214 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
CHAPTER VI. 
Livingstone. 
As David Livingstone initiated the new era of African 
exploration, and lias influenced all who have come after 
him, it is right and proper to devote a brief chapter 
to his work. It is unnecessary to detail the explorations 
in South Africa before he began. During the early 
part of the century, missionaries, traders and hunters 
pushed their way northwards from the Cape, while the 
Boers “ trekked ” into Natal, the Orange Free State, 
and the Transvaal. But when Livingstone beo;an his 
work, some fifty years ago, not much was known be¬ 
yond the station occupied by his father-in-law, Robert 
Moffat. Moffat himself travelled about a great deal, 
and went as far as Namaqualand ; but his object was 
mission work and not exploration.* 
David Livingstone was born on March 19, 1813, at 
the village of Blantyre Works, in Lanarkshire, Scotland. 
David was the second child of his parents, Neil Living¬ 
ston (for so he spelled his name, as did his son for many 
years) and Agnes Hunter. Neil’s ancestors belonged 
to the island of Ulva, and David used to tell how his 
great-grandfather fell at Culloden fighting on behalf of 
Prince Charlie. The mother was a Lanarkshire woman, 
and counted a doughty Covenanter among her ancestry. 
Thus Livingstone inherited some of the best qualities of 
his countrymen on both sides—the fire, and dash, and 
sentiment of the highlander, with the coolness and 
sternness of purpose of the covenanting lowlander. 
* The following account of Livingstone’s life ancl work is mainly 
reproduced from the ‘ Encyclopaedia Britannica/ by permission of 
Messrs. Black. 
