Missionaries and Explorers


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Dr. David Livingstone

Missionaries, both Catholics and Protestants, set out with explorers to the Congo.  They had only one goal in mind-- to change the cultures and traditions of the Congo people.  During the early 1800's, explorers such as Mungo Park and Richard Burton set out to map the main rivers of Africa.  These explorers learned a great deal of knowledge of the land, but little about the people.  
Two vital people  during this event were Dr. David Livingstone and Henry Stanley.  Livingstone was one of the best-known explorers and was also a missionary.  For 30 years, he trekked through Africa, meeting and writing of the many people he met on his adventures.  Stanley was the man who, on a mission from King Leopold II, found Livingstone years after no one had heard from him.  Livingstone was greeted by the ever-famous words of Stanley, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"