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				<title>Letter to Lord Palmerston</title>
                <title type="alternative">Letter to Lord Palmerston, 20 October 1859</title>
				<author xml:id="DL">Livingstone, David, 1813-1873</author>
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				<authority>Livingstone Online</authority>
				<pubPlace>London</pubPlace>
				<date>2007-06-15</date>
				<publisher>Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine, UCL</publisher>
				<idno type="LEAP-ID">liv_001487</idno>
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				<bibl xml:id="shelfmark">National Library of Scotland; MS. 10768, ff. 37-38</bibl>
				<bibl xml:id="ccnumber">Letters, 0947</bibl>
				<bibl xml:id="recipient"><persName>Palmerston, Lord, 1784-1865</persName></bibl>
				<bibl xml:id="date"><date when="1859-10-20">20 October 1859</date></bibl>
				<bibl xml:id="where">River Shire</bibl>
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				<language ident="en">English</language>
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				<handNote xml:id="hand01">Scribe: Unknown</handNote>
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			<change>
				<date>2007-06-15</date>
				<name xml:id="SM">Sharon Messenger</name>Intial Transcription by Sharon Messenger
			</change>
			<change>
				<date>2007-06-22</date>
				<name xml:id="CL">Chris Lawrence</name>Proofed by Chris Lawrence
			</change>
			<change>
				<date>2007-08-13</date>
				<name xml:id="JB">Janet Browne</name>Proofed by Janet Browne
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	<pb n="0001" facs="liv_001487_0001"/><!--pb/@n='37r'-->
<lb/><p><placeName><space extent="1" unit="words"/>River Shire</placeName>, <hi rend="underline">20 Oct</hi><hi rend="sup underline">r</hi> 1859 </p>
<lb/><p><space extent="4" unit="words"/><add place="inline" hand="#hand01">28 Feby 1860</add></p>
<lb/><p rend="no-indent">From <persName>D<hi rend="sup underline">r</hi> Livingstone</persName> in <placeName>Eastern Africa</placeName></p>
<lb/><p>My Lord</p>
<lb/><p><space extent="1" unit="words"/>I hope that I may not 
<lb/>appear intrusive in again addressing 
<lb/>you, but the effects of your 
<lb/>efforts in the suppression of the 
<lb/>slave trade, have attracted my 
<lb/>attention so often I feel under a 
<lb/>sort of obligation to let you 
<lb/>know about them. I think 
<lb/>too that it will afford you 
<lb/>pleasure to hear that the prospects 
<lb/>of benefit to both <placeName>Africa</placeName> and 
<lb/><placeName>England</placeName> are brightening in 
<lb/>a direction I never dreamed 
<lb/>of when at home. We have 
<lb/>traced this river up to its 
<lb/>point of departure from <placeName>Lake 
<lb/>Nyassa</placeName> which though it has
<lb/><add place="inspace" rend="left"><persName>Viscount Palmerston</persName></add>

	<pb n="0002" facs="liv_001487_0002"/><!--pb/@n='37v'-->
<lb/>a place on the maps has hitherto 
<lb/>been undiscovered. <choice><reg>A</reg><orig>a</orig></choice>nd we found 
<lb/>that there are only thirty three miles 
<lb/>of rapids to be passed when the 
<lb/><placeName>Shire</placeName> is placid again and continues 
<lb/>so right into the Lake. This river 
<lb/>is larger than <placeName>the Clyde</placeName> and has a 
<lb/>two fathom channel from the sea 
<lb/>up to the beginning of the cataracts 
<lb/>in 55 ° 55. South Lat. Above them 
<lb/>we enter into a cotton producing region 
<lb/>of unknown extent and greatly superior 
<lb/>to the American for here there are no 
<lb/>frosts to cut off the crops, and foreign 
<lb/>seed which has already been introduced 
<lb/>by the natives themselves requires to be 
<lb/>sown only once for regular crops during 
<lb/>three years. The land is so arranged 
<lb/>too that we have great variations of 
<lb/>climate within a few miles of each other. 
<lb/>It consists at one part of three terraces 
<lb/>one the <placeName>Shire Valley</placeName> is about 1200 feet 
<lb/>high, and exactly like the valley of <placeName>the Nile</placeName>
<lb/>at <placeName>Cairo.</placeName> A second terrace is over 2000 
<lb/>feet and about three miles broad while a 
<lb/>third over 12 miles in breadth is above 

	<pb n="0003" facs="liv_001487_0003"/><!--pb/@n='38r'--> 
<lb/>3000 feet or equal to <placeName>Table Mountain</placeName> at 
<lb/><placeName>the Cape</placeName> often spoken of as the highest 
<lb/>mountain in <placeName>South Africa</placeName>. We were 
<w>travel-<lb break="no"/>ling</w> in the hottest season of the year 
<lb/>but on these terraces it was pleasantly 
<lb/>cool, and they are wonderfully supplied 
<lb/>with running rills of deliciously 
<lb/>cool water. On the highest terrace 
<lb/>rises <placeName>Mount Zomba</placeName> which we ascended 
<lb/>and found to be between 7000 &amp; 8000 ft 
<lb/>and very cold. I mention these points 
<lb/>because one of the greatest benefits 
<lb/>the expedition which you so kindly 
<lb/>brought forward in the House of 
<lb/>Commons has to shew, is the speedy 
<lb/>cure of fever without (in general) 
<lb/>any loss of strength to the patient. 
<lb/>This even on the lowlands and 
<lb/>here we have splendid sanatoria 
<lb/>on these terraces.</p>
<lb/><p>But another point. <placeName>Lake Shirwa</placeName>
<lb/>or <placeName>Tamandua</placeName> is ninety miles long, 
<lb/>and we could not find out where 
<lb/><placeName>Nyassa</placeName> ended. <choice><reg>B</reg><orig>b</orig></choice>ut it must be large 
<lb/>for it had a swell on it like the sea 
<lb/>when there was no wind, and it gives 
<lb/>off the <placeName>Shire</placeName> constantly &amp; neither river 

	<pb n="0004" facs="liv_001487_0004"/><!--pb/@n='38v'--> 
<lb/>nor Lake vary much more than two feet 
<lb/>in either the dry or wet season. Well they <add place="above">Lakes</add>
<lb/>lie parallel to the East coast, and all the 
<lb/>traffic to <placeName><choice><sic>Mosambique</sic><corr>Mozambique</corr></choice></placeName>, <placeName><unclear cert="low">Anghoxia</unclear></placeName>&amp;c &amp;c must 
<lb/>cross at certain fords the chief of which is 
<lb/>at the point of departure of <placeName>Shire</placeName> from 
<lb/><placeName>Nyassa</placeName> for then the traders can pass 
<lb/>along the partition between the Lakes without 
<lb/>embarking on either. We met here a large 
<lb/>slaving party from the Interior with an 
<lb/>immense number of slaves &amp; elephants<reg>'</reg>
<lb/>tusks. When they understood that we 
<lb/>were English they got into a <del type="strikethrough">pucker</del> <add place="above">panic</add> and 
<lb/>slipped away by night. This prestige 
<lb/>we owe to your Lordship. I think if 
<lb/>we had a small steamer on the Lake 
<lb/>we should very soon eat out the slave 
<lb/>trade, for we could <choice><sic>develope</sic><corr>develop</corr></choice> the trade 
<lb/>in cotton which <hi rend="underline">even now</hi> is grown 
<lb/>very extensively, and native traders would 
<lb/>not carry their ivory a month farther 
<lb/>for the same prices that we could give 
<lb/>provided we are not hampered by dues 
<lb/>to the Portuguese. All the mouth of the <placeName>Zambesi</placeName>
<lb/>and all the <placeName>Shire</placeName> except three miles 
<lb/>are English discoveries. Were your Lordship 
<lb/>in power I have no doubt but we should 
<lb/>be enabled to follow up the opening we have 
<lb/>made. <persName>Lord Malmesbury</persName> appears to appreciate 
<lb/>our efforts but unfortunately I never saw him<reg>.</reg> <persName>D. Livingstone</persName></p>
			
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