Glimpses #111: David Livingstone



Product Code: GLM111
Format: 4-page bulletin insert
Our Price: $2.00 per pack (each pack contains 25 copies). Back issues are available only in packs of 25 copies.

Product Description: In 1858, the Royal Geographical Society sent Livingstone to find the source of the Nile. Three years earlier, explorer John Speke had reported the source was Lake Victoria [he was right]. But Livingstone and the Society believed other lakes to the south had outlets flowing north into Lake Victoria. At age 52, Livingstone set sail for Africa on what was to be his last journey. He started inland with 60 porters, most of whom quickly deserted him. He pressed on, searching without success for 7 years. By 1871, Livingstone had reached the Lualaba river, headwaters of the Congo, which he mistakenly thought to be the Nile. At Nyangwe he saw Arab slave traders massacre between 300 and 400 Africans. Sick at heart and in body, he retraced his steps to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika. For almost five years the world had not heard from him. Then, the New York Herald sent Henry Stanley, a tough journalist, to find him and the story.

On November 10, l871, Stanley marched into Ujiji, and when the famous explorer came out to meet him, Stanley responded with what has become one of history's most famous greetings: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Refreshed with medicine and supplies, Livingstone became Stanley's close friend but refused to return to the coast with him, saying his work was not done. In 1872, newly outfitted with over 50 porters sent from the coast by Stanley, Livingstone set out once again to find the Nile's source, but he became so weak he had to be carried on a litter. One morning, aides found him dead in his grass hut, kneeling in prayer by his bed. His faithful porters buried his heart at the foot of a giant tree, mummified his body, and carried it for nearly 1,000 miles to the coast, then sailed for London. There his remains were easily identified by the old lion wound on the shoulder.

Departments:
  • Did you know?
  • Prayer Journal