Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing (CMSW) - www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/cmsw/ Document : 701 Title: Letter from Livinsgton to Murray, 1 Nov 1859 Author(s): Livingstone, David River Shire. 1st November 1859 My Dear Mr Murray Never a blessed word have we got from any of our friends since we left England but we hear that there is a mail for us at Senna and a surfeit of news papers. I am therefore preparing to yield myself utterly to the feast by writing to my friends. And having forgotten the address of Mr Elwes of the Quarterly I beg to entrust my letter to him to you. We have just traced this river up to its source in Lake Nyassa and we had a long tramp on 250 miles on foot. through a very fine well watered mountainous country and it being the hot season of the year when we travelled we had just as much foot work as is good for Europeans at a dose. We could not explore Nyassa as we had left the Shaw vessel in a sinking state. . Lake Nyassa is large if one may judge from the swell when there is no wind and the Shire is given off constantly without causing any alteration in the height of the Lake. The Shire is from 80 to 150 yards wide. ten or 12 feet deep has a two & a half knot current. yet never varies more than 2 or 3 feet from wet to dry season. There are only 33 miles of cataracts in it and a common road could without difficulty be made past them. The country beyond is elevated and lies in three terraces — of 1200 feet — 2000 ft and 3000 feet high respectively. On the last rises the lofty mountain Zomba which we ascended and found to be between 7000 & 8000 feet high — yet cultivated on the top. The country is well adapted for cotton and it is now grown pretty extensively the terraces have great numbers of running rills of deliciously cool water and they present changes of climate within a few miles of each other It was delightfully cool on the third terrace even in the hottest period of the year and on Zomba it was cold. A remarkably white lichen may have decieved those who saw some white rocks in the North. I think we have here in the lands watered by the Lakes a cotton country of unlimited extent. We have no frosts to cut off the crops and one sowing of foreign seed serves for three years. The natives have introduced it themselves. The Lakes lie parallel with some of the notorious slaving ports on the East coast and traders must cross the partition between them in coming from the interior. Lawful commerce & missions would do an immense good here in the course of time. I send a photograph on [bad] paper which will shew you the similarity between the ancient Egyptian and modern African pestles & mortars. Kind regards to Mrs Murray. Mr & Mrs Cook. David Livingstone.