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Details
MOFFAT, Robert (1795-1883). Autograph letter signed ('Robert Moffat') to David Livingstone, Kuruman, 6 December 1864, 12 pages, 8vo, on bifolia.
Moffat's letter responds to news of Livingstone's return home, and of the death of the explorer's father ('Is there such a thing as a photograph of him?'); and he rejoices that Livingstone is 'meditating another attempt to arrest the slave trade ... I do not envy your life nor popularity. It is killing to soul & body, & requires an iron constitution which you appear to have'; he meditates on the duties consequent on Livingstone's celebrity ('True you must be a perfect argosy of facts of the most interesting character'), grieves to hear of the death of Speke, and asks for a copy of 'your new work on Eastern Africa', and reports that his copy of Livingstone's Missionary Travels has been borrowed without hope of return. His own time is overcharged, particularly with the revision of his translation of the New Testament into Sechuana, and he consults Livingstone on particular philological problems and usages; he is under pressure to return to England to see the whole work through the press, but fears both the cold and the 'from-pillar-to-post-work' that this would entail. Even in his work at Kuruman, 'my pulpit as well as platform services are drawing to a close. The entire want of teeth makes public speaking laborious'; and missionary reinforcements are few: 'I could wish to give over the entire case of this mission, head & tail to another. I have had it these 43 years'.
Robert Moffat had known Livingstone since the latter's first arrival in London in 1840. Moffat's mission at Kuruman was at once the most remote in southern Africa, and regarded by the London Mission Society as the model of what such a station should be. Livingstone used Kuruman as the base for his early 'Missionary Travels' between 1841-43, and in 1844 married Moffat's eldest daughter, Mary.
Moffat's letter responds to news of Livingstone's return home, and of the death of the explorer's father ('Is there such a thing as a photograph of him?'); and he rejoices that Livingstone is 'meditating another attempt to arrest the slave trade ... I do not envy your life nor popularity. It is killing to soul & body, & requires an iron constitution which you appear to have'; he meditates on the duties consequent on Livingstone's celebrity ('True you must be a perfect argosy of facts of the most interesting character'), grieves to hear of the death of Speke, and asks for a copy of 'your new work on Eastern Africa', and reports that his copy of Livingstone's Missionary Travels has been borrowed without hope of return. His own time is overcharged, particularly with the revision of his translation of the New Testament into Sechuana, and he consults Livingstone on particular philological problems and usages; he is under pressure to return to England to see the whole work through the press, but fears both the cold and the 'from-pillar-to-post-work' that this would entail. Even in his work at Kuruman, 'my pulpit as well as platform services are drawing to a close. The entire want of teeth makes public speaking laborious'; and missionary reinforcements are few: 'I could wish to give over the entire case of this mission, head & tail to another. I have had it these 43 years'.
Robert Moffat had known Livingstone since the latter's first arrival in London in 1840. Moffat's mission at Kuruman was at once the most remote in southern Africa, and regarded by the London Mission Society as the model of what such a station should be. Livingstone used Kuruman as the base for his early 'Missionary Travels' between 1841-43, and in 1844 married Moffat's eldest daughter, Mary.
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