Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley & Livingstone by Martin Dugard Page B

slave trade route — the Trans-Atlantic — opened on Africa’s west coast. Slaves bound for America, the Caribbean, South America, Mexico and Europe were marched to the west coast ports of Luanda, Lagos, Goree, Bonny and Saint Louis, then loaded on ships for the journey.
    Great Britain’s economy was once so dependent upon slavery that some maps of Western Africa were divided by commodities: Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Slave Coast. But as Britain began to see itself as a nation built on God and morality, and as it became savvy for politicians to align themselves with the growing Christian evangelical movement, slavery was abolished in all British colonies and protectorates in 1834. During his first trip to Africa in 1841, Livingstone was terribly unaccustomed to the sight of men, women and children being bought and sold. As he insinuated himself into the fabric of African life over the years that followed — speaking with the natives in their tongue wherever he went, sleeping in the villages, making friends as he shared meals and nights around the campfire— the barbarism of the practice incensed him even more. He grew determined to stop it.
    Even as other nations slowly abandoned the practice on humanitarian grounds, Portugal continued to dominate the slave trade. Slavery was, in fact, the cornerstone of its economy. The tiny nation exported African men and women by the hundreds of thousands, from ports on both the east and west coasts of Africa. Livingstone’s focus was on the east, where Portugal had supplanted the Arabs as the coastal region’s reigning power. African tribes were raiding other tribes then selling captives to the Arabs in exchange for firearms. The Arabs, in turn, marched the captives back to the east coast, where they were either sold to the Portuguese or auctioned in Zanzibar. The slaves were then shipped to Arabia, Persia, India and even China.
    As Livingstone was pushing into Central Africa from the south in the 1840s and 1850s, still a missionary but on the verge of becoming a bona fide explorer, the Portuguese were entering the same region from the east. At first, they didn’t pay much attention to Livingstone. He was just a missionary in their eyes — a fearless missionary, and one who travelled to places few other men considered going, but a missionary nonetheless. As his journeys mounted over time — three trips across the Kalahari Desert, and an east-to-west walk across Africa — all that changed. Livingstone’s fame began to grow. Back in England, which he hadn’t seen since leaving in 1840, Livingstone became a national hero. He was an adventurous cipher, a man few knew personally, but who was single-handedly charting the African interior in the name of God and country. That he was nearly shipwrecked off Malta, just like the Apostle Paul, on his way back to England after the walk across Africa, was the sort of fine coincidence heightening Livingstone’s veneration in the British public’s eyes. Heroes like Livingstone didn’t come along every day.
    When Livingstone finally returned to England in 1856, after fifteen consecutive years in Africa, he used his newfound fame to denounce the slave trade. The PortugueseGovernment began scrutinizing Livingstone and his achievements. They were concerned his journeys would lead to a greater British presence in Central Africa and a reduction in their lucrative slave trade. At Whitehall, Sir Roderick Murchison, president of the Royal Geographical Society, found himself apologizing to the Foreign Office on behalf of his intrepid protégé. Livingstone’s anti-slavery speeches, it seemed, were offending Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband. Albert’s cousin Pedro also happened to be King of Portugal.
    By then, it was too late to divert Livingstone from his outspoken anti-slavery course. He was being hailed as the world’s greatest explorer. His fame was phenomenal. By coincidence, the recent repeal of a stamp tax made newspapers