[3] Influenced by the likes of David Livingstone, Grenfell's ambition was to become a missionary so in September 1873 he entered the Baptist College, Stokes Croft, Bristol.

In 1877 he relocated to Victoria and explored the Wouri River and in the following year he ascended Mongo ma Loba Mountain.

In 1881, cooperating with the Rev Thomas J. Comber and others, he established a chain of missions at Musuko, Vivi, Isangila, Manyanga, and other points, and in 1884, in a small steam vessel, he explored the Congo to the equator.

4° 40' N. In 1885 he explored with Curt von François other tributaries of the Congo, notably the Busira, along which he found Pygmy Batwa peoples.

In the following year he examined the Kasai, the Sankuru, and the Luebo and Lulua, and made careful records of the Bakuba and Bakete tribes.

After a visit to England in 1900, he started for a systematic exploration of the Aruwimi River[1] and by November 1902 had reached Mawambi, about eighty miles from the western extreme of the Protectorate of Uganda.

Meanwhile, he found difficulty in obtaining building sites from the Congo Free State, which accorded them freely to Roman Catholics.