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An extraordinary survival of major importance, this substantial letter by one of England's most famous explorers of Africa is accompanied by a manuscript map and records the European discovery of Lake Ngami in modern day Botswana. Written in the field, the letter is filled with Livingstone's keen eye for African flora and fauna as well as the people he met and observed. It could hardly be more satisfying.

Letters of this quality are now very rare on the market with the majority being held in institutions. This is likely one of the best Livingstone letters in private hands.

The letter opens in understated fashion, but brims with confidence: "My Dear Sir, As the discovery of a Lake and people hitherto unknown in the interior of South Africa may be a suitable subject for the pages of your periodical, and the interest of the information will be the greater the sooner you are put in possession of it, I prefer giving you this to finishing another paper which I began to prepare soon after the receipt of your letter."

Howgego provides a neat summary of Livingstone's party in the lead up to the discovery. "Between June and October 1849, in the company of game-hunters William Cotton Oswell and Mungo Murray (a native of Lintrose, Forfarshire), and with the Kuruman trader J.H. Wilson, Livingstone undertook a journey to Lake Ngami (in northern Botswana), which had never before been seen by a European ... With a dozen African cattle-drivers and about thirty Bakwain, the party left Kolobeng on 1.6.49 and five weeks later reached the River Zouga (= Botletle), which it followed to the north and west. Before the point where the Zouga entered the lake they discovered another river, the Thamalakane, flowing in from the north; this convinced Livingstone that a major river network existed further north. The party reached the lake on 1.8.49, but Livingstone was unimpressed, and was determined to push on 320 kilometres to the northeast to visit Sebitoane, chief of the Makololo."

Livingstone himself describes the journey thus: "After travelling about 300 miles from Kolobeng, we struck the beautiful river Zouga and by winding along its banks about 300 more, we at length saw the Lake Ngami in the beginning of August. The Desert through which most of the first 300 miles were passed does not deserve the name except from its great scarcity of water. It is covered with grass, bushes and trees. It is inhabited by both men and animals. Many of the latter were formed capable of living for months together without a drop of water. The testimony of the natives is quite explicit on this point in reference to several kinds of antelope, one of which called the eiland is a noble animal."

He was more impressed with the Zouga River than the lake. "The Zouga is connected with several large rivers in the North, one of these enters the lake at its Nor-West extremity. They are navigated by means of canoes and present the prospect of a highway for missionaries of the Lord Jesus into a large tract of country. The discovery of a Lake never before seen by a European seems a small thing compared to this. An arm of the Zouga heads down to the Lake. It there widens out into a broad firth [?] and to the S.S.W. it presents a horizon of water. It may be 70 miles in length, for a native can walk round to the narrow part at the North West in about three days. The Latitude taken at the Batawana town at the North East extremity was 20° 20'S. The Longitude may be about 24 but this is uncertain for we had no chronometer. The Latitude may be depended on. We cannot state what breadth it is. The enclosed sketch may enable you to understand the idea we formed of both rivers and Lake. The rivers we did not see are put down by dotted lines."

Livingstone then turns to ethnographical matters: "A people called Bakoba by Bechuanas but Bayeiye by themselves inhabit both Lake and rivers. Their villages are usually situated among the reeds which grow abundantly in all the shallow parts. They paddle along the rivers in canoes each hollowed out of the trunk of single trees - catch fish by means of nets made of a weed which grows abundantly in this country - kill hippopotami by means of harpoons attached to strong ropes made of a flax [?] like plant - and elephants, rhinoceros, buffaloes, giraffe, Lechwe (a kind of antelope hitherto unknown) by means of pitfalls along the banks of the river ... - We greatly admire the frank manly bearing of these sailors which have never before heard of the sea nor seen any Europeans - possessing far more curiosity than Bechuanas they seemed nearly as anxious to pick up words in English as we were to note down the same in their language. Their intelligent questions made the sailing along the river and visiting their villages a source of great enjoyment. Many of them speak Sitchuana fluently but of 300 words I collected only 21 bear any resemblance to that language. They stated without the least hesitation that "Oreeja" was the name of God in their tongue, and seemed to possess much more traditionary knowledge than the people who live further south. They exist in large numbers on the rivers further north, and as those to whom we endeavoured to communicate a knowledge of the leading facts of Christianity seemed to comprehend them much more readily than any people to whom I have addressed the same message for the first time, we may hope that they may yet be the instruments of spreading a knowledge of Christianity in still more distant regions."

The map must be surely among the earliest Livingstone drew of Lake Ngami. It depicts the area south from Lake Ngami with water sources following a curving trail heading east and south along the edge of the Kalahari desert, as well as towns, tribes and natural formations.

David Livingstone (1813-1873) achieved many things in his two decades in Africa, and is arguably best remembered as a symbol of colonial benevolence. The Scottish physician was a missionary, explorer, abolitionist, and by the time of his death, his status as a national hero was indisputable. Of course, he was more complicated than the "missionary saint" portrayed in Alan Moorehead’s The White Nile (London, 1960). ODNB puts some meat on his bones, describing him as "versatile in practical skills, intellectually curious, strikingly free from religious or racial prejudice, exerting unusual charm, and inspiring at least a few to great loyalty; yet deficient in political sense, tactless, touchy, rancorous, stingy with thanks or encouragement, devious, and callous when other people’s interests seemed to conflict with his duty to God" (ODNB).

In a real sense, this letter marks the moment of Livingston's transition from a missionary to an explorer. The results of this expedition, not least his ability to overcome the obstacles that had beset earlier travellers of the Kalahari Desert, his observations as a naturalist, and his striving to lean the languages of the tribes, to promote the Christian faith, raised him in the esteem of his sponsors and his profile in the eyes of the general public.

It is as much a report as it is a piece of correspondence and is certainly organised as such. Furthermore, it does not appear in the volume of Livingstone's Missionary Correspondence, 1841-1856 (University of California Press, 1961).

Provenance: by descent through the Taylor family.

Howgego II, L39.