LIVINGSTONE, David (1813-1873). African missionary & explorer.
Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed correspondent ('My Dear Friend'), 2 pages 8vo on blue paper (slight traces of mounting to top of second page not affecting the text), Glasgow, 1 March 1858. Announcing his intention to arrive at Kendal the next day and to stay the night en route to Liverpool.
Written on the very eve of Livingstone's expedition to the Zambesi, an expedition sponsored and to some extent arranged by the government. The letter is not in Clenndenden and Cunningham's Catalogue of Documents (1979 & 1985) and is apparently unpublished. It is known that the Livingstone's had friends, the Braithwaites in Kendal and that two of his children, Robert and Agnes, had been at the Quaker school there.
 The Colonial Office steamship Pearl, carrying the members of Livingstone's expedition including his wife, Mary and son, Oswell left Liverpool on 10 March 1858 arriving off the east coast of Africa in May. As the ship neared its destination it was discovered that Mrs Livingstone was pregnant, to the annoyance and embarrassment of her husband, who would be deprived of her services on his expedition.
[No: 24555]