Born on March 19, 1813 in the village of Blantyre in Lanarkshire, David Livingstone was to live his life for others, his own contentment and content was selflessly let go to stand by others less skillful of overcoming travail than himself. He was born to Neil Livingstone, an underprivileged tea merchant. He was instructed to read and write by his dad. When David was 10 he went to do a job in the Blantyre cotton mill, his employment was to watch a cotton spinning frame and secure any threads that broke.
David needed to discover more and self educated whenever he could. He soon began to be trained at nights after work, provided by the mill. He taught himself Latin and developed a love of natural history. He was also active physically, he loved to tramp for miles and miles all over the . He grew up strong and with great vitality. Little did he realise that he was unintentionally preparing for his life’s work, and to be forever remembered in history as the man that identified the Victoria Falls.
At eighteen he was promoted to the capacity of spinner at the mill, thus earning much better earnings. He stored his money for university. He was persevering to learn to become a doctor and a missionary. He had read about a doctor missionary in China and hoped that he too could go to China and be like that man. He was accepted at the university in Glascow, Scotland. He wrote a message to the London Missionary Society offering himself as a missionary to China while he was still studying at the University. He was received on the condition that he went through a preparation course at a school in Chipping Ongar in Essex near London, England. He suspended his course and concluded a year at the mission society. In the time he was at the little school he met a man named Robert Moffat who was to present him his life’s vision. Robert Moffat had just returned from Africa with stories that fuelled the heart of David, of a concealed continent with the “vast plain to the north” and the “smoke of a thousand villages” where no missionary had ever been before.
He moved to London in 1940 to finalize his studies at the British and Foreign medical school, the Aldarsgate Street Dispensary, Charing Cross Hospital and Moorsfeild Hospital and at the finish of the year he qualified as a licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glascow. That same year he was also ordained a missionary by the London Missionary Society.
For additional info on Victoria Falls or David Livingstone, visit http://www.livingstonesadventure.com. This is part 1 in a four part series of articles about David Livingstone to be found on this website.
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