David Livingstone, a British traveller and explorer, born at Blantyre, near Glasgow, Scotland, March 19,1813, died at Itala, central Africa, May 4, 1873. He was the son of a poor weaver, and gained the greater part of his early education by attending an evening school while he was employed in the cotton mills near Glasgow. Later he so arranged his time as to secure the winter months for study, supporting himself by his labor during the remainder of the year. His family were earnest Presbyterians, and his attention was early turned toward questions of religious belief. His religious enthusiasm was strongly excited by the idea of a missionary life, and he determined to prepare himself for this career. Having studied theology and medicine for several years at Glasgow, still supporting himself as before, he offered his services to the London missionary society as a missionary to Africa, and they were promptly accepted. Somewhat later he was formally ordained, and in 1840 he left England for Port Natal. Here he became acquainted with a fellow missionary, Robert Moffat, whose daughter he afterward married; and after a short residence here he proceeded inland to the mission station of Kuruman, in the Bechuana country, about 600 m.

N. E. of Cape Town. Here and at several other stations he was occupied in teaching and missionary labor till 1849, making such journeys and explorations as were incidental to his work, and sending to England much valuable geographical and scientific information, but undertaking no expeditions independent of his missionary occupations. In 1849, however, he made his first journey in search of Lake Ngami, about which he had obtained such information as he could from the natives. On Aug. 1 he discovered the lake, and during the few days following explored its borders, afterward making an extended voyage down its outlet, the Zouga. In 1852, having sent his family to England, Livingstone started again on a journey of discovery, and continued it beyond his original intention. During four years he traversed South Africa from the Cape of Good Hope, by Lake Ngami, to Linyanti, thence to the western coast in lat. 10° S., then returned to Linyanti, and after passing through Tete, descended the Zambesi to the sea, passing over an estimated distance of 11,000 m. For this achievement he received the Victoria gold medal of the royal geographical society; and on his visiting England in 1856 he was received with distinguished honors.

In 1857 he published his first work on his travels and discoveries, under the title of "Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa," in which he gave a detailed account of the explorations above referred to. At the beginning of the volume is also a brief autobiographical sketch. In the spring of 1858 he returned to Africa, and, with the aid of the government and of private subscriptions, prepared to prosecute, with several assistants, further explorations in the southern part of the continent. Going to Quilimane, at the mouth of the Zambesi river, he travelled thence N. W., at first following up the Zambesi, and afterward diverging to the north and exploring Lake Nyassa, which he discovered in September, 1859. The results of this expedition, which was not ended till 1863, included also the exploration of the country W. and N. W. of the lake for a distance of about 300 m., and of the whole district about the head waters of the N. E. branch of the Zambesi and its tributaries. Mrs. Livingstone, who had accompanied her husband, died during the journey at Shupanga, April 27, 1862. In 1864 Dr. Livingstone returned to England, and in the following year published "Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries." He immediately made preparations for another expedition, and again left England in April, 1865. For more than a year nothing was heard from him, and in March, 1867, a report reached England that he had been killed in a skirmish with the natives near Lake Nyassa. This report was not generally credited, and on June 9 an expedition under the command of Mr. E. D. Young left England in search of him.

News from Mr. Young was received in London in January, 1868, stating that he believed Livingstone to be still alive. In April following letters from Livingstone himself were received from a point far to the west of where he was reported to have been murdered, stating that he was in good health. Nothing more was heard of him till November, 1869, when a letter was received from him dated July, 1868. He was then near Lake Bangweolo, and expressed the opinion that the sources of the Nile would be found between lat. 10° and 12° S., in the region assigned by Ptolemy. In later communications from him he seemed to entertain doubts of the correctness of this opinion, and said repeatedly that the conjecture had presented itself to his mind that he was in the region of the sources of the Congo river, one of the largest in the world. This conjecture is now believed by many of the most eminent geographers to be correct. The next communication received from him was dated at Ujiji, May 13, 1869; and another long silence of nearly two years' duration followed. Finally the " New York Herald " despatched Mr. Stanley, one of its correspondents, in search of the missing traveller. Mr. Stanley reached Ujiji in the autumn of 1871, and there found Livingstone alive and well.

Livingstone and Stanley together now made a journey to the N. end of Lake Tanganyika, and believed that they had ascertained conclusively that the lake has no communication with the Nile. Mr. Stanley left Livingstone at Unyanyembe in March, 1872, and returned to England. It was then the intention of the traveller to remain for about a year longer in south central Africa in the prosecution of his explorations. In the following August, after receiving men and supplies from Zanzibar, he started on an expedition toward the E. side of Lake Bangweolo, and the reported sources of the streams which form the Lualaba. He proposed to spend nine or ten months in this journey, and then return to England for permanent residence. From this time no news of his progress was received from the explorer's own hand; but it is known through information acquired after his death that he reached his destination by passing around the lower end of the lake and proceeding along its S. shore. It also appears probable that he went northward and explored certain copper mines in the region of Katanga, of which he had received accounts from the natives; but accurate details concerning this last of his journeys are entirely wanting.

Meanwhile, after Stanley's news of the discovery of Livingstone and his intentions for the future had reached England, an expedition to be sent to the explorer's assistance had been organized under the auspices of the royal geographical society, and had started for Africa early in 1873, under the command of Lieut. Cameron. Leaving Zanzibar for the interior on March 18, this relief party, after a series of difficulties and delays, reached Unyanyembe on Aug. 4. It was here, while Cameron was purchasing supplies and preparing for further progress, that the news of Livingstone's death was first received. Chumah, one of his party of natives sent ahead by the remaining men of the expedition, who were returning with the body of their leader, arrived in Unyanyembe on Oct. 16, bringing a letter with details from Livingstone's neguo servant Wainwright. The explorer and his men had been marching eastward, on their return to their point of departure. Compelled to cross a broad tract of inundated country, they had endured the greatest hardships, to which several had finally succumbed. Livingstone himself was seized with dysentery, and died after about a fortnight's illness.

The survivors of the party, numbering in all 79, resolved to carry the body of their leader to Zanzibar; and after subjecting it to a rough process of embalming, they started with it toward Unyanyembe. They underwent great hardships, and as their supplies had nearly given out, they despatched Chumah to procure relief. This being at once furnished by the Cameron party, they successfully reached their destination, and Livingstone's body was finally received at the coast. Thence it was carried to England by a government vessel, and on April 18 was buried in Westminster abbey with distinguished honors. - The vast extent of Livingstone's explorations will be found described at length in the explorer's two works above cited, in reports scattered through the transactions of the royal geographical society, Petermann's Geographische Mittheilungen, etc, and in "The Last Journals of David Livingstone, including his Wanderings and Discoveries in Eastern Africa from 1865 to within a few days of his Death," edited by the Rev. Horace Waller (2 vols., London, 1874). (See also the article Africa.) Livingstone was the recipient of honors from most of the leading geographical societies of the world.

In February, 1869, he was elected a corresponding member of the academy of sciences at Paris. He received several medals and other tokens of appreciation from learned bodies, and the degrees of LL. D. and D. C. L. were conferred upon him. In November, 1871, the British government granted to his family a pension of £300.