biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1813–73)
|
| biography:
| Missionary and explorer, born in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, WC Scotland, UK. After studying medicine in London, he was ordained under the London Missionary Society in 1840, and the next year arrived in Cape Town to begin exploration in Africa. In 1852–6 he was the first European to discover L Ngami, and the Victoria Falls (1855) of the Zambezi. He was welcomed home as a hero, and published his Missionary Travels (1857). He led an expedition (1858–63) exploring the Zambezi, and discovered Lakes Shirwa and Nyasa. The expedition was recalled, he journeyed as far as Bombay, and returned to England in 1864. He was asked to return to Africa and settle a dispute regarding the sources of the Nile, and in 1867–8 he discovered Lakes Mweru and Bangweulu. On his return to Ujiji after severe illness he was found there by Henry Morton Stanley, sent to look for him by the New York Herald. He returned to Bangweulu, but died, and his body was taken for burial in Westminster Abbey. |
|
|
