Henry Morton Stanley was born at Denbeigh in North Wales, the illegitimate son of John Rowlands and Elizabeth Parry. In 1857 Stanley ran away to sea and led a roving life in America. At the close of the Civil War Stanley went to Turkey and Asia Minor as a newspaper correspondent, and between 1867-1868 he was a special correspondent for the New York Herald.

Stanley was the most effective of explorer of his day, between 1874 & 1877 he solved the mysteries of the rivers Nile and Congo, but it was in 1869 that the New York Herald sent him to search for Dr Livingstone, the famous missionary and explorer who had been missing for several years. In 1871 Stanley started his expedition to East Africa. He found Livingstone near Lake Tanganyika on Nov. 10th 1871, he greeted Livingstone with the now famous words "Dr Livingstone, I presume". The two became great friends and explored the northern end of Lake Tanganyika. Livingstone died in 1873 on the shores of Lake Bagweulu.