Dr. David Livingston was a famous British explorer in the mid 1800’s. He was the first European to walk across the continent of Africa. In the 1860’s there were competing theories about the source of the Nile and the RGS (Royal Geography Society) got Dr. Livingston to go back to Africa to discover the true source. While he was there periodic supplies were supposed to be sent to him by caravan. After a couple years he ran out of supplies and Livingston, who was a also a Christian missionary and vehemently anti slavery had to rely on Arab slave traders to survive. Questions about whether Livingston needed to be rescued or even if he was still alive were rampant in England. Eventually the editor of the New York Herald newspaper James Gordon Bennett hired American reporter Henry Morton Stanley to find Livingston and use the entire adventure to sell his papers and scoop the British. Stanley was actually a British citizen who was born John Rowlands and given up as an orphan. He eventually sailed on a ship to New Orleans and took the name of a man who treated him like a son. Stanley fought for the South in the American Civil War until he was captured. Then he eventually changed sides and fought for the North. After the war he eventually became a free lance reporter. When Stanley finally found Livingston (and it is incredible that both men stayed alive up to this point) Livingston had no supplies and was barely alive due to local villagers. Stanley was able to bring him the supplies necessary to continue his journey and they became fast friends. Stanley stayed with Livingston for a couple months before finally leaving to go back to Europe and America and to tell his story about finding Dr. Livingston. Livingston was never able to find the source of the Nile and died in Africa several years later. An African mummified his body and carried it back to Zanzibar were it was transported back to England and he was buried in Westminster Abbey. His heart was buried in Africa. Stanley became famous and rich for his adventure and long after Dr. Livingston died he kept a promise to Livingston and went back to Africa and became a famous explorer as was his hero Dr. Livingston. It was only a hundred years later that satellite photos have shown that the source of the Nile is the bubbling up of water in African highlands between Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika.

(Book – Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingston – Martin Dugard)