02.01 - The Early Years

1. The early years.

Dr Livingstone - The Early Years.

David Livingstone was born at Blantyre,eight miles south of Glasgow,on 19 March 1813. He was born in a single appartment home in a tenement building called Shuttle Row ,which was built to house the workers in the cotton spinning mill on the banks of the River Clyde. At the age of ten , like other children of the village , he was put to work in the mills,which swallowed the lad up at six in the morning and did not release him till about eight at night. Then,with other children employed in the mills, he had to attend night school.Most wrer so tired they could do little but sleep, but David studied hard and would continue with his lessons far into the night.Every spare moment, in the factory or out,he studied books and nature. In the course of his studies,Livingstone read an appeal on behalf of Chinese Missions which captured his imagination and determined him to go to China as a medical missionary.But even by rigid saving,he was twenty-three years of age before he was able to begin medical classes at the Anderson college in Glasgow,where he studied in winter-returning to the mills in summer. When he was sufficientily far advanced in his studies of medicine and theology, he applied to the London Missionary Society for service in China and was called to London for an interview.Having been accepted, he completed his studies with some difficulty.