Man on a Mission

“Dr Livingstone, I presume’. These are the immortal words Henry Morton Stanley is said to have greeted David Livingstone with, one of the world’s most famous explorers, when he eventually located him in 1871 in Ujiji, a village on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in what is modern-day Tanzania.

Stanley had been sent on an unusual assignment by the New York Herald newspaper – to locate David Livingstone, who had been missing for several years in Africa. By the time Stanley found him, Livingstone was a waif of a man, “pale”, “wearied” and with a grey beard, he looked far older than his 58 years.

Still, despite his ragged appearance, Livingstone had achieved much in his 30 years of exploring and charting Africa. He