Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries; and of the Discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864 by Livingstone, David and Livingstone, Charles - 1866

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1866. First American edition.

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF CLASSIC ILLUSTRATED ACCOUNT OF AFRICAN EXPLORATION BY THE LIVINGSTONE BROTHERS.

9 1/2 inches tall hardcover, original brown pebbled cloth binding, gilt title to spine, 2-page frontis wood engraving of bird's eye view of the great cataracts of the Zambesi, plus 35 full page illustrations throughout the text, and large folding map at rear. Corners bumped, edges worn, spine faded, edges soiled, pages age-toned but crisp and unmarked, map clean with closed tear at upper left corner, repaired on back with archival tape. Good+.

DAVID LIVINGSTONE (1813 – 1873) was a Scottish Christian Congregationalist, pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of the late-19th-century in the Victorian era. He had a mythical status that operated on a number of interconnected levels: Protestant missionary martyr, working-class "rags-to-riches" inspirational story, scientific investigator and explorer, imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of commercial and colonial expansion. His fame as a traveler and his obsession with seeing the sources of the Nile River was founded on the belief that if he could solve that age-old mystery. "The Nile sources," he told a friend, "are valuable only as a means of opening my mouth with power among men. It is this power which I hope to remedy an immense evil." His subsequent exploration of the central African watershed was the culmination of the classic period of European geographical discovery and colonial penetration of Africa.

CHARLES LIVINGSTONE (1821–1873), missionary and traveler, brother of Dr. David Livingstone, emigrated to the Western States of America in 1840, and became a student at a training college for missionaries. In 1847 he entered the Union Theological College, New York City, from which he took his degree in 1850. Dr. Storrs of Massachusetts took a deep interest in him, and obtained for him a pastoral charge in that state. In April 1857 he came to England on leave of absence, and met his brother David, fresh from his discoveries in Central Africa, who induced him, not without a struggle, to leave his family and his flock in America, and to join the Zambesi expedition. Through many privations and difficulties he was the doctor's faithful companion and assistant till 1863, when he was invalided home, and went to join his family in America. His health would not, however, allow of his resuming ministerial duties, and after writing out his journal, he came to meet his brother David in England, and assist him in preparing the work on the Zambesi for the press. In October 1874 he accepted the appointment of her majesty's consul at Fernando Po, and in 1867 the Bights of Benin and Biafra, including the mouths of the Niger, were added by Lord Stanley to his consular district. He died near Lagos, 28 Oct. 1873, of African fever.