I didn't enough time yesterday to write about our wonderful lecture. At 8:30 yesterday morning those of us available assembled in the upstairs room to listen to a lecture about Dr. David Livingstone. Vimbai had arranged for Libby White to come and speak to us. She was a dynamic speaker giving us a comprehensive and cohesive story about this Victorian explorer and hero. Dr. Livingstone was the first white man to see Victoria Falls (1855) and to broadcast the news of it to the rest of the world. He named the falls after his queen and spent most of his adult life in Africa. He became very well respected by the African people. His statue stands at Victoria Falls. From 1830 to 1880, there was an explosion of exploration. Many people had explored the coasts of this continent, but no one had explored the interior. David was born in 1813 in Scotland to a very poor family. When he was 10, he went to work in the local cotton mill. The Church of Scotland arranged for children to be educated on Sunday afternoons after church services. David was very interested in improving his mind. He bought a Latin book with his first paycheck and taught himself the language while at work with the book propped up in front of him. His persistence was noticed and he was sponsored by the church to continue his education. He decided to go the route of being a medical missionary. He was about to leave for a mission to China when the church learned of great disturbances there so he was diverted to Africa (1841). He landed in Cape Town and traveled to a mission in South Africa run by Robert Moffet. David fell in love with the continent and loved to explore the area around the mission in his spare time. One time on an outing, we was mauled by a male lion. Porters rushed him back to the mission where he was nursed back to health by Moffet's daughter, Mary. They fell in love and were married. They eventually moved north to start a new mission station. They stayed at the new mission for 10 years, but had no converts. Part of the problem may have been that he had set the mission in an area that had nomadic tribes. The other may have been the way he was going about trying to bring his message to the natives. He consulted with some Jesuit priests and found the secret to their success was to involve people in making crafts and items that would make their lives more comfortable. Once you gained their trust, they would be more open to hearing your message. David packed up and decided to move more north. They crossed the Kalahari desert and set up a new mission station in Botswana. He sent his wife and remaining children (some were lost earlier) back to England as the conditions were not ideal for family life - very harsh. Unfortunately, mail was quite spotty (messages were sent by ship) and the London Missionary Society did not get word of Mary's arrival. She stayed with relatives for short periods of time, but eventually found herself on the steps of the poor house. She turned to alcohol and struggled with it for the rest of her life. Back in Africa, David went on an expedition and got to the Zambezi River. He followed it upstream until he ran out of food and quinine. He became very ill with malaria and drifted into a coma. His porters got him to the British consulate and was nursed back to health - it took him three months to recover. He resupplied and headed back to the interior. This time he headed downstream on the Zambezi. As he was traveling, he got the idea of using paddle-steamers on the river. As they traveled, they noticed a plume of smoke. David thought there was a large fire ahead, but the natives told him of the waterfall. He landed on what is now known as Livingstone Island. He had found the falls. He stayed there for three weeks taking measurements, many of them still in use today. He continued traveling until he came to Mozambique, where he became ill again. He came out at the mouth of the river and traveled back to England on a British war ship. He reconnected with his family and stayed in England for five years. He wrote a book about his adventures and discoveries and became quite famous in England for his exploits. He became friends with the chair of the Royal Geographic Society. David thought that the African interior could be opened up to commerce by using paddle-steamers. He persuaded the Society to sponsor this effort. $100,000 was raised and a ship was built that could be taken apart for shipping and put back together when it arrived in Africa. He gathered engineers, botanists, scientists, and an artist for the Zambezi expedition. This turned out to be a bit of a failure. The boat was not good with the strong current on the Zambezi. They came to a huge narrow gorge - a big impediment to his idea of a navigation route into the interior. They came to a place in the river where the paddles were being clogged. When they investigated, they found that the paddles were being clogged with human body parts. The slave trade was alive and prospering in this area of Africa. Those not considered strong enough were tossed into the river. David was horrified. He eventually was recalled to England and was blamed for the failure of the expedition. Mary, who had insisted on going with him on this expedition, had died of dysentery. He tried to talk about the slave situation, but no one wanted to hear about it. He was again chosen by the Royal Geographic Society to go back to Africa to find the source of the Nile. They had sent others, but no one had been successful in finding it. Even though they were not thrilled with him for his talk about the slave trade, they knew he was their best bet for success in finding the source. This turned out to be his third and final expedition. He found it hard to find porters as there were civil wars raging all around the area. Despite his personal feelings, he had to employ the help of the slave traders to get help with his expedition. This caused him to suffer mentally because of all the atrocities he had to witness. He sent 44 letters back to England to let the world know what was going on with the slave traders, but of course, he had to entrust them to deliver the letters to the ships. Not surprisingly, 0 of 44 letters got through. At one point he stopped and built a small house. Meanwhile, a young man named Henry Morton Stanley, ran away to America at the age of 18. He was eventually employed by the New York Herald and was sent to Africa to find David. We all knew that he was successful - "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?". They traveled together for a bit documenting the slave trade. Stanley went back to America to expose the slave trade. He stopped in England on his way and carried copies of David's letters to his daughter. When the news was broadcast around the world, public pressure eventually caused the slave trade to cease in 1872. David Livingstone stayed behind as he still wanted to find the source of the Nile. Unfortunately, he arrived in the area at the height of the rainy season. He became quite hopeless lost in the swamps. He became very ill and was carried by his faithful porters (one of whom he had saved from the slave traders) out of the swamp and onto dry land where the sun had come out. They found shelter for him at a village. When they came to look in on him in the morning, they found that he had died on his knees, as if in prayer, at the side of the bed. They removed his heart and buried it under a huge tree. They then wrapped his body and carried him 1000 miles to the Jesuit priests. The porters accompanied his body to London by ship and his body was buried in Westminster Abbey in Explorer's Corner. Stanley traveled over to become a pall bearer. The queen and the porters were in attendance. Back in Africa, a cross was carved from the tree and a church was built on the site. So even though Livingstone's body is buried in England, his heart belongs to Africa.
Last night we had a lovely dinner cruise on the upper Zambezi River. There were quite a few boats out - a popular venue. We saw elephants, hippos, giraffes, and a huge croc as well as many waterfowl as we drifted by. We said good-bye to those going on the Cape Town.
This morning we saw off the Cape Town group. We will have a program of singers at 9:15 and our bus driver will be here to take us to the airport at 10:30. We are all packed and ready to go. I am looking forward to getting home, but it has been an amazing adventure.
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