Suppressed Preface to Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, January-October 1857
David Livingstone

Date of composition: January-October 1857
Repository: National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Shelfmark: MS. 42427
Clendennen & Cunningham number(s): Books, 01
Digital edition and date: Livingstone Online, 2019
Publisher: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
Project id: liv_003010
TEI encoding: Justin D. Livingstone, Adrian S. Wisnicki, Kate Simpson

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to be read if you have leisure then destroyed 1

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Preface

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After spending some sixteen years of m {in} teaching
5honesty to the Africans, it was rather mortifying
6to one whose contact with foreign nations
7had revived high ideas of the honour of his countrymen
8to encounter on witness on his return home a
9cool appropriation of his literary property which
10would have made the Makololo hold in their
11breath - When slowly toiling through forest, marsh
12and river pains were taken in spite of ever
13returning fevers to convey home by means
14of general sketches the earliest information
15of the discoveries, in order that should the
16writer, as so many have done, fall a victim
17to the climate, his labours might not be lost
18to his countrymen - At a meeting of welcome
19held a few days after my arrival in London in
20 December 1856 by the Royal Geographical Society
21 Sir Roderick Murchison proposed that I should
22give a narrative of my travels to the world - And
23at a similar meeting by the Directors of the
24 London Missionary Society I stated my intention
25of doing that instead of making those public
26appearances which were urged upon me - My
27resolution was th {w}idely known yet no long
28time elapsed before artful advertisements
29were issued the aim of which was to produce
30the impression that various spurious pro {wo}rks
31concocted from the sketches referred to - from
32some private letters the loss of which could
33never be accounted for - and from the
34imagination of the writers, were all given to
35the public with my sanction and authority
36"Dr Livingston's discoveries &c with a map corrected
37by himself" or "revised by himself" or "the
38only authorised edition" or the task of carrying
39 Dr Livingston's work {life} & discoveries through the
40press has been committed to --- who will esteem
41it a labour of love --- at the low price of five shilling
42 &c &c

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these persons and the Missionary Society - 2

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Another collection appeared with the hint "the only
3authorised edition" my authority having neither been
4asked nor obtained - and another encouraged by
5their success of his predecessors advertized "that
6the task of carrying Dr Livingston's life and travels
7through the press had been committed to H - G. Adams
8 [—] who will esteem it "a labour of love" - Having been
9so long among unsophisticated Africans I found
10it rather difficult to understand how any one not
11 [˄ superior to] "a ticket of leave man" could esteem a work of dis-
12honesty "a labour of love" - The ˄ unsophisticat Makololo justify
13their forays for "lifting cattle" by quoting some former
14injury they sustained - "The cows they now seize are
15only the calves of those stolen by the great grandfathers of
16the enemy" [↪ They never lift the cattle of their friends - these are sacred -] But my piratical friends are influenced
17by pure love - They are ˄ even quite extravagant in their
18laudation of their victim and most devoutly
19anxious to serve me {him} and the cause of missions
20I am really ashamed to appear to think unkindly of
21 any of my countrymen and would fain have refrained
22from noticing the evident forgetfulness of {by} these
23persons in their advertisements of the case of
24 Ananias and Sapphira, but I feel myself under
25imperative obligations to notice the sentiments of
26uprightness which these spurious publications have
27called forth - The "Times" nobly refused to admit
28the advertisements of the few ˄ publishers booksellers who
29stooped beneath the general morality of the trade and
30I tender the Editor my warmest thanks; I feel
31 [also] deeply grateful to the "Athenaeum" and ˄ [ ] the Press
32generally for their aid in exposing frauds which
33a sacred regard for the cause of missions prevented
34 our invoking the aid of the law to repress -
35It is certainly no proof of the world becoming
36worse that the Publishers of Paternoster Row
37to a man scouted the piracies from the trade
38Many others especially in Scotland followed 0003
1It is however a cheering sign that when 3
2challenged they all denied the paternity of these
3 [orphan] ˄ advertisements - The unsophisticated Makololo
4justify their forays for "lifting cattle" by quoting
5some former injury they sustained - "Yhe
6cows they now capture are only the calves
7of the calves of the cows which were stolen
8by the great grandfathers of the enemy - They
9never "lift" the cattle of their friends - These
10are sacred and should they wander would
11be returned - But my friends are influenced
12by pure love (not of money of course) and
13are even extravagant in their laudation of
14their victim and most devoutly anxious
15to serve him and the cause of missions, I am
16really ashamed to bring forward the semblance
17of a charge against any of my countrymen
18from whom generally I have received
19the kindest attentions and greatest honours
20but I feel myself under imperative
21obligations the evidences of the morality of
22the mass of society, and warmly to
23acknowledge the sentiments of uprightness
24and honour which these spurious
25publications have been the means of
26eliciting

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I suppress this as too fiery but
29 send it that you may see
30 what I was thinking off
31 In noticing those who in any
32 way aided me there is an
33 implied censure of the others