Dr. David Livingstone was a doctor, a linguist, a missionary and an explorer. He was born on 19^th March, 1813 near Glasgow in Scotland into a poor family. He went to work in a cotton mill at the age of just 10 years and even at such a young age, he was incredibly ambitious. With part of his first week’s wages, he bought a book on Latin grammar. He attended school after long hours of work and finally he taught himself the requisite Latin to study medicine. He also studied theology and went to Africa as a missionary to spread Christianity. When he arrived in Africa in 1841, he had two goals in mind – converting locals to Christianity and to discover the source of River Nile. Although he was unable to achieve either goal, what he achieved during his expeditions into Africa were simply incredible and astonishing. He traversed Kalahari desert twice, which was no small achievement in that era.  He was the first Westerner to traverse Africa from Luanda (in Angola) on the Atlantic Ocean to Quelimane ( in Mozambique) on the Indian Ocean. During the last leg of that journey he discovered a glorious waterfall in river Zambezi which he named Victoria Falls after the British Queen.  He also discovered the source of river Congo. However, his greatest achievement was his contribution to abolition of slave trade being carried on by Arab slave traders.

Explorers had looked for source of River Nile since Herodotus attempted a search in 460 BC and it intensified during the 19^th century. Every failed attempt added to the mystical heft of the quest. Dr. David Livingstone’s expeditions into Africa had made him a celebrity in Britain. He was using his fame and celebrity status to campaign against slave trade. Sir Roderick Murchison, head of Britain’s Royal Geographical Society convinced him to undertake another mission to find the source of River Nile. He left England again in August 1865, planning to return in two years. This mission proved to be a disaster as he had been plagued by one setback after another- so much so that he depended upon the Arab slave traders for food and shelter. However, this generosity came at a price. The Arabs refused to allow Livingstone to send letters home by their caravans. Due to his ill health, poverty and dependence on Arab slave traders for his survival, he lost contact with the outside world.

In October 1869, the vehemently anti-British editor of the newspaper New York Herald,  James Gordon Bennet Jr. decided to send a search party to look for missing Dr. David Livingstone. During that period the superpower Britain and the rising power United States were at loggerheads on many issues. The British Government had been somewhat apathetic towards rescuing Dr. Livingstone and James Gordon Bennet Jr. decided that Americans would do what British would not. Further, a successful search would boost the already astronomical circulation of his newspaper. He ordered a newcomer to New York Herald, Henry Morton Stanley to lead the search party for Dr. Livingstone. What he did not know was that Stanley was as British as Livingstone. His real name was John Rowlands, and he had been born in Denbigh, Wales.

On January 6, 1871, Stanley reached Zanzibar, the starting point for expeditions to the interior. He assembled a caravan of over hundred men to carry trade goods and equipment into the interior. The group travelled for over eight months through hazardous territory beset by tribal conflicts, stricken by illness, faced with desertions and mutiny along the way before hearing the rumor of a white man living in a village nearby Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika. Stanley’s caravan entered Ujiji holding American flag aloft and firing rifle shots in salute. There he found the old hero and greeted him with the famous words, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Stanley later admitted that he wanted to vent his joy in some mad freak at this extraordinary moment but he decided to remain dignified in front of the native crowd befitting a white man. Stanley was mocked and ridiculed for being incredibly formal at such an extraordinary moment of having accomplished a seemingly impossible mission. “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” is now seen as an illustration of overly proper nature of British social interactions in the Victorian age.