How I Found Livingstone

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.

If you like original oral history This book is for you. This book gives a lot of insight into the customs and social interations of that period. I enjoyed it very much. Some of the older words needed a bit of research for me but that is part of the fun of reading older books.

The book is the exerts of Sir Henry Stanley, a journalist who was presented with the task of finding Dr. Livingstone, an explorer who had been missing for two years and presumed dead. Stanleys travels were documented by his newspaper, to much fanfare. Stanley had no clue about central Africa, what to pack, what to expect, and ends up facing what youd expect in Africa: harsh conditions, diseases, natives who dont appreciate him being on their land, and jungles that he was no equipped for. It is a tale of lively tale of struggles and intrigue, a very good read.

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.

not a bad read, and you cant beat the free price.........haha

No problems. Arrived as described and on time.