In 1866, Britain's foremost explorer, David Livingstone, went in search of the source of the Nile. He was not seen again for nearly six years. This was not the first long term expedition Livingstone had undertaken, but it was rare for him not to send regular reports back to London. To all intents and purposes he had disappeared into the African jungle. The British government made no efforts to try and trace Livingstone, believing it an impossible task. Five years after his disappearance, however, the quest was taken up by an American newspaper, the New York Herald. The Herald's ambitious, eccentric (and circulation hungry) publisher, James Gordon Bennett, sent his top reporter, one Henry Stanley, to track Livingstone down. So began Stanley's African odyssey which was to culminate ten months later with the famous phrase Dr Livingstone, I presume.