The Zambesi Expedition (1858-1864), which was known by many different names at the time, was an official exploration funded by the British Foreign Office. Its main purposes were to catalogue the natural resources of the Zambezi River area in order to identify raw materials for British industry and to promote commercial markets and civilization to supplant the slave trade. The expedition was led by David Livingstone who was appointed H.M. Consul at Quelimane.

Livingstone was one of the first Westerners to make a transcontinental journey across Africa, Luanda on the Atlantic to Quelimane on the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Zambezi, in 1854–56. Despite repeated European attempts, especially by the Portuguese, central and southern Africa had not been crossed by Europeans at that latitude owing to their susceptibility to malaria, dysentery and sleeping sickness which was prevalent in the interior and which also prevented use of draught animals (oxen and horses), as well as to the opposition of powerful chiefs and tribes, such as the Lozi, and the Lunda of Mwata Kazembe. (wikipedia)