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Searching for Doctor Livingstone
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photo n° 7 Copyright © King Baudouin Foundation Collection / Royal Museum for Central Africa |
Stanley traveled to New York City in 1867, and signed-on with The New York Herald as a Special Correspondent to cover the British campaign against Emperor Téwodros of Abyssinia (modern day Ethiopia). He did so with great success and following a brief hiatus went to Spain to report on the civil war there.
Then in late 1869 the Herald’s owner and editor James Gordon Bennett, Jr. supposedly told Stanley to go 'find Livingstone'. First, though, he had other stories to cover that took him from Egypt to India. As a result, Stanley didn’t reach Zanzibar to begin the mission until January 6, 1871.
After many travails, the meeting with Livingstone took place at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika on November 10, 1871. When published in the Herald, the finding created an instant uproar. Some at the Royal Geographical Society questioned the veracity of Stanley’s claim, but in the end most people considered the expedition an overwhelming achievement.
In his Travel Journal Stanley recorded at first catching site of Ujiji:
“Soon after arrived a large concourse of Arabs & blacks. I saw a pale looking white man in a faded blue cap, with an arc beak, tarnished gold lace, red Woolen jacket, sheeting shirt, tweed pants. As I saw him, I dismounted.”
The next entry in the diary simply states: “Halt”.
This passage was re-written by Stanley in his book How I Found Dr. Livingstone, published in 1872:
“As I advance slowly towards him I noticed he was pale, looked wearied, had a grey beard, wore a bluish cap with a faded gold band round it, had a red-sleeved waistcoat, and a pair of grey tweed trousers. I would have run to him, only I was a coward in the presence of such a mob – would have embraced him, only, he being an Englishman, I did not know how he would receive me; so I did what cowardice and false pride suggested was the best thing – walked deliberately to him, took off my hat, and said: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” – “Yes, said he, with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly".
The statement “Dr. Livingstone, I presume” became instantly famous and the book How I Found Livingstone went through many printings due both to the event itself and Stanley’s style of writing, which only critics found wanting.
