Stanley, Sir Henry Morton

orig. John Rowlands

(born Jan. 28, 1841, Denbigh, Denbighshire, Wales—died May 10, 1904, London, Eng.) British-U.S. explorer of central Africa. An illegitimate child, Stanley grew up partly in a British workhouse; he sailed to the U.S. as a cabin boy in 1859. After becoming a journalist for the New York Herald in 1867, he embarked (1871) on a journey to locate David Livingstone, of whom little had been heard since his departure for Africa in 1866. On finding him at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, Stanley uttered the famous words “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” He further explored central Africa for extended periods between 1874 and 1884, often in the service of Leopold II of Belgium, for whom he paved the way for the creation of the Congo Free State. Stanley's last expedition (1888) was for the relief of Mehmed Emin Pasha, who had been cut off by the Mahdist revolt in the Sudan; he escorted Emin and 1,500 others to the eastern coast. His highly popular books include Through the Dark Continent (1878) and In Darkest Africa (1890).

Find more information on Stanley, Sir Henry Morton. Upgrade to Britannica Online for more on Stanley, Sir Henry Morton.