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Continued...Stanley and The Search for the Nile
Livingstone returned to Africa after a brief stay at Bombay . His aim, as usual, was the extension of the Gospel and the abolition of the slave trade on the East African coast, but a new object was the exploration of the central Africa watershed and the possibility of finding the ultimate sources of the Nile.This time Livingstone went without European subordinates and took only African and Asian followers who later fled and deserted him . To avoid punishment when they returned to Zanzibar, they concocted the story that Livingstone had been killed by the Ngoni. Although it was proved the following year that he was alive, a touch of drama was added to the reports circulating abroad about his expedition.
Livingstone moved North from Lake Nyasa and later discovered Lake Mweru in 1867 , and in 1868, Lake Bangweulu . Soon he approached farther west than any European had penetrated.He was weak and unwell when Henry Morgon Stanley encoutered him in 1871 . He was sent by the New York Herald to find Livingstone . After their meeting, Stanley became interested in Livingstone's hope of finding a source of the Nile River south of the known source in Lake Victoria. Stanley postponed his plans to rush home with news of the great explorer and stayed with him until March 1872.
After Livingstone's death in 1873, Stanley decided to carry on his friend's work in Africa. In 1874, Stanley led an expedition of about 350 people into the interior. The group explored Lake Victoria and other lakes. Then Stanley followed the Congo River all the way west to its mouth at the Atlantic Ocean. He reached the ocean in 1877 after many hardships. By then, more than two-thirds of his company had died or deserted.Later , he continued his expeditions in Africa and was knighted in 1899. Later Stanley helped establish the Congo Free State , an area dominated by King Leopold of Belgium.
Biography................Livingstone and Stanley
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