Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; by LIVINGSTONE, David - 1857: including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior of Africa, and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loanda on the West Coast; thence across the Continent, down the River Zambezi, to the Eastern Ocean.

London: John Murray, 1857. First edition, Bradlow's variant 7: the frontispiece and plates facing pages 66 and 225 are wood-engravings by Whymper; the extra leaf after page 8 is absent. Gaston Renard called this variant the third issue, but as many as 11 variants of the first edition are known and a reliable order of precedence has never been established: it is now accepted that "the only thing that can be said with certainty is that the issue with the extra leaf numbered 8* and 8+ is not the first issue" (Bradlow). The extra leaf contains information on Moffat's mission at Kuruman and on Livingstone's marriage and the upbringing of his children, and Bradlow could only speculate as to the reasons for the interpolation: "Why did Livingstone decide to have the extra leaf after page 8 inserted? Did he feel that he had neglected his wife by not mentioning her in this way in the first place? All these questions and a host of others will occur to trained bibliographers and it may well be, that, in the future, some indefatigable researcher will find the answers."
Missionary Travels is one of the emblematic accounts of African exploration in the 19th century and the foundation of the Livingstone legend. It describes the first of his three major expeditions, "in which he followed the Zambezi, discovering Victoria Falls in the process, as well as the Shire and Ruyuma rivers, ranging from Angola in the west to Mozambique in the east... During these years he explored vast regions of central Africa, many of which had never been seen by white men before" (PMM). Octavo. Original reddish-brown sand-grain cloth, title gilt to the spine, blind panels to spine and boards, brown coated endpapers, binder's ticket (Edmonds & Remnants) to rear pastedown. Folding frontispiece, engraved portrait of Livingstone with tissue-guard, 22 further wood-engraved plates, folding geological cross section, 2 folding maps, of which one in end-pocket, wood-engravings to the text. With 8 pages of publisher's advertisements dated 1 November 1857. Contemporary gift inscription, "to C. S. Samuel, Esq., from his obliged friend, W. B. Packwood, London, December 1st, 1857", to initial blank. Spine gently rolled, foot of spine bumped, a few pale marks to boards, tips lightly rubbed, mild spotting to bottom edge of text block, front inner hinge superficially cracked, but firm, occasional light foxing, sig. L1 loose at bottom cord, but holding, quire U a touch proud. A very good copy. Abbey Travel 347; Bradlow, "The Variants of the 1857 edition …" in Lloyd ed. Livingstone 1873-1973; Howgego IV L39; Mendelssohn I p. 908; Printing and the Mind of Man 341; SABIB III p. 136.