Letter to Agnes Livingstone 3
David Livingstone

Date of composition: March 1871
Place of composition: Webb's Lualaba or Lacustrine River
Repository: National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Shelfmark: MS.10707, f. 85
Clendennen & Cunningham number(s): Letters, 1969
Digital edition and date: Livingstone Online, 2016
Publisher: University of Maryland Libraries, College Park, MD, USA
Project id: liv_002570
TEI encoding: Adrian S. Wisnicki, Megan Ward, Heather F. Ball, Kate Simpson, Ashanka Kumari, Alexander Munson

[liv_002570_0001]
Webb's Lualaba or Lacustrine River March 1871 Manyema

For Miss Livingstone

My Darling Nannie - I put down a few notes by way of being prepared
in case of meeting any native traders from the West coast on Lake Lincoln the Western
5-most of the Riverein Lakes the native name of which ^ is Lomame or Loéki - é being
sounded as e in wet set met - I hear that some come from the French settlementss
or Congo to buy palm oil which is very abundant and cheap in all this region - a friend
lately gave me another daughter in the shape of a young Soko or gorillah - she
sits crouching 18 inches high and is most intelligent and least mischievous of
10all the monkeys I have seen - she holds out her hand to be lifted up & carried and if
refused makes her face as in a bitter human weeping and wrings her hands quite
humanly sometimes adding a foot or third hand to make the appeal more touching
she walks by putting the backs of the four fingers on the ground - the space leaned
on being that from the first to the second joint - the nails dont touch it nor do the
15thumbs ^ or knuckles - the arms are thus made into crutches & she hitches the lower limbs for-
ward between the crutches - sometimes one foot after the other - sometimes she walks
upright - a nasty fellow spat in her face she resented this bitterly and wiped the face with
a piece of banana leaf - she loosed her cord in quite a business way using the thumbs
opposed to the fingers not monkey fashion with fingers above and when one
20interfered with her she struck out with her hands shewing that an adult could giv[ ]
[ ] slap - she knew me at once a[ ] a friend and when plagued by any one
always placed her back to me for safety - came & sat on my mat - decently made
a nest of grass & leaves & covered herself with the mat to sleep = I could not take
her with me though I fear that she will die before I return from people plaguing her
25Her fine long black hair was beautiful when tended by her mother who was killed
It is now disheveled - I am mobbed enough alone - two sokos - she & I would not
have got breath - I have to submit to be a gazing stock - I don't altogether relish
here or elsewhere but try to get over it good naturedly - get into the most shady spot
of the village and leizurely look at all my admirers - When the first crowd begins
30to go away I go into my lodging to take what food may be prepared as coffee when
I have it or roasted maized infusion when I have none - the door is shut
all save a space to admit light - It is made of the inner bark of a gigantic tree
not a quarter of an inch thick and slides in a groove behind a post on each side
of the doorway - When partially open it is supported by only one of the posts =
35Eager heads sometimes crowd the open space and crash goes the thin door landing
a Manyema beauty on the floor - "It was not I" she gasps out "It was Bessie
Bell and Jeanie Gray that shoved me in and" as she scrambles out of the
lions den - "see they're laughing" and fairly out she joins in the merry giggle too
To avoid darkness or being half smothered I often eat in public - draw a
40line on the ground - They "toe the line" and keep each other out of the circle
To see eating with knife fork & spoon is wonderful "see they dont touc[ ]
their food = What oddities to be sure & some remarks are not com-
plimentary but they think that they are not understood, and indeed many
are not comprehended - I always pay for my lodging and as the Arabs never
45do in Manyema, the lady of the house brings water wood, and bless their motherly
hearts, often cook for me - a mess of porridge and boiled vegetables as a relish
with bananas are their best - They seem distressed if refused - a woman with
the white leprosy on her hands such as rose ^ on Miriam's forehead when she spoke against
her great brother, made dumplings of green maize which are sweet and having been
50obliged by weakness to sleep at her village she watched to see if "I eat them "Eat"
she enjoined "you are ill & weak only through hunger"; I am always sorry if I
cannot take a mouthful or two - Many of the Manyema women are very
pretty - their hands feet & limbs ^ & forms are perfect - The men are handsome - compared
with them the Zanzibar slaves are like London door knockers which some
55atrocious iron founder thought were like Lion's faces = The way in which these
same Zanzibar Muhamadans murder the men & seize the women & children makes
me sick at heart - It is not slave trade it is murdering free people to make slaves
It is perfectly indescribable - Kirk has been working hard to get this murderous system
put a stop ^ to. Heaven prosper his noble efforts - He says in one letter to me it is monstrous
60injustice to compare the free people in the Interior living under their own chiefs
and laws with what slaves at Zanzibar afterwards become by the abominable
system which robs them of their manhood - I think it is like comparing the
[ ]nthropologists with their ancestral sokos - I have seen four sokos killed
[ ]peared in the back - It seems quite impossible to stalk them in front - they
65have such sharp eyes - I saw a man who was overpowered by one - He yelled out
"Soko has caught me" and before his companions could rescue him soko,
as his custom is, had bitten off the ends of two fingers & two toes - He got clear off
some animals attack the throat - some the jugular veins - some the Tendo
Achilles - that is the tendon which enables you to tilt up the heel in dancing &
70 madly make yourself a whirligig - but soko invariably attacks the ends of the
fingers and spits them out - He does no harm to women but sometimes runs
up a tree with a native child - The women in these cases run for a bunch of
small bananas - He takes these & leaves the child - In the forest he is seen walking
sometimes with his hands on his ^ head - To me he is a potbellied bandy legged low looking
75villain without a particle of the gentleman in him - His ugliness after
death is appalling - one of the Nineveh marbles intended to represent the
Evil one is not half so ugly - the only use I can see for Soko is to sit at
the Royal Academy for a portrait of the old beast Satan -

I am grieved to hear of the departure of good Lady Murchison. Had I known
80that she kindly remembered me in her prayers it would have been great
encouragement - It pleases me to think that our friends know about us even
[ ] their state of bliss which in many [ ]pects must be like the present world [ ] [liv_002570_0002]
Those who like work here will get work there - our saviour eat a piece of a
broiled fish and of a honey comb - and fish & bread - after he was risen from
the dead & became as we hope to be - even like him - Luther believed that people
would feast above just as I do - When St John fell down to worship the angel he
5forbade him because he was his fellow servant and one of the prophets - We have
not enough to enable us to speak positively but I like to think of all my friends
being still friends who will welcome us as old acquaintances into the mansions
above - I sympathize with the Youngs - From what you say she does not seem to
have known that she had
10arrived at the climax of
life - The most dangerous
crisis that women experi-
-ence - she thought lightly
of it for want of knowledge
15which every woman ought
to possess Had she been
guided over that period
she would have lived to old
age for she had a sound
20[ ]nstitution & no bad habits -
I have not recieved a line
from Sir Paraffin Young
since I left England and
I wrote to Sir Roderick &
25him by every occasion -
but he must have written
and letters from both may
be in the box at Ujiji -
The men sent by Dr Kirk
30are Muhamaddans that is
unmitigated liars - Musa
and companions are fair
average specimens of the
lower classes of Moslems
35The two head men remained
at Ujiji to feast on my
goods & get pay without
work - seven came to Bam-
-barre and in true Moslem
40style swore that they were
sent by Dr Kirk "to bring
[ ] back" not to go with
[ ] if the country were
bad or dangerous "forward
45they would not go" I read
Dr Kirk's words to them to
follow wherever I led - "No
by the old liar Muhamad
they were to force me back to
50 Zanzibar"- after a super-
abundance of falsehood it
turned out that it all meant
only an advance of pay
though they had double the
55 Zanzibar wages - I gave it -
but had to threaten on the
word of an Englishman to
shoot the ringleaders before
I got them to go - They all
60speak of the English as men
who dont lie - The Sultan
who knows his people
better than anyone else
cannot employ his men
65even of the highest class to
manage any branch of his
revenue - He says they would
purloin it all - He entrusts
all his customs & money to
70 Banians from India and
his father did the same before
him - It suits Burton to Bl babble
about Moslems though he had to part with all his following at Ujiji for
stealing and lying My two headmen refused to send me my own goods
75though a man there had my written orders to open the box mentioned &
take out medicines and letters if he could not send the box entire - "No"
said the Muhamadan slave we are to bring him back and he sent
only a few beads out of over 500 lbs of them - a little cloth out of loads
a little quinine and no wine - Quinine nauseates me if take alone -
80no clothing or paper or books and but a few letters - It was a mercy
he let me have a little coffee and sugar - I could have put matters to
rights only by going back 150 miles to eject this drunkard, but 150 miles
back again - These 300 miles would have taken 4 or 5 months - with
contingent sickness half a year so I chose rather to go short of every
85thing and possibly finish all I have to do in exploration - our high
wages and truthfulness are an inconvenience for the low liars say
[ ] shall get pay no matter whether we work or not - Lying is safety with them

I have travelled more than most people and with all sorts of followers - The christians of Kuruman and Kolobeng were
out of sight the best I ever had - The Makololo who were very partially christianized were next best honest truthful & brave -
90Heathen Africans are far superior to Muhamadans who are the most worthless one can have - My liberated slaves did
fairly except laziness will we came into close contact with Muhamadans again - there had been their masters in infancy & now
they swung back to the lying & stealing of the low class again - they were connived at and aided by an Arab who got his freedom
from Cazembe after being long a prisoner by my Sultan's letter - They absconded to him - and he sold the favours of his
slaves for goods which he knew were stolen from me - Before me he scolded them behind my back he encouraged them to desert
95and he lied till I was like to vomit - Yet judged by the Moslem standard and not by ours he is a good man and he and I are
friends - I have learned to keep my own counsel - I protest loudly against the deeds of blood and they admit that I am
right - lying I denounce in the abstract and they agree to what I say Von Der Decken could not hold his tongue but told
everyone "You Moslems lie" true enough was his word but he wanted command of himself & got into a rage per-
[ ]tually - I think my wo[ ] may have some affect on some

Affectionately Ever David Livingstone
100

Please to take good care to whose hands my letters come
Thieves eagerly catch them and make pamphlets which low book
sellers buy and palm off as if from me - Four spurious books
and pamphlets were sold all over the world as mine after my
great journey across the continent = I am not very sorry
105at my 40 letters being lost I gave full information - did
my duty like a Briton though so weak I could not walk 50 yds
and now they are gone by [ ]e Governors villainy I am not to
blame - No one could protect my property when Prout stole and
sold it - "It is an ill wind that blows no body good" Thanks to the
110Governor I am safe so far - Tom and Oswell's letters never
came to hand but may be at Ujiji I did not know that Dr Kirk
was married till he sent a letter to him in which you congratulate
him on the birth of a daughter - Waller is woefully behind hand in
telling me what I insisted on in 1858 /60 - /61 /62/63 that nothing can
115be done till slave trade is abolished but better late than never