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DAVID LIVINGSTONE (1813-1873)
Two autograph letters signed to James Aspinall Turner M.P., 50 Albemarle Street and Newstead Abbey, 11 December 1857 and n.d. [postmarked 6 February 1865], together 8 pages, 8vo, envelope.
FUNDING FOR THE ZAMBESI PROJECT AND FOR THE LAST EXPEDITION. Writing from the offices of his publisher, John Murray, Livingstone expresses hopes that 'the fact of my never having got a penny from the Government might be urged as a reason why no objection shoud be made to granting the money for a vessel &c. It will be purely for public purposes', adding that as in the present instance he demands no salary, 'no objection to the expedition can fairly be offered'. In the letter from Newstead whilst planning his last expedition, Livingstone acknowledges a contribution of £24, and reports the offer by the Geographical Society of £500 'for the determination of the watershed of Africa', as well as a promise from Lord John Russell and other support; as for the expedition itself, 'I don't want to have more than one companion and wish to have my son who was captured by the confederates before Richmond on 7th Octr'.
Livingstone's reference to his eldest son has some unwitting pathos: Robert Livingstone, who had been impressed into the Northern army in the American Civil War, had been wounded and taken captive at a skirmish at Laurel Hill, Virginia. By the time Livingstone wrote this letter, Robert was already dead, a few days before his 19th birthday, in December 1864. (2)
Two autograph letters signed to James Aspinall Turner M.P., 50 Albemarle Street and Newstead Abbey, 11 December 1857 and n.d. [postmarked 6 February 1865], together 8 pages, 8vo, envelope.
FUNDING FOR THE ZAMBESI PROJECT AND FOR THE LAST EXPEDITION. Writing from the offices of his publisher, John Murray, Livingstone expresses hopes that 'the fact of my never having got a penny from the Government might be urged as a reason why no objection shoud be made to granting the money for a vessel &c. It will be purely for public purposes', adding that as in the present instance he demands no salary, 'no objection to the expedition can fairly be offered'. In the letter from Newstead whilst planning his last expedition, Livingstone acknowledges a contribution of £24, and reports the offer by the Geographical Society of £500 'for the determination of the watershed of Africa', as well as a promise from Lord John Russell and other support; as for the expedition itself, 'I don't want to have more than one companion and wish to have my son who was captured by the confederates before Richmond on 7th Octr'.
Livingstone's reference to his eldest son has some unwitting pathos: Robert Livingstone, who had been impressed into the Northern army in the American Civil War, had been wounded and taken captive at a skirmish at Laurel Hill, Virginia. By the time Livingstone wrote this letter, Robert was already dead, a few days before his 19th birthday, in December 1864. (2)
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