With a penchant for languages, medical training, and a high tolerance for the discomforts of nineteenth century travel, David Livingstone was a uniquely well-equipped explorer.

Livingstone was born in Blantyre, Scotland on March 19, 1813. He began earning a living at an early age, and his religious faith drew him to a career as a missionary. As it turned out, his achievements in exploration would surpass his missionary successes.

Moved by a friend, Robert Moffat, who told him, "I have sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages, where no missionary has ever been," Livingstone trained at the London Missionary Society, and specialized in medicine. His first trip to South Africa began in December of 1840. That was not the only influence Moffat would have on his life; Livingstone married Moffat's daughter, Mary, in 1844.

Although popular among native tribes in Africa, Livingstone made enemies of some white settlers there because he learned African languages and had an unusually keen understanding and sympathy for native people and cultures. In 1843, while settling the Mabotsa valley, Livingstone shot a lion. Before it died, however, the lion attacked Livingstone, costing him the use of his left arm.

Livingstone's travels in Africa made him the first white man to see Victoria Falls, and also an esteemed visitor among the natives. According to one biographer, the Scotsman added about one million square miles to the known portion of the globe. Livingstone received a gold medal from the London Royal Geographical for being the first to cross the entire African Continent from west to east.

Remembered as an explorer, Livingstone is still more distinguished for his humanity. At a time when slavery was taken for granted, he condemned the slave trade, alerting his fellow countrymen to the issue.

While he was away in darkest Africa, at home, Livingstone was considered lost and possibly dead. Henry Morton Stanley, a staff reporter for The New York Herald, was sent to look for the explorer. It took Stanley just over a year to find Livingstone, and his comically understated words upon meeting the explorer, "Dr Livingstone, I presume?" are now familiar to everyone.

Livingstone had been in poor health for months before his death in May of 1873. His crew had gone away to get supplies, and came back to find him in a kneeling position, apparently praying when he died. Susi and Chuma, two of his companions, embalmed Livingstone's body and carried it for five months to Unyanyembe, believing their master would want to be buried in England.