David Livingstone, Missionary Explorer

Early Life

1813Livingstone born on March 19 in Blantyre, Scotland

1823Starts work in cotton mill

1838Accepted by London Missionary Society (LMS) for work in China

1839Start of Opium War (which lasts until 1842) makes China missions impracticable

1840Chance meeting with Robert Moffat in London persuades Livingstone to work in Africa; qualifies as doctor, ordained as minister, and sails for South Africa

1841Reaches Cape Town; travels to Moffat’s station in Kuruman

1845Marries Mary Moffat

First Journeys

1847-52Founds several mission stations, ending with Kolobeng

1849Trip to Lake Ngami with William Cotton Oswell earns him fame in Britain

1851Reaches upper Zambezi River for the first time

1852Mary takes children to England

1853-6Crosses southern Africa from coast to coast

1856Returns to England and receives a hero’s welcome—and the gold medal from the Royal Geographic Society

1857Publishes Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; leaves the LMS

Zambezi Expedition

1858Zambezi Expedition sets sail; initial objectives abandoned by the end of the year

1859Livingstone reaches Lake Nyasa

1862Mary joins her husband on the Zambezi and dies almost immediately

1863Zambezi Expedition and Universities Mission are recalled; Livingstone sails 2,500 miles to India to get a good price for his ship

1864Son, Robert, dies of wounds fighting for the Union in the American Civil War days before he turns 19.

1865Livingstone publishes Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi and its Tributaries

Last Journey

1866-73On his last journey, tries (unsuccessfully) to find the source of the Nile

1871Meets Henry M. Stanley

May 1873Dies near Lake Bangweulu (Zambia); African companions take his body to Bagamoyo on the coast, a nine-month journey, and then to England

1874Buried in Westminster Abbey; The Last Journals published

Other Events

1815Napoleon defeated at Waterloo

Britain suppresses Boer uprising in Cape Town (South Africa)

1830Joseph Smith founds Mormon church

1833Britain passes Emancipation Act: all slaves in British colonies freed

1835P.T. Barnum begins career with exhibition of “George Washington’s nurse,” whom he says is 160 years old

1839First baseball game played in Cooperstown, N.Y.

185014 percent of U.S. population (23 million) are slaves

1853Cecil Rhodes born

1858English explorers Richard Burton and John Speke discover Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria Nyanza

1859Darwin publishes Origin of Species

1861-65American Civil War

1869Suez Canal opened

Thousands of prospectors flood South Africa in search of gold and gems

1874British gain control of Gold Coast (Ghana)

Elizabeth Isichei is professor of religious studies at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. She is the author of The History of Christianity in Africa (SPCK and Eerdmans, 1995).