The story of Jacob Wainwright the 14 year old African servant of Dr David Livingstone whose Journal was allegedly stolen for containing terrible truth about his master (Dr David Livingstone)
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When Missionary Dr David Livingstone died in the swamplands of Southern Africa in 1873 his three African servants had to decide what to do with his body.
The nearest British consulate was Zanzibar which was over 1000 miles away and undertaking the journey to move his body there would entail traversing some of the wildest and most dangerous terrain in Africa.
Nevertheless, Livingstone’s faithful attendants, led by veterans Susi and Chuma, who were in their 40s resolved to go ahead with the epic trek And so they set off for Zanzibar,
Among the three servants was Jacob Wainwright who was only 14 years old and the only one who could speak and write English .
Wainwright always kept a journal in which he recorded most of Dr Livingstone's activities when he was still alive.
And on this particular journey the timid, young Jacob Wainwright took upon himself to record a diary of events in his journal so that they might eventually persuade the British of all that transpired
Wainwright, although weak, was a Christian of the most pious and sanctimonious type and as such often stretched the tenuous relationship he had with his less educated comrades, sometimes even to breaking point.
However, he was diligent with his journaling and duly kept a record of every terror the fateful group encountered on their way to Zanzibar; when disease turned to madness, and madness to disease, he was there.
But it was when they finally reached Zanzibar that things began to get really strange.
In a muddle of confusion, the British wrongly assumed Wainwright to be the leader of the group, owing to the fact he spoke English.
And before long the young African found himself on a ship bound for England, where he was one of the pall-bearer at Dr Livingstone’s state funeral in London.
At this point, his journal suddenly disappeared. It was alleged that it contained terrible truth about Dr Livingstone. There were whispers of a cover-up involving everyone from the Missionary Society to the British Government. , its whereabouts still remains a mystery.