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				<title>Letter to William C. Oswell</title>
                <title type="alternative">Letter to William C. Oswell, 4 April 1856</title>
				<author xml:id="DL">Livingstone, David, 1813-1873</author>
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			<publicationStmt>
				<authority>Livingstone Online</authority>
				<pubPlace>London</pubPlace>
				<date>13-02-07</date>
				<publisher>Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine, UCL</publisher>
				<idno type="LEAP-ID">liv_000899</idno>
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				<bibl xml:id="shelfmark">National Library of Scotland; MS. 10768, ff. 12-13</bibl>
				<bibl xml:id="ccnumber">Letters, 0412</bibl>
				<bibl xml:id="recipient"><persName>Oswell, William C., 1818-1893</persName></bibl>
				<bibl xml:id="date"><date when="1856-04-04">4 April 1856</date></bibl>
				<bibl xml:id="where">Tete or Nyungwe</bibl>
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			<handNotes>
				<handNote xml:id="hand01">Scribe: Unknown</handNote>
			</handNotes>
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		<revisionDesc>
			<change>
				<date>2007-02-13</date>
				<name xml:id="SM">Sharon Messenger</name>
			</change>
			<change>
				<date>2007-08-04</date>
				<name xml:id="CL">Christopher Lawrence</name>Proof by Chris Lawrence
			</change>
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	<pb n="0001" facs="liv_000899_0001"/><!--pb/@n='12r'-->
<lb/><p rend="right"><space extent="1" unit="words"/><placeName>Tete or Nyungwe on the</placeName></p>
<lb/><p rend="right"><space extent="1" unit="words"/><placeName>Zambesi. East Africa</placeName></p>
<lb/><p rend="right"><space extent="3" unit="words"/>4<hi rend="sup underline">th</hi> April 1856</p>
<lb/><p rend="no-indent">Mr Dear <persName><choice><sic> Mr Oswel</sic><corr>Oswell</corr></choice></persName></p>
<lb/><p><space extent="3" unit="words"/><space extent="3" unit="chars"/>I now begin a letter to you 
<lb/>after having written to many others from this place 
<lb/>not because I think it necessary for I hope 
<lb/>soon to have viva voce communication with 
<lb/>you, but to ease my conscience of a feeling 
<lb/>that it was not right to make you among the 
<lb/>last. I would not write while in <placeName>Angola</placeName> for 
<lb/><term type="ailment">dysentry</term> reduced me very low then all my 
<lb/>letters maps &amp;c. which were penned in much 
<lb/>weakness went to the bottom in the mail 
<lb/>packet and I had to employ as much of 
<lb/>the time I could spare in returning to <placeName>Cassange</placeName>
<lb/>in repairing that loss. I almost expected 
<lb/>you at <placeName>Loanda</placeName> but not having <choice><sic>recieved</sic><corr>received</corr></choice>
<lb/>a single letter from <placeName>England</placeName> while there 
<lb/>though I requested my friends to address to 
<lb/>that city, I suppose you must have 
<lb/>concluded like others that I should never 
<lb/>reach it. I would have been very glad 
<lb/>of your company though from having 
<lb/>been sorely tried by a missionary companion 
<lb/>once, I never feel disposed to despond in 
<lb/>prospect of being alone. <placeName>Londa</placeName> would have 
<lb/>been miserable for you as well as it was 
<lb/>for me. <choice><reg>F</reg><orig>f</orig></choice>or there is no game larger 
<lb/>than mice, not a vulture even not 
<lb/>a crow, and the food is nearly pure starch 
<lb/>Manioc meal and roots with occasionally 
<lb/>that you know as Lobelebele. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>he lower 

	<pb n="0002" facs="liv_000899_0002"/><!--pb/@n='12v'-->
<lb/>part of the person wetted two or three times 
<lb/>daily in passing streams which are unlike any 
<lb/>I ever saw before. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>he stream itself may be 
<lb/>from 6 to 10 feet broad only but that or more 
<lb/>in depth, and it flows in a marsh of from 
<lb/>100 to 500 yards broad. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>his is covered over 
<lb/>with tufts of grass separated from one to three 
<lb/>or four feet from each other. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>he intervening 
<lb/>spaces are covered with a pellicle of tender water 
<lb/>plants. If you step right on the top of the bunch 
<lb/>of grass, all right but they are often conical 
<lb/>and one steps on the side and down he goes 
<lb/>up to the thigh in soft black slush. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>he oxen 
<lb/>had generally all four legs down at once and how 
<lb/>they got through at all seems quite wonderful. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>he 
<lb/>stream is nothing as it generally had a bridge over 
<lb/>it but the bogs were terrible and delayed us 
<lb/>very much. It is a remarkably well watered 
<lb/>country. Bogs however and forest will prevent 
<lb/>waggons from traversing it anywhere near 
<lb/>our path. On this account I came back 
<lb/>to try this side and you will be glad to 
<lb/>hear I am thus far on my way down. 
<lb/>We reached this a month ago pretty well tired. 
<lb/>I assure you for tsetse destroyed all the oxen 
<lb/>and not having wherewithal to buy a canoe 
<lb/>I had to march on foot. We had plenty 
<lb/>of game all the way and the men killed some 
<lb/>with their <choice><sic>asegais</sic><corr>assegais</corr></choice> I was very unsuccessful 
<lb/>from being unable to steady the gun. I 
<lb/>never saw anything like the numbers 
<lb/>of elephants and buffaloes we had on the 
<lb/>Kafue which is the name of the <placeName>Bashuk 
<lb/>river</placeName> near the confluence, and all wonderfully 
<lb/>tame. Pigs by families stood looking at us 
<lb/>often and lions are so abundant the natives 

	<pb n="0003" facs="liv_000899_0003"/><!--pb/@n='13r'-->
<lb/>make all their garden huts on trees. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>hey don't 
<lb/>kill them as their chiefs pretend to become meta 
<w>-<lb break="no"/>morphosed</w> into those animals. The inhabitants 
<lb/>are very numerous compared to what we 
<lb/>have seen in the south, and are a strong 
<lb/>muscular race of <term type="tribe">negroes.</term><choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>he tsetse preventing 
<lb/>them from possessing cattle. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>hey delight much 
<lb/>in agriculture and the soil being very fertile 
<lb/>they can raise immense quantities of 
<lb/>grain. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>heir laws are very stringent 
<lb/>you would scarcely relish that respecting 
<lb/>elephants and <choice><sic>eilands.</sic><corr>elands</corr></choice> the half which <gap extent="1" unit="words" agent="damage"/>
<lb/><gap extent="1" unit="words" agent="damage"/>ground belongs to the Lord of the soil &amp; 
<lb/><gap extent="1" unit="words" agent="damage"/>cannot take his portion even 
<lb/><gap agent="damage" extent="1" unit="words"/>comes and gives him permission 
<lb/><gap extent="1" unit="words" agent="damage"/>lying tusk alone is his. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>hey 
<lb/>have<gap extent="1" unit="words" agent="damage"/>fighting for the last two years 
<lb/>with <gap extent="1" unit="words" agent="damage"/>Portuguese and burned up all the   
<lb/><unclear>surrounding</unclear>villas and many of houses 
<lb/>of <unclear><placeName>Tete</placeName></unclear>itself. Indeed <placeName>Tete</placeName> is in ruins. So 
<lb/>D<hi rend="sup underline">o</hi><placeName>Quilimane</placeName> not much better. Senior is 
<lb/>buffeted by true <term type="tribe">caffres</term> here called 
<lb/><term type="tribe">Landeens<choice><reg/><orig>.</orig></choice> (Landinis)</term>. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>he population on 
<lb/>the Eastern side of the continent posseses much 
<lb/>of the <term type="tribe">Zulu</term> chararacter, and is unlike the poor 
<lb/>cowardly <term type="tribe">Bechuanas</term> whom some honour 
<lb/>with the <term type="tribe">Caffre</term> name. I could never avoid 
<lb/>laughing in my sleeve to hear <persName>Murray</persName> for 
<lb/>instance say "these <term type="tribe">Kyaffres</term>" as if he really 
<lb/>were near any of those "magnificient savages"<reg>.</reg>
<lb/><choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>hey were headed by two men of Portuguese and 
<lb/>Asiatic extraction and are unconquered still. 
<lb/>Trade is nearly quite stagnant though elephants 
<lb/>abound close to this and even lower down 

	<pb n="0004" facs="liv_000899_0004"/><!--pb/@n='13v'-->
<lb/>there is abundance of gold, coal and iron 
<lb/>the country is fertile producing everything except 
<lb/>tea. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>he river is magnificent. At the foot it 
<lb/>was measured at 500 fathoms or 1000 yards 
<lb/>and it is often broader<choice><reg>,</reg><orig>.</orig></choice> but becomes spoiled 
<lb/>among the deltas near <placeName>Quilimane.</placeName> It is very 
<lb/>deadly there too. Indeed I have waited a month 
<lb/>here in order to pass through the deltas in a 
<lb/>better month than <choice><reg>M</reg><orig>m</orig></choice>arch. I then go to<placeName>England</placeName>. </p><anchor xml:id="envelopePosition" type="positionMarker"/>
<lb/><p rend="no-indent">I have never <choice><sic>recieved</sic><corr>received</corr></choice> a line from you since 
<lb/>you went to <placeName>England.</placeName> You must be very 
<lb/>busy surely. Are you in Love or What? 
<lb/>Got but one short note from <persName>my wife</persName>, 
<lb/>from others nothing. <choice><orig>t</orig><reg>T</reg></choice>hey must all have 
<lb/>been thinking I was dead and well out 
<lb/>of the way. Believe me your very </p>
<lb/><p>Affectionate<persName> David Livingstone</persName></p>
<ab type="envelope">
<address>
<addrLine><persName>William Cotton <choice><sic>Oswel</sic><corr>Oswell</corr></choice>, Esquire</persName></addrLine>
<addrLine><placeName>Burlington Hotel</placeName></addrLine>
<addrLine><placeName>Cork Street</placeName></addrLine>
<addrLine><del type="strikethrough">I<placeName>India House</placeName></del></addrLine>
<addrLine><del type="strikethrough"><placeName>Leaden Hall St.</placeName></del></addrLine>
<addrLine><del type="strikethrough"><placeName>London</placeName></del></addrLine>
</address>
</ab>
			
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