|
 By
Caroline M. Jackson
 When
I was a young Scottish lass attending school in Glasgow, many of my
textbooks were full of stories about the adventures of David
Livingstone, celebrated Scottish explorer and missionary. Stories of
African jungles, savages and man-eating lions fired the embers of my
young and fertile imagination.
Born
in 1813, David Livingstone grew up in the town of Blantyre on the bonnie
banks of the River Clyde. He lived in a one room ‘single end’ which
was part of an 18th-century mill worker’s tenement house on
Shuttle Row. It was here that David spent his childhood with his
parents, brothers and sisters. The restored building once housed 24
families and today at the David Livingstone Center, the cramped abode
looks much as it would have done in the industrial 19th
century.
David
was taught to read and write in a school which is now the middle room of
the Shuttle Row Museum. At the age of 10 he began to work as a "piecer"
in the cotton mills. He worked 14 hours a day with half an hour for
breakfast, and one hour for lunch. Each evening he attended the
company’s school for two hours. Scientific words and books of travels
were his special delight. "In reading, everything that I could lay
my hands on was devoured except novels," he wrote later.
By
11 years of age, he was studying Latin and spending any spare money on
books. In the mill, he usually had a book propped up on the machine. A
local farmer who sometimes employed him complained that he was "aye
lyin’ on his belly readin’ a book."
 |
Nearby New Lanark
Visitor Center where one can experience life through the
eyes of a young millworker in the 1800's.
photo, Caroline M. Jackson |
Later
in life David claimed that by reading amid the roar of the textile
machinery, he learned to abstract his mind from surrounding disturbances
and to read or write with perfect comfort amidst the play of children or
near the dancing and songs of savages.
At
21, David expressed an interest in a medical career, but his father was
opposed unless it was applied to a Christian purpose. David, however,
persevered and later went on to study theology and medicine. Eventually
he and his wife, Mary, traveled to Africa to set up a mission where he
faced many dangers. On one occasion, he was mauled by a lion; his arm
bone was badly crushed and did not heal properly. Much later it was to
be from this badly damaged bone that the Royal College of Surgeons
identified Livingstone’s body. On another occasion, his canoe was
attacked by a hippopotamus and almost capsized.
Today
in the David Livingstone Center his life unfolds with fascinating
exhibits telling of the story of his explorations in Africa and his key
role in helping to abolish the slave trade. He was the first to discover
many parts of Africa never before seen by Europeans. After working as a
missionary in Botswana, he led a series of epic journeys, discovering
Lake Ngami (1849), the Zambezi River (1851), the Victoria Falls (1855)
and Lake Malawi (1859). Personal letters tell tales of the tsetse flies
and malaria-carrying mosquitoes which sickened his children and many
members of his party.
In
1866, he set out to find the source of the River Nile in the heart of
Africa and virtually disappeared from sight. His long absence became an
international concern, so the New York Herald sent explorer Henry M.
Stanley to find him in 1869. Eventually in 1871, Stanley found
Livingstone, who was in dire straits in a small town on Lake Tanganyika.
When they met, Stanley greeted the missionary with the famous line,
"Dr. Livingstone, I presume."
Five
days after Stanley left him, David wrote in his diary: My Jesus, my
King, my Life, my All, I again dedicate my whole life to Thee.
Eventually
David Livingstone succumbed to the many diseases which ravaged his body.
One night at four in the morning, the young African boy who lay at his
door called in alarm for Susi, a servant. By the candlelight they saw
him, not in bed, but kneeling by the bed with his head buried in his
hands upon the pillow. He had died in the act of prayer. His loyal
African friends salted his body, wrapped it in bark cloth, and carried
it 1,500 miles to the coast so that it could be shipped to Britain. On
18th April 1874, David Livingstone was buried with full
honors in Westminster Abbey, London.
The
brass inscription reads:
Missionary,
Traveller, Philanthropist.
Born
March 19, 1813 at Blantyre. Died May 1, 1873. ULULA
His
body is in Britain but his heart was buried under a tree in Africa – a
custom reserved for those of a high rank. The last words penned by this
extraordinary man read:
"All
I can add in my solitude is may heaven’s rich blessing come down on
everyone, American, English or Turk who will help to heal this open sore
of the world."
The
David Livingstone Center
Location:
165 Station Road, Blantyre, Scotland, just off the M74, junction 5, near
Blantyre rail station. The center is run by the National Trust for
Scotland.
Nearby
attraction: a short drive southeast of Blantyre is the New Lanark World
Heritage Site. Founded in 1785, this seven-story textile mill is a
living testimony to life in the 18th century. Adjacent to the
mill are the Falls of Clyde, which have been the focus of poets such as
Sir Walter Scott, Coleridge and Dickens.
 
|
