh, 1862)

Leading an expedition of approximately 200 men, Stanley headed into the interior from the eastern shore of Africa on March 21, 1871. ‘Who the mischief are you?’ asked Stanley.

The smiling man replied: ‘I am Susi, the servant of Dr Livingstone.’

‘What!

I replace my hat on my head and he puts on his cap, and we both grasp hands, and I then say aloud, 'I thank God, Doctor, I have been permitted to see you.'

He answered, 'I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you.'

Then, oblivious of the crowds, oblivious of the men who shared with me my dangers, we - Livingstone and I - turn our faces towards his tembe.

Orphaned at an early age he spent his formative years in a workhouse in Wales, crossed the Atlantic at age 15 as a crewman of a merchant ship and jumped ship in New Orleans.