Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904)
born as John Rowlands
Famous Welsh explorer of the African continent.
After an very adventurous life in Wales, America and Turkey, he undertook a risky expedition, sponsored by the New York Herald to find Livingstone, another famous explorer. He located him on the island of Ujiji. His famous words Dr. Livingstone, I presume? are in every history book.
Through Livingstone, he got fascinated by Africa and quickly became the most efficient Africa explorer in that era, stimutated mainly by greed (colonialism).
He made false promises, treathened and cheated the Congolese tribes in such a way, king Leopold II of Belgium could plunder the region. In fact, Congo Free State (1885-1908) was established only for this purpose. Leopold used to refer to Africa as that magnificent African cake.
Besides exploring, Stanley also wrote fiction and non fiction books. He was knighted and sat in parliament.
Interesting Congo info: http://www.congo2000.com/english/history/tree_overview.html
Correct dates and the real name of Stanly taken from Encyclopædia Britannica