Details
DAVID LIVINGSTONE (1813-1873).
Autograph letter signed to T[homas] B[erry] Horsfall, London, 24 October 1857, urging his correspondent to present his memorial in support of the proposed Zambesi expedition. 'As a deputation from the British Association is to have an interview with Lord Clarendon next week on the subject of granting a vessel to survey the Zambesi, and the object is in accordance with the views of your Chamber of Commerce, it may be advisable for you to strengthen their hands by presenting your memorial about the same time', written on light grey paper, 2 1/2 pages, 4to (small ink blots, creased at folds).
After his return to England in December 1856, Livingstone spent the following year enlisting support for the proposed Zambesi expedition. In a lecture to the British Association in Dublin in August 1857 he described the commercial prospects of the Batoka plateau, representing the Zambesi as an ideal waterway to such good effect that General Sabine, the Association's General Secretary, asked Livingstone if he would object to an official petition from the British Association to Lord Clarendon, the Foreign Secretary, on the subject of providing Livingstone with a steamer for his next venture. Livingstone also appealed with great success to the cotton manufacturers of Northern England, and in September the Manchester Chamber of Commerce resolved to make a similar approach. Thomas Berry Horsfall (1805-1878, MP and Mayor of Liverpool) appears to have been another of those whose endorsement of the project was of crucial importance. In December the government announced a loan of £5,000 towards the cost of the expedition. The paddle steamer known as the Ma-Robert (and later nicknamed the Asthmatic) was built at Birkenhead at a cost of £1,200, and was carried on the Pearl in three sections, when it sailed from Liverpool with Livingstone, his wife and son on 12 March 1858.
Autograph letter signed to T[homas] B[erry] Horsfall, London, 24 October 1857, urging his correspondent to present his memorial in support of the proposed Zambesi expedition. 'As a deputation from the British Association is to have an interview with Lord Clarendon next week on the subject of granting a vessel to survey the Zambesi, and the object is in accordance with the views of your Chamber of Commerce, it may be advisable for you to strengthen their hands by presenting your memorial about the same time', written on light grey paper, 2 1/2 pages, 4to (small ink blots, creased at folds).
After his return to England in December 1856, Livingstone spent the following year enlisting support for the proposed Zambesi expedition. In a lecture to the British Association in Dublin in August 1857 he described the commercial prospects of the Batoka plateau, representing the Zambesi as an ideal waterway to such good effect that General Sabine, the Association's General Secretary, asked Livingstone if he would object to an official petition from the British Association to Lord Clarendon, the Foreign Secretary, on the subject of providing Livingstone with a steamer for his next venture. Livingstone also appealed with great success to the cotton manufacturers of Northern England, and in September the Manchester Chamber of Commerce resolved to make a similar approach. Thomas Berry Horsfall (1805-1878, MP and Mayor of Liverpool) appears to have been another of those whose endorsement of the project was of crucial importance. In December the government announced a loan of £5,000 towards the cost of the expedition. The paddle steamer known as the Ma-Robert (and later nicknamed the Asthmatic) was built at Birkenhead at a cost of £1,200, and was carried on the Pearl in three sections, when it sailed from Liverpool with Livingstone, his wife and son on 12 March 1858.