Livingstone is one of those rare men from Europe: remembered fondly by African natives. He started off as one of those ubiquitous missionaries, landing in the middle of Africa and seeking converts to Christianity. He wasn'tpartcularly good at that as it happens - he is recorded as having converted only one African. But he was also opposed to slavery and that was what he was well regarded for. Another popular skill was medical, as he had studied medicine in his home country of Scotland and later in London. Being able to heal made him popular with local chiefs and clans, not surrisingly.
He is really known for being an energetic explorer, and his most famous discovery was Victoria Falls (*surely someone happened along them or fell in them or something before, but he was the first to make this fantastic place known to the "civilized world"). His motto became "Christianity, Commerce and Civilization," believing these would free the world from the tyrany of the slave trade. This made him all the keener to jump into the bush again. The local African countries knew new trade routes would afford them some dignity and even up their role with the rest of the world. Britain was all behind him and he was appointed Her Majesty's Consul for the East Coast of Africa.
One of his most publicised enterprises was to find the source of the Nile. His theory was that it was Lake Tanganyika, but he got that wrong. And he wasn't really the first person to even 'discover' Lake Victoria, but his fame was such that most people thought so. (sorry about that John Speke). This particular exploration activity featured failing health, desertions and reports of insanity (those Victorians loved their melodramas), and his seeming disappearance gave birth to a publicity stunt by a newspaper to send out a journalist to find Livingstone. Cue Stanley.
Well Stanley eventually did find him, although finding the only white man in the area probably helped. Livingtone was urged to return home, but Stanley was rebuffed, and Livingstone ended up going deeper into the continent than any European had ever gone. Not a lot of good it did, as he died of malaria and dysentry at the age of 60. Someone got the body back to London - that can't have been a pleasant job, I wonder who pulled the short straw - and it sits (lies?) in Westminster Abbey with the other tragic/heroic figures. There are many stautes to this intrepid and romantic figure, but this one must be one of the best, where he gazes out to Victoria Falls.
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