DLIV - David Livingstone Letter
Reference code
DLIV
Level of description
Collection
Title
David Livingstone Letter
Date/s
12/11/1859
Quantity & Format
1 Letters (MS)
Personal name
Livingstone, David, 1813-1873
Brock, William, 1807-1875
Brock, William, 1807-1875
Subject
Africa, Central -- Discovery and Exploration -- British
Missionaries, British
Missionaries, British
Creator
Livingstone, David, 1813-1873Administrative/Biographical history
British missionary and explorer in Africa. Educated himself while working at a cotton factory near Glasgow; attended the medical class at Anderson College and lectures at Glasgow University, 1832; entered the service of the London Missionary Society, studied medicine and science in London; embarked as a missionary for the Cape of Good Hope, 1840; made journeys into the interior, 1841, 1842, and 1843; discovered Lake Ngami, 1849, and the Zambezi in the centre of the continent, 1851; made great exploring expedition from Cape Town northwards through West-Central Africa to Loanda and back to Quilimane, 1852-6; visited England, 1856; DCL, Oxford, and FRS; published his missionary travels, and severed his connection with the London Missionary Society, 1857; consul at Quilimane, 1858-64; commanded expedition to explore Eastern and Central Africa, 1858; discovered lakes Shirwa and Nyasa, 1859; lost his wife at Shupanga, 1862; visited England, 1864; published The Zambesi and its Tributaries (1865); started on expedition to solve the question of the Nile basin, 1865; discovered Lake Bangweolo, 1868; reached Ujiji, 1869; explored the cannibal country, enduring great sufferings, and returned, almost dying, to Ujiji, where he was rescued by Stanley, 1871; reached Unyanyembe, 1872; made further explorations to discover the sources of the Nile, and died at a village in the country of Ilala; buried in Westminster Abbey, 1874. [Description from Livingstone Online].
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Letter found 7 May 2009 in the UEA Library Office safe by Secretariat staff. It was believed to have been placed there by Founding Librarian Willy Guttsman. An accompanying note indicated that a former student had passed the letter to him in 1967.
The explanatory note reads: “MS letter by David Livingstone Explorer to Rev William Brock. Given to the Library by U’g [undergraduate] stulll [student] Alistair King in 1967.”
Images of the letter were submitted by UEA Archives staff to Livingstone Online in 2009 and made publicly available at Livingstone Online https://livingstoneonline.org/
Transcript of the letter appears below in the Scope and Content.
The explanatory note reads: “MS letter by David Livingstone Explorer to Rev William Brock. Given to the Library by U’g [undergraduate] stulll [student] Alistair King in 1967.”
Images of the letter were submitted by UEA Archives staff to Livingstone Online in 2009 and made publicly available at Livingstone Online https://livingstoneonline.org/
Transcript of the letter appears below in the Scope and Content.
Scope and content
This collection consists of 1 letter from David Livingstone to Reverend William Brock, 12 November 1859. It comprises 4 leaves plus envelope.
This is what Christopher Lawrence (Director of Livingstone Online) had to say:
"This is a super letter - the handwriting is definitely Livingstone's. Livingstone was very repetitive so there is little new here but it is a condensed version of his hopes and enthusiasms in the early days of the 'Zambesis Expedition' and it is the only letter we have to Brock and I think the only when that tells us he had read Brock's biography of General Havelock (ironically these days a British commander in the 1st Afghan War)."
From Livingstone Online's announcement when the letter was published:
William Brock (1807-1875) was a Baptist pastor at Bloomsbury Chapel in central London. No doubt he became known to Livingstone because Brock was involved in the London Missionary Society and was an active abolitionist. He was the author of a best-selling biography of John Bunyan. Livingstone’s letter was written in the early days of the ‘Zambesi Expedition’, of which he was the leader, and conveys all his optimism for settlement of the area. He had recently been the first European to visit Lake Nyassa (now Lake Malawi) and had great hopes for cotton production by future British settlers in the area. He was later to discover the region was plagued by tribal rivalries and was at the centre of the African slave trade from the Congo to the East coast of Africa. The General Havelock referred to in the first sentence was Major-General Sir Henry Havelock (1795-1857) who was associated with India and noted for his recapture of Cawnpore during Indian Rebellion of 1857.
TRANSCRIPTION OF THE LETTER:
Envelope addressed to:
Reverend William Brock
12 Gower Street / Bedford Square
Bloomsbury
London
Kongone Harbour, 12 Nov 1859
My Dear Friend
Having this day finished my first perusal of your admirable memoir of an admirable man, which by the way you forgot to send after me. I feel that I must write to you – No wonder you were affected in preaching the funeral sermon of the good and great General Havelock. Such a lovely character – so exalted a christian – and yet so human – so sympathizing, and yet so brave. I can enter better into your feelings now – and I trust this labour of love of yours will become a blessing unto many.
Here we are away from the exciting themes which agitate the public mind at home and we are working towards a great object in the hope that the Lord may in mercy accept our services and grant us our desires. At first matters appeared untoward but these very hindrances now promise to turn out singually in our favour. We have been longer in the lower portion of the river than we anticipated but our opportunities for observing the fever – and trying the plan which I followed when above/alone have been more numerous in consequence and I believe we can now cure the disease quickly and without (in general) loss of strength to the patient. This is one of the greatest boons our expedition will have to show. We cannot however cure the brandy fever but country fever and it are two diseases. Then we have been led to go up the shire and we found that this river comes out of a large Lake called Nyassa – the region reached by Lake and river is one of the finest cotton countries in the world – There are no frosts to cut off the crops as in America and instead of the unmerciful toil required in the slave states one sowing of foreign seed serves for three years crops – In the cotton country we have highlands which present changes of climate within a few miles of each other for we can ascend from the shire valley where the thermometer stands about 96° in the shade and the river water is 81°- 84° or like a warm bath at home to a heights of from 3000 to 7000 feet - well cultivated and peopled too, in course of a short days journey – The people even now cultivate large quantities of cotton – and the problem of the supply of the new material of our manufactures without dependance on slave labour seems verging towards a solution – The region referred to is a large section of the slave market. We saw abundant evidence of this everywhere and here English settlements would in the course of time be an uncalculable benefit. – Lawful commerce as a means of counteracting that in slaves but above everything the gospel which is the only remedy for the woes of Africa and the only means which can effectively raise the degraded positions of humanity would here find a most eligible field - I believe that something is in contemplation and if only carried out with vigour our efforts will be rewarded - I shall not grieve at being detained so long from the Mokololo.
It gives me much pleasure to see from some of the papers that our friend Binney is recovered and has been doing some good in Australia. If he is home and you happen to meet him please tell him that I am greatly rejoiced to hear of his welfare & usefulness – should you see Mr Spurgeon the same thing will do for him – I love them both with very great affection. The Lord make them & you my brother – abundant blessings. I am in apparently another time but I know what I am about – I had a naval officer who didn’t. He came out I found not to elevate the African and prepare the way for the gospel but “to discover the ten lost tribes” as if of all things in the world we had not plenty of Jews already. I had to send him home soon. We came down here to meet a man of war with provisions and tinker our craft with which we were cheated by a philanthropist (so called). Please present my kind regards to your lady and Sir Morton Peto & family & believe me.
Yours Ever
David Livingstone
This is what Christopher Lawrence (Director of Livingstone Online) had to say:
"This is a super letter - the handwriting is definitely Livingstone's. Livingstone was very repetitive so there is little new here but it is a condensed version of his hopes and enthusiasms in the early days of the 'Zambesis Expedition' and it is the only letter we have to Brock and I think the only when that tells us he had read Brock's biography of General Havelock (ironically these days a British commander in the 1st Afghan War)."
From Livingstone Online's announcement when the letter was published:
William Brock (1807-1875) was a Baptist pastor at Bloomsbury Chapel in central London. No doubt he became known to Livingstone because Brock was involved in the London Missionary Society and was an active abolitionist. He was the author of a best-selling biography of John Bunyan. Livingstone’s letter was written in the early days of the ‘Zambesi Expedition’, of which he was the leader, and conveys all his optimism for settlement of the area. He had recently been the first European to visit Lake Nyassa (now Lake Malawi) and had great hopes for cotton production by future British settlers in the area. He was later to discover the region was plagued by tribal rivalries and was at the centre of the African slave trade from the Congo to the East coast of Africa. The General Havelock referred to in the first sentence was Major-General Sir Henry Havelock (1795-1857) who was associated with India and noted for his recapture of Cawnpore during Indian Rebellion of 1857.
TRANSCRIPTION OF THE LETTER:
Envelope addressed to:
Reverend William Brock
12 Gower Street / Bedford Square
Bloomsbury
London
Kongone Harbour, 12 Nov 1859
My Dear Friend
Having this day finished my first perusal of your admirable memoir of an admirable man, which by the way you forgot to send after me. I feel that I must write to you – No wonder you were affected in preaching the funeral sermon of the good and great General Havelock. Such a lovely character – so exalted a christian – and yet so human – so sympathizing, and yet so brave. I can enter better into your feelings now – and I trust this labour of love of yours will become a blessing unto many.
Here we are away from the exciting themes which agitate the public mind at home and we are working towards a great object in the hope that the Lord may in mercy accept our services and grant us our desires. At first matters appeared untoward but these very hindrances now promise to turn out singually in our favour. We have been longer in the lower portion of the river than we anticipated but our opportunities for observing the fever – and trying the plan which I followed when above/alone have been more numerous in consequence and I believe we can now cure the disease quickly and without (in general) loss of strength to the patient. This is one of the greatest boons our expedition will have to show. We cannot however cure the brandy fever but country fever and it are two diseases. Then we have been led to go up the shire and we found that this river comes out of a large Lake called Nyassa – the region reached by Lake and river is one of the finest cotton countries in the world – There are no frosts to cut off the crops as in America and instead of the unmerciful toil required in the slave states one sowing of foreign seed serves for three years crops – In the cotton country we have highlands which present changes of climate within a few miles of each other for we can ascend from the shire valley where the thermometer stands about 96° in the shade and the river water is 81°- 84° or like a warm bath at home to a heights of from 3000 to 7000 feet - well cultivated and peopled too, in course of a short days journey – The people even now cultivate large quantities of cotton – and the problem of the supply of the new material of our manufactures without dependance on slave labour seems verging towards a solution – The region referred to is a large section of the slave market. We saw abundant evidence of this everywhere and here English settlements would in the course of time be an uncalculable benefit. – Lawful commerce as a means of counteracting that in slaves but above everything the gospel which is the only remedy for the woes of Africa and the only means which can effectively raise the degraded positions of humanity would here find a most eligible field - I believe that something is in contemplation and if only carried out with vigour our efforts will be rewarded - I shall not grieve at being detained so long from the Mokololo.
It gives me much pleasure to see from some of the papers that our friend Binney is recovered and has been doing some good in Australia. If he is home and you happen to meet him please tell him that I am greatly rejoiced to hear of his welfare & usefulness – should you see Mr Spurgeon the same thing will do for him – I love them both with very great affection. The Lord make them & you my brother – abundant blessings. I am in apparently another time but I know what I am about – I had a naval officer who didn’t. He came out I found not to elevate the African and prepare the way for the gospel but “to discover the ten lost tribes” as if of all things in the world we had not plenty of Jews already. I had to send him home soon. We came down here to meet a man of war with provisions and tinker our craft with which we were cheated by a philanthropist (so called). Please present my kind regards to your lady and Sir Morton Peto & family & believe me.
Yours Ever
David Livingstone
- DLIV - David Livingstone Letter