Autograph Letter Signed, To His Children. Livingstone, David.

An affectionate letter exhorting his children to have faith in Christ, written during Livingstone's time with the Makololo tribe in his search for a new mission station and commercial route. His family had returned to Britain the previous year where they were financially supported by the London Missionary Society. Intimate family letters by Livingstone rarely appear in commerce. In 1853, Livingstone was travelling with William Cotton Oswell after missions in Kuruman, Chonuane, and Kolobeng. He had already crossed the Kalahari Desert to reach Lake Ngami and arrived at the Zambezi, believing he had found the "key to the interior". Along with spreading the Gospel, Livingstone was keen to establish trade in English manufactured goods to undermine the slave trade. He was warmly welcomed by King Sekeletu of the Makololo tribe who assisted Livingstone in his search by arranging an expedition with local guides to establish trade with Luanda. In return, Livingstone gifted powder and ammunition to defend the Makololo against Ndebele raids. The party set off soon after this letter was written, in November 1853. In the letter, addressed to Robert, Agnes, Thomas and Oswell, Livingstone references the children's time in Africa and some of the people they met: "Here are Seiponé and Moriye and others who saw you as the first white children they ever looked at". The letter is filled with the religious zeal that sustained Livingstone on his missions; he reassures the children that he misses them but offers comfort by reminding them to "remember that though I am far off, Jesus our good and gracious Jesus is ever near both you and then I" [sic]. He also encourages them to be studious so that one day they too would be able to spread the Gospel, and additionally specifies which language this should be done in: "I hope you are learning fast. Don't speak Scotch. It is not so pretty as English". Livingstone's concern was perhaps rooted in self-consciousness about how his own accent was perceived: "When he speaks to you, you think him at first to be a Frenchman; but as he tells you a Scotch anecdote in the Glaswegian dialect, you make up your mind that he must be, as his face indicates, a countryman from the north" (ODNB). Livingstone's wife, the linguist Mary Moffat, had returned to Britain in 1852 after a particularly difficult expedition to the Botletle, during which a daughter was born who lived for only six weeks and two of the other children fell ill. Back in Scotland, Mary and the children were struggling due to disagreements with Livingstone's family; the London Missionary Society stepped in and offered lodging in Kendal with Charles and Susanna Braithwaite, two evangelical Quakers, who Livingstone himself would befriend and lodge with on his return in 1856. Despite the family's financial difficulty, Livingstone reminds them in the letter of their privilege compared to others: "I saw a poor woman in a chain with many others up at the Barotse. She had a little child and both she and her child were very very thin. See how kind Jesus was to you". Single bifolium (folded to 246 x 154 mm) of paper, written on four sides in black ink. Toned, creasing to extremities and from folds, else in very good condition.