David and Charles Livingstone’s Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries; and of the discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa. 1858-1864. Published in New York in 1866, stands as a vital record of European exploration in southeastern Africa during the mid-nineteenth century. This substantial volume chronicles the expedition undertaken by the celebrated Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone alongside his brother Charles from 1858 to 1864, an ambitious journey aimed at examining the natural resources of the region and determining the navigability of the Zambezi River for commerce and Christian mission.
The work, issued as the first American edition by Harper & Brothers, extends to approximately 638 pages supplemented by six pages of publisher’s advertisements. It is richly illustrated throughout with wood engravings, including a double-page frontispiece depicting the great cataracts of the Zambezi and numerous textual illustrations that bring the African landscape and its peoples before the reader’s eye. A large folding map at the rear, based upon Livingstone’s own astronomical observations and sketches, provides cartographic documentation of the rivers Shire and Rovuma, together with lakes Nyassa and Shirwa.
The expedition itself encountered formidable difficulties that lend the narrative both drama and poignancy. The Zambezi proved unnavigable beyond the Cabora Bassa rapids, thwarting one of the expedition’s primary objectives. More tragically, David Livingstone’s wife Mary succumbed to malaria during the journey, a personal loss that shadows the account. Yet the brothers pressed onward, exploring the Shire River and achieving the discovery of Lake Nyasa, one of Africa’s great inland seas.
Throughout the narrative, Livingstone’s growing horror at the slave trade emerges as a central theme. His encounters with marches of manacled slaves and the devastation wrought upon entire regions by slaving operations profoundly affected him, transforming the book into an impassioned indictment of this commerce in human beings. As he states in his preface, he sought to bring before his countrymen the misery entailed by the slave trade in its inland phases.
Despite the expedition’s setbacks, the scientists who accompanied it amassed significant collections of botanical, ecological, geological, and ethnographic materials, contributions to knowledge that the book documents. The volume remains an essential source for understanding both the geography of nineteenth-century Africa and the complex legacy of European exploration on the continent.
