Sir Reginald Coupland was widely regarded as an authority on David Livingstone, a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary and an explorer in Africa, who was one of the most popular national heroes of late-19th-century in Victorian Britain. Coupland's previous works on African history include Kirk on the Zambesi (1928) and The Exploitation of East Africa, 1856-1890 (1939). Intended as a sequel to Kirk on the Zambesi, Livingstone's Last Journey was written several years prior to its first publication in 1945, but was then laid aside while Coupland undertook a full-scale study of East African history. It then became due and ready for completion in the autumn of 1939, but was further delayed by the outbreak of World War II. This postponement proved profitable however, as in the course of the war new and valuable documentary material--in particular the Kirk and Waller Papers--became available and were thus able to be included in its eventual publication. A remarkable biographical account by an exceptional historian. "One of the soundest and best-balanced English biographies that I have had the satisfaction of reading for a very long time. It is a remarkable book."--Peter Grenwell in Daily Mail "It is a noble book about a very noble man; it describes a period of British and European history in which man's struggles and problems greatly resembled our own."--Sir John Squire in Illustrated London News "This is a book which Englishmen may be proud to read."--London Quarterly