The Transformation of Dr. Livingstone
Dr. David Livingstone is known for his many accomplishments as a missionary and explorer. Perhaps his most important geographical feat was that of being the first European to cross Africa, covering some three hundred thousand miles and charting a million square miles of unknown land. Among other accomplishments, he traced the Zambesi to its source and discovered Victoria Falls. As a humanitarian he tried to end the slave trade through Africa and spread Christianity. The role which seems to be first mentioned when talking of Livingstone is his attempts as a missionary. Second to that is his role as an explorer of the unknown lands. In reality, I would argue that Livingstone was much more of an explorer than a missionary. During his first of three long journeys to Africa-one that lasted for sixteen years--Livingstone underwent a slow transformation. He went to Africa with hopes of being a great missionary and saving poor souls. This was not to be and he ended the journey sullen and negative about Christianity in Africa. However, he gained an avid interest in lands never before seen by Europeans. His preaching of God's word was put on the backburner for maps and geographical discoveries. I believe that Livingstone was much more an explorer than a missionary.
The Transformation of Dr. Livingstone
Brooke Anne Ramaley
Rough Draft
28 March 2006
Brooke Anne Ramaley
Professor Silbey
Rough Draft
28 March 2006
The Transformation of Dr. Livingstone
Dr. David Livingstone is known for his many accomplishments as a missionary and explorer. Perhaps his most important geographical feat was that of being the first European to cross Africa, covering some three hundred thousand miles and charting a million square miles of unknown land. Among other accomplishments, he traced the Zambesi to its source and discovered Victoria Falls. As a humanitarian he tried to end the slave trade through Africa and spread Christianity. The role which seems to be first mentioned when talking of Livingstone is his attempts as a missionary. Second to that is his role as an explorer of the unknown lands. In reality, I would argue that Livingstone was much more of an explorer than a missionary. During his first of three long journeys to Africa-one that lasted for sixteen years--Livingstone underwent a slow transformation. He went to Africa with hopes of being a great missionary and saving poor souls. This was not to be and he ended the journey sullen and negative about Christianity in Africa. However, he gained an avid interest in lands never before seen by Europeans. His preaching of God's word was put on the backburner for maps and geographical discoveries. I believe that Livingstone was much more an explorer than a missionary.
David Livingstone was born on March 19, 1813, to two poverty stricken parents. He was raised in Blantyre, Lanarkshire of Scotland. As a child, he worked long hours at a factory and then came home at night to do his studies (Huxley 12). His father was a Deacon at a local independent congregational church only three miles away in Hamilton. This is where his strong faith in Christianity was started (Huxley 13).
At the age of twenty, he decided to enter the service of God as a missionary.. Livingstone had his mind set on becoming a doctor and traveling to China as a medical missionary. Livingstone wrote, “I will devote my life to the alleviation of human misery” (Huxley 20). He wrote a letter to the London Missionary Society offering his services. He later recorded that he chose this society because “they are neither episcopacy, nor presbyterianism, nor independency, but the gospel of the Christ to the heathen” (Simmons 6). He was accepted as a probationer under Reverend Richard Cecil. Mr. Cecil wrote of Livingstone as having a good character and a good temper (Simmons 8). Other colleagues described him as devoted and honest. They say he was humble and a very caring man (Huxley 22).
Livingstone was staying on Aldersgate St. in London, his China trip on hold due to the opium war. There he met Robert Moffat, who was also staying at the Aldersgate Boarding House. Moffat told Livingstone of his home in Africa. His tales soon enticed Livingstone into the idea of traveling to Africa instead of China. Livingstone was eager to travel the lands unseen by missionaries (Huxley 22). On December 8, 1840, Dr. Livingstone set out for the Cape aboard the ship George. In the mean time he had become qualified as a Licentiate of the Royal Faculty of Physician and Surgeons in Glasgow and was ready for his medical missionary travels in the unknown African (Huxley 23). Livingstone dreamed of being the first missionary to carry the word of God to new lands (Huxley 24).
Livingstone arrived in the Cape and traveled to Robert Moffat's missionary station in Kuruman. He found Kuruman too civilized and was disappointed that they had not tried to travel beyond the station's area (Huxley 24). At the age of twenty eight, Livingstone set out in an ox wagon with a colleague, Robert Edwards, and two natives as guides. He had decided to cut himself off from the European society completely to learn and feel the knowledge and language of the peoples he would encounter. Livingstone also wished to study their diseases. Africans would find Livingstone's wagon from miles away to be treated. This ensured friendships which would help him through his travels.
One of the most rewarding friendships came about when Livingstone healed the only son of the Chief of Bakwena, an African named Schele. He had been traveling north when he encountered these peoples (Huxley 26). Livingstone told Schele of Livingstone's plans to continue north to set up his first missionary station. Sechele warned Livingstone of the dangers and Livingstone's ox drivers refused to go any further. Livingstone left the tribe confident on ox-back with Edwards. They traveled some two hundred miles, hungry and often sick. He decided to set up his missionary camp at Mabotsa in 1843, two hundred and twenty miles north of Kuruman. During this time he met a party of Bechuana and went on a hunting trip. It was during this trip that Livingstone was mauled by a lion on his left arm. He would never be able to lift it above his shoulder again (Huxley 28).
Livingstone was forced to return to Kuruman to be nursed back to health by his friends, the Moffats. While he was back with the Moffats he first met Mary Moffat, the eldest daughter of Robert. The two were married in 1845 and built their first home at Livingstone's missionary site, Mabotsa. Unfortunately in Mabotsa, Livingstone and Edwards got into a heated argument and Livingstone decided to leave with Mary. They built another home north in Sechele's territory. Here their first child was born in 1846 and then their second in 1847. (Huxley 29).
Livingstone preached to the Bakwena tribe and told them of the wonderful God. He soon realized that converstion would be a daunting task, writing “the tribes hate and fear it as a revolutionary spirit” (Huxley 34). Livingstone persevered and convinced Chief Sechele to be baptized. Livingstone himself was shocked by this conversion because the greater leader's headmen, advisors, and wife hated the idea of Christianity. Livingstone described Sechele's wife as “about the most unlikely subject in the tribe ever to become anything else than an out-and-out greasy disciple of the old school” (Jeal 80).
The conversion of Chief Schele was Livingstone's only triumph, however. Schele was the single person ever to convert to Christianity through Livingstone's efforts (Huxley 34). This began the downfall of his missionary labors. Livingstone even wrote of the idea of itinerant missionaries to diffuse the knowledge of Christianity. Although, as Tim Jeal in the book, Livingstone, writes, “the vagueness of the terms emphasized rather then disguised the fact that Livingstone was looking for some comforting formula to help him through a difficult and depressing period”. During this time his third child was born in 1849.
While living among Chief Sechele's tribe, Livingstone met William Cotton Oswell. Oswell was about to embark on a three month shooting safari and invited Livingstone to accompany him (Huxley 38). Livingstone always hated the idea of shooting safaris, but he was tempted to accompany this one. Chief Sechele had told him of a great leader, Sebituane, of the Makololo tribe, who had saved Schele during his infancy. Schele asked Livingstone to travel to his tribe so that they could become friends and Livingstone could tell him of Christianity. Sechele was also very concerned with the well being of Africa and wanted to secure help from Sebituane (Simmons 33). As a result, Livingstone accompanied Oswell on his safari. They left in 1849 but failed almost immediately and were forced to return to Sechele's lands.
Livingstone, with his enduring spirit, decided to embark a second time, this time taking his wife and children along. He was criticized for this decision. Livingstone however felt that their trip lay in God's hands and all would be well (Huxley 40). On the expedition, Mary gave birth to a baby girl who died soon after being born. The lack of food and the hardships of the trip forced Livingstone to again return to his home with the Bakwena tribe (Huxley 42).
Livingstone did not give up and set out a third time, to reach the Makololo tribe with his his family and Oswell . It was another rough journey and the children suffered greatly. Livingstone prayed and hoped God would see them through. The party finally reached Sebituane's territory and were greeted warmly. Unfortunately,the great leader died soon after and Livingstone made the decision to go to the west coast about eighteen hundred miles away, to set up a mission station (Huxley 47). He entrusted Mary and the children in the care of the Makololo tribe and left by horseback. After about a hundred and thirty miles, he reached the Zambesi River on August 4, 1851. This unknown river was at the center of Africa (Huxley 48). Finding the new river was Livingstone's first taste of geographical discovery. Soon his journals would consist of more findings like these and less of his failed missionary attempts. He was also unable to set up a missionary station at the Zambesi due to the seasonal swelling of the river. He swore he would return alone “and make a final search to open up the interior by a path either to the east or west coast” (Huxley 48). This new goal sounded much more like an explorers ambitions then a missionary's attempt to spread God.
Livingstone returned to his family and they traveled back to the Cape Town seven months later. He decided to send his family back to Britain where they could be properly cared for and raised. In 1852, his family left and he was the lone explorer determined to succeed (Huxley 50). He took lessons from astronomer Thomas Maclear while in the Cape. Soon after his family left, Livingstone set out for the interior once again (Huxley 52).
He left for Kuruman and was forced to stay there for a few days due to a broken wagon. During his stay in Kuruman, the Boer tribe attacked Sechele's peoples, and attack meant to kill Livingstone himself. The Boers and Livingstone had never gotten along and they viewed him as a threat to the African peoples (Huxley 52). Livingstone wrote that “if they would have made use of my books and medicines I could have forgiven them; but tearing smashing and burning them (the Bakwena) was beyond measure galling” (Huxley 53).
He left Kuruman in 1852 and started his hardest journey yet. He did much soul searching. During this trip, his morale began to fall and he had many doubts of his abilities as a missionary. He doubted that he would ever see his wife and children again (Huxley 55). When he reached Linyanti and the Makololo tribe, they were under a new leader, Sekelutu, and greeted him warmly. They cured him of his ongoing fever as well.
During his stay, it seems his last true attempt to spread the word of God occurred. He preached and they listened, but none of the tribe seriously considered converting. Instead, Livingstone turned his thoughts to the slave trade (Huxley 55). After this point, in his journals, there were few mentions of weak attempts to convert others. The majority of mentions about his faith seemed only to pertain to his own survival.
Bothered by the slave trade, Livingstone wrote to London Missionary directors about it. He told them of his plans to travel north and set up a station to discourage slave trading in the area. He set out with Sekelutu and about one hundred and sixty warriors. They reached the Zambesi once again and continued by canoe (Huxley 56). Livingstone wrote in his journals “the more intimately I become acquainted with barbarism, the more disgusting does heathenism become. It is inconceivably vile… They need a healer” (Huxley 57). After this entry, there is no mention of actually attempting to heal them. It seemed as though Livingstone had given up and was only traveling with this tribe to reach his goal of discovery.
Livingstone failed to find a mission site and was forced to return to Linyanti. He refused to give up, however, and planned another trip. This time he sent out his journal to Moffat and wrote farewell letters. It seemed that he was depressed and was not sure of his own safe return (Huxley 57). He left in 1853 with twenty seven men from the tribe. This journey would be his greatest in the geographical realm. In this trip he would make “the greatest single contribution to African geography which has ever been made” (Huxley 59).
The expedition paddled up the Zambesi, stopping at villages for supplies. Livingstone would talk of God to some of the villages at night but never stayed to continue the efforts of a missionary. They would always carry on the journey in the mornings. It was a rough trip and many suffered attacks of malaria. Livingstone began to fill his journals with detailed observations of plants, animals, geology, and habits of the native tribes. He took sketches of the moon and stars as well (Huxley 62). These entries solidify the image of Livingstone as an explorer rather than a missionary.
Continuing his great exploring acts, Livingstone and his men found that north of the Kalahari Desert lay waterways and fertile soil. Previously, this desert was believed to have joined with the Sahara. They reached the rainforests of central Africa which were completely unknown to European explorers. The conditions were treacherous. The men could only move about two to three miles a day. The rainforests were so dense that they were only able to see about five yards ahead and they had to take turns cutting their way through.
All the while they were on the look out for unwelcoming tribes (Huxley 63). However, most tribes were helpful and sent food and guides to aid their attempts (Huxley 64). Some tribes demanded payment for their services. Livingstone and his men had little to offer. Most tribes also thought the Makololo helping him were his slaves. This is because he was the first white man many had seen. One tribe named the Chiboque attacked wanting some of his “thought to be” slaves. To avoid these demands and threats, Livingstone left the route followed by slave traders to find his own way north.
Livingstone also had the African fever and fell into comas frequently. He lost so much weight that he became skeletal. The Makololo announced to Livingstone that they did not want to continue any further and that it was time to turn back. Livingstone told them if that was their choice, he would continue alone. After a night of thinking, the Makololo returned to Livingstone's tent and told him they could never abandon him. This showed his true character as a leader and the devotion his men had for him (Huxley 65).
They continued on with their geographical discoveries and reached the Cuagno River. They were so short of food that they were forced to kill their own ox for food. At this point, Livingstone was desperate and began receiving help from the Portuguese and Arab stations. The irony in this was that these stations were actually slave stations, the very people against whom Livingstone was working. These stations nonetheless gave him help and befriended him instantly (Huxley 69). This shows his determination for discovery as an explorer and the break down of his morals just so that he may reach his goal. His missionary spirit seems to have been lost through the trying excursion.
In May of 1854 they saw sea. This was incredible, for they had reached the north of Africa. They came upon Luanda and Edmund Gabrial, the British Commissioner of the suppression of slave trade greeted them. Gabrial made sure Livingstone got the medical care he needed.. During this time the Makololo helped the station blockade the port from slave trading vessels (Huxley 70). After he had recoverd, Livingstone was offered a free trip back to London. He refused this offer on the grounds that his men, whom he had grown so close with, would not be able to travel home alone. This was due to the slave traders and unfriendly tribes near Portuguese settlements. Livingstone felt an obligation to lead and protect the Makololo. He also felt that they must find a new way home to avoid any of these dangerous peoples (Huxley 72).
They left for Linyanti in September of 1854. During the trip home he continued to note birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, plants, and geology. He even conducted experiments on insects to search for an understanding as to how they functioned. He also continued to make astronomy readings which would prove useful to astronomers around the world. (Huxley 76). Another discovery at Lake Dilolo strengthened his explorer mentality. He discovered that lake was surrounded by a plain, not a mountain as previously thought. He was not aware at the time that someone else had already figured out the elevated trough form of the center of Africa. The man, “Sir Roderick Murchison had reached the same conclusion by studying old maps and reports” (Huxley 80). In the discoverer role, Livingstone admitted feeling much disappointment. I feel the disappointment should have been felt due to his missionary failures because this is of course is what he described himself and his expedition as. Instead he was shamed over a geological discovery.
Livingstone and his men returned to the Zembesi Valley and soon reached Linyanti. He arrived with all twenty seven of his men in 1855. This was almost a year after leaving Luanda. He received news of a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society which would be presented by Sir Roderick Murchison, the President of the Society (Simmons 71). This encouraged his explorer spirit and he soon set off once again, this time heading for the east coast (Huxley 81). Livingstone and one-hundred fourteen men left Liyanti in November of 1855. They came across the most gorgeous falls he had ever seen, falls he named Victoria Falls. He took measurements and careful recordings. These travels were much easier with more food and a better climate. They came across the naked Batonga tribe whose attitude very much confused Livingstone (Huxley 87). During these travels, Livingstone did not mention any missionary actions. At the Zambesi, they heard of more slave trade and Livingstone “realized the bygone failure of faith” (Huxley 88).
They reached Tete in March of 1856 and Major Secard provided them with a canoe for the last leg of travels to Quilemane. In May of 1856 they reached Quilemane and stayed with more hospitable Portuguese. The Royal Navy sent a ship and Livingstone reached England in December of 1856. After sixteen years in Africa, he returned to become a national hero. Africa was suddenly fashionable and it was all credited to him (Huxley 92). He had opened awareness and intrigued minds around the world of this great land. Livingstone received many awards for the geographical discoveries. The London Missionary Society honored him, even though he had only converted one man in sixteen years. He was also granted Fellowship of the Royal Society, which he held to be his highesthonor. Livingstone stayed in London for a few years until once again returning to Africa (Huxley 91). I feel his geographical accomplishments gave him the hunger for more. I also believe that Livingstone felt the need to return and fulfill his missionary duties he had previously neglected. His journal entry while waiting for the ship in Quilemane seems to describe the failure of his missionary attempts and his new found success as an explorer. “I view the end of a geographical feat as the beginning of the missionary enterprise. The next step must be to spread Christianity, and to plant inland, in healthy situations, permanent settlements of Europeans who would develop the country's resources and build up honest trade which would end forever the agonies of the yoked slaves” (Huxley 91).
Bibliography
Dugard, Martin. Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone. New York, NY: Doubleday, 2003.
Hall, Richard. Stanley, an Adventurer Explored. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975.
Huxley, Elspeth. Livingstone and his African Journeys. New York, NY: Saturday Review Press, 1974.
Jeal, Tim. Livingstone. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1973.
Simmons, Jack. Livingstone and Africa. London, England: English Universities Press Ltd., 1955.