How I Found Livingstone

Quite interesting look back in time to the adventures in Central Africa. This book is obviously a compilation of his daily journal. It was shocking how blase Stanley was to the death, starvation, lawlessness and hardships endured during his search for Livingstone. Stanley treatment and attitude toward the savages is appalling but not unusual for the times. Very interesting read.

This is Mr Stanleys accurate account of his travails in Africa, and it is never what you think. The bugs, the people, the muck, not the animals. Also an insight into the medical ignorance of the day. Learn the real value of cloth in Dotis. Yes folks, money in Africa was carried in bales....cloth. Dr Livingston really really could have used google earth and penicillin, but alas....

Ive had this eBook a long time. Im still only 40% into it. Its slow reading - more because Im easily preoccupied by fun things such as playing the Pinball Arcade than continuing to read. However, it IS interesting. Sure, its self serving, but what To Me, From Me, Love Me book isnt? Its rather fun to see and read about the Victorian attitudes of the day. NAACP, ACLU and half a dozen other abbreviations would haul your heinie in court and sue you to the moon and back if thats how you acted now.

If you like reading original historical source material, then you will like this book. One gets the feeling of what it was like in a much different time in East Africa during early European contact with the interior.

Just a note: This IS a very nice compact edition. Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.8 x 1.6 inches. Dont worry about the font size, as it is large enough to read easily. The pictures are quite well done, including engravings from Stanleys original edition and color prints and maps. The margins are one-half inch, so if you are one to write notes, this will be a little cramped for you. This is a straight-forward tale that reads like the adventure story it is.

This is a really boring book. The author, convinced of his own white superiority goes on and on making racist remarks. For example, when he was trying to build a bridge, he remarks, Be sure it was made quickly, for where the civilized white is found, a difficulty must vanish. At another point, he remarks Every pound of meat, and every three spoonfuls of musk or porridge I ate in Africa contained at least ten grains of sand. Ferajji was considerably exercised at a threat I made to him that on arrival at Zanzibar, I would get my gret English doctor there to open my stomach and count every grain of sand found in it, for each grain of which Ferraji should be charged one dollar. Imagine an explorer, even a racist one, complaining about sand in his food. Boy were those Victorian explorers used to luxury at the expense of native slaves. Ironically, at the same time he imagines himself to be a liberal, goes on and on about what wrongs his workers (whom he wouldnt call slaves, as he explains, in all his magnanimity, but wouldnt mind flogging or chaining) were idiots and ungrateful. The author shows the lack of respect for nature shown by most Europeans who were actually hunters and imagined themselves to be botanists and zoologists. For example, he writes: After seeing the work properly commenced, I sat down on a condemned canoe to amuse myself with the hippopotami by peppering their thick skulls with my No. 12 smooth bore. I found this statement quite disturbing. He misses out the entire point. Not a single map in the book. No mention of distances. No introduction to the origins and customs of the different tribes. I have read other travelogues of the time period, and while I have found all of them racial, many of them had excellent descriptions of the landscape, geographical features, distances, and anthropological customs. This book, unfortunately lacked all of them. Edit 1: A few years after the review, I happened to read more about this man in Hochschilds book Leopolds Ghost. Stanley grew up in Wales, and moved to America where he lied about his Welsh origin. He fought in both sides of the American Civil war, and was a deserter. Throughout his life, he was given to lying about his achievements and blowing them up way beyond proportion. He made most of his money inventing fantastic tales about his travels. During his travels, he himself indulged in a fair bit of tyrrany, and single handedly enabled King Leopold (of Belgium) set up a murderous regime in the Congo that was responsible for the death of about 10 million Congolesse.

First let me say that I dont particularly enjoy reading fiction, I like interesting & adventurous non-fiction ), but on the rare occasion that I find a book that I actually would like to learn more about, then Im in. This book is well written and a first hand account of Stanleys adventures. Its fascinating to read his thoughts about far away peoples that I assume were foreign to most at the time. The manner in which they all speak and the pomp and circumstance of the interactions between Stanley, dignitaries, noblemen, tribesman and merchants is very interesting. It rather gives the feel of an Indiana Jones movie! I am shocked how interesting this book is so far and Im only on Chapter 4! AND...I havent even gotten to the parts that Im interested in - the Congo jungle! If you like adventure tales, you should check this book out!!

Not as good as I expected but still an interesting.

The story is awash with mind-numbing details using un-explained and un-familiar names/terms which sometimes leaves ones head spinning. I stuck with it because of the actual history it relates.

this book is very very very repetitive (did you catch catch that?). However, Henry transports you to Africa right into the tribal culture, which is purely a magical read.