“Dr, Livingstone, I presume?" the now-famous greeting, was allegedly uttered by Henry Morton Stanley on 10th November 1871, upon finding missionary and explorer David Livingstone.
Born as John Rowlands in Denbigh (28 January 1841 – 10 May 1904), Stanley was a journalist and explorer famous for his exploration of central Africa and his search for Livingstone. He was knighted in 1899.
After a period in St. Asaph Union Workhouse for the poor, he travelled to the United States in 1859 where he was befriended by Henry Hope Stanley, a wealthy trader whose name he eventually adopted. During the American Civil War, he fought first for the Confederate Army in the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. After being taken prisoner, he joined the Union Army, then served on several merchant ships before joining the Navy in July 1864.
When the war ended, Stanley became a journalist, organising an abortive expedition to the Ottoman Empire during which Stanley was imprisoned. He talked his way out of jail and was even compensated for damage to expedition equipment.
He travelled widely in Asia as an overseas correspondent for the newly-established New York Herald and in 1869, Stanley was given the task of finding the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone, who had travelled to Africa but had not been heard from for some time.
Stanley travelled to Zanzibar and kitted an expedition accompanied by 200 porters. During the 700-mile expedition through the tropical forest, his horse died after a bite from a tsetse fly, many of his porters abandoned him and most of those who remained were stricken with tropical diseases. On 10th November 1871, Stanley came across Livingstone near Lake Tanganyika in what is now Tanzania, greeting him, reputedly, with "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?" Stanley joined Livingstone's exploration of the region, and wrote a book about his adventures on his return, entitled 'How I Found Livingstone; travels, adventures, and discoveries in Central Africa'.
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