Letter to John Kirk
David Livingstone

Date of composition: 26 June 1871
Place of composition: Nyangwe
Repository: National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Shelfmark: MS.10768, f. 81
Clendennen & Cunningham number(s): Letters, 1971
Digital edition and date: Livingstone Online, 2016
Publisher: University of Maryland Libraries, College Park, MD, USA
Project id: liv_002572
TEI encoding: Adrian S. Wisnicki, Megan Ward, Heather F. Ball, Kate Simpson, Ashanka Kumari, Alexander Munson

[liv_002572_0001]

MS
10768 To Dr Kirk from D. Livingstone 26th June 1871

5

on this page I intended to put an Arabic dismissal to the ringleaders
I use it now to say please do not be offended with palavers - I am really
reduced to beggary notwithstanding all the bountiful provision you
with immense difficulty made for me and that too almost entirely by the
villainy of the unmitigated drunken blackgaurd Shereef - His Banian owner
10a British subject is in part to blame for he must have known his habits
and his brandy when they imposed him on us - He is reported to have bought
ivory with my goods and this ivory ought to be stopped at the custom house
as is done in case of Arabs till he refunds - If Seyed bin Majid sends the
list of goods left by Shereef you will judge of the extent of loss - If not then
15the case had better wait till I return - Remember that the list containing
12 Frasilahs samsam and the watch is that destroyed by Shereef - I have
that of samsam 6 Frasilahs - Langio 3 Do & Pink 3 &c - All Dugumbe's
people saw the packet and think as he refused it to Dugumbe it is
hidden = I feel sore most of all about the watch - though it is hard too
20to be living from hand to mouth in beggary while my Banian slaves lived
sixteen months in clover and idleness earning they supposed from five
to seven dollars per month - They are independant of the Arabs but so they
are of us and of honesty - I go West of this to Lomame = 60º then buy a
canoe if Dugumbe will advance the price and go South to the Watershed
25and four fountains = Dugumbe is very friendly and a gentleman with more
exploring enterprise in him than any other - He is going to sow and be
here at Nyangwe for three years sending every now & then to Ujiji
letters sent to him will be safe - His people will bring some
goods for me from Ujiji and I shall share liberally with him
30I might have mentioned that a dyke of basalt or other igneous rock
cuts across the river 4 days of the canoe below this and the immense body
of water is jammed rushing through the jutting ends which are not parallel
{figure} and form whirlpools in which canoes wheel round & round
helplessly = I am thankful I was not there for I would have been
35foremost in this and a cataract below it and no Makololo to help me
I thought next of going up river to Kamolondo the broad part of
Webbs Lake river but another cataract intervenes so I go due
West on foot on the 2d day of New ℂ about 9th July. In this jumble
of odds & ends you will see how my mind is confused - I should have
40added up there that I dont go down river at present because in
turning up Lomame from Lualaba I should probably meet the
same basaltic dyke in the ascent for such dykes run a long way
across country - here I have a chance of cutting Lomame above it

David Livingstone

I had to pay the carriers of Shereefs brandy from
45first to last his own trade for ivory was what he followed shamelessly