‘I Will Open a Path into the Interior (of Africa), or Perish’: David Livingstone and the Mapping of Africa

ABSTRACT

Although David Livingstone came to southern Africa in 1840 as a medical missionary, he soon succumbed to the lure of geographical discovery. Between 1849 and his death in 1873 he travelled widely in south-central Africa and managed to irreversibly change the map of this part of the continent. Although much has been written about his character, adventures and travels, little has been said about the maps he compiled and even less about how he made those maps. This article is an attempt to elucidate this rather unknown facet of his legacy by referring to the instruments, methods and techniques he used to collect his data and the high premium he put on the accuracy of his observations. Attention is also given to his life-long friendship with HM Astronomer at the Cape, Sir Thomas Maclear to whom he regularly sent his observations to be checked and his occasionally tempestuous relationship with the official cartographer of the Royal Geographical Society, John Arrowsmith.

KEYWORDS:

• Livingstone
• Maclear
• Arrowsmith
• Africa
• exploration
• map

Acknowledgements

The author is indebted to Prof. Adrian S. Wisnicki of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, USA and Director of the Livingstone Online Project Team for valuable advice and for kindly editing the contents and footnotes of this article to ascertain that they correctly link with the website of the Livingstone Online open-access internet resource and publishing project [http://livingstoneonline.org].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 National Library of Scotland (hereafter NLS), MF. MSS.420. Acc.8773. Rhodesian File L1/1/1. ‘Livingstone to Murchison, 8th August 1859’.

2 See the following biographies: Blaikie, 1880; Campbell, 1929; Debenham, 1955; Seaver, 1957; and Jeal, 2013. An extensive list can also be found on Livingstone Online: Adrian S. Wisnicki and Justin D. Livingstone, “David Livingstone: A Bibliography,” in Livingstone Online, dir. Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, new vers., second ed. (N.p., 2019). Available at: http://livingstoneonline.org/uuid/node/d6801fb9-85ff-4b39-bc07-6378bc6421db. Accessed: 16th January 2019).

3 David Livingstone, ‘Letter to David G. Watt, 7th July, 4th August 1841’, in Livingstone Online, dir. Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, new vers., second ed. (N.p., 2019). Available at: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?query=liv_000483 (Accessed: 16th January 2019).

4 Robert Moffat (1795–1883) was since 1821 the senior missionary at the LMS mission station at Kuruman on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. His book, Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa (London: 1842), describes in detail the early history of the station.

5 White frontier farmers who had settled in the interior of South Africa after having moved away from the Cape Colony and British dominance. They generally disliked Livingstone whom they thought provided the indigenous peoples with firearms.

6 See also: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/missionary-travels-manuscript/missionary-travels-in-pen-and-print-1 (Accessed: 10th April 2020).

7 Linyanti was the village of the paramount chief of the Kololo tribe, Sebituane, and later of his son Sekeletu, and was situated on the Chobe River near its junction with the Zambesi. The Kololo was a BaTswana tribe who were in the early nineteenth century driven by invading tribes from their home in the (present) Free State Province of South Africa. They gradually moved north through Bechuanaland and ultimately (c.1840) established themselves as the ruling community in Barotseland (the Upper Zambesi Valley) and adjoining regions. Livingstone who could by then speak Sichuana (now SeTswana) had no problem speaking to them and understanding them. Over the years he had much help from the Kololo as the guides and warriors who accompanied him on his trans-Africa journey were all loaned to him by Sekeletu.

8 See also: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/livingstones-final-manuscripts-1865-1873 (Accessed: 3rd May 2020).

9 In 1856, with the backing of the RGS and the British Foreign Office, Richard Burton (1821–1890) and John Hanning Speke (1827–1864) entered Africa from Zanzibar and reached Lake Tanganyika in February 1858. Speke also visited Lake Victoria which he recognized as the source of the Nile. In March 1864 Samuel White Baker (1821–1893) became the first European to visit Lake Albert approximately 150 km northwest of Lake Victoria.

10 The Greenwich Meridian was not accepted as international standard until 1884, but was used by the British from the eighteenth century.

11 See also: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/livingstones-final-manuscripts-1865-1873 (Accessed: 3rd May 2020).

12 Livingstone, David. ‘Letter to Benjamin T. Pyne, 1st January 1846’, in Livingstone Online, dir. Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, new vers., second ed. (N.p., 2019). Available at: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?query=liv_000605 (Accessed: 16th January 2019).

13 In 1843 Captain Thomas (later General Sir Thomas) Montague Steele (1820–1890) of the Coldstream Guards came to South Africa on a hunting expedition and met Livingstone at Mabotsa. They became lifelong friends and Steele later became aide-de-camp to the Governor of Madras. Livingstone’s second son was named after him.

14 Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (hereafter JRGS) 20 (1850), p.138.

15 Livingstone, David. ‘Letter to Arthur Tidman, 30th April 1851’, in Livingstone Online, dir. Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, new vers., second ed. (N.p., 2019). Available at: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?query=liv_000727 (Accessed: 16th January 2019).

16 NLS, MF. MSS.420. Acc.8773. ‘Maclear to Livingstone, 5th May 1852’.

17 JRSG 27 (1857), p.xlv.

18 Livingstone, David. ‘Letter to Arthur Tidman, 30th April 1851’, in Livingstone Online, dir. Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, new vers., second ed. (N.p., 2019). Available at: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?query=liv_000727 (Accessed: 16th January 2019).

19 Glendennan, G.W. (1979) David Livingstone, A catalogue of documents, Section 2, nos. 0239.9 and 0266.9 Edinburgh: NLS. ‘Livingstone to Steele, 3rd December 1850 and 30th March 1852’.

20 JRGS 24 (1854) ‘Livingstone to Steele, 20th September 1835’, p.300.

21 NLS, MF. MSS. 420. Acc. 8773. ‘Livingstone to Maclear, 12th August 1856’.

22 JRGS 27 (1857), p.lxxxix.

23 JRGS 24 (1854), p.306.

24 For general difficulties when taking astronomical observations in the field in the nineteenth century, see Wisnicki (2008).

25 NLS, MS 10780/3 = MF. MSS.274. ‘Livingstone to Gabriel, 1st October 1854’. Also in British Library (hereafter BL), Add.MS.37410.

26 NLS, MS 10780/3 = MF. MSS.274. ‘Livingstone to Gabriel’, 21st November 1854.

27 NLS, MF.MSS.420. Acc. 8773. Reel 1. Also Rhodesian File L1/1/1, Folios 1-255. ‘Livingstone to Maclear, 13th January 1858’.

28 Livingstone, David. ‘Field Diary XVI, 1st December 1872–6th April 1873’, in Livingstone Online, dir. Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, new vers., second ed. (N.p., 2019). Available at: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?query=liv_000016 (Accessed: 16th January 2019). Original at David Livingstone Centre, Blantyre, UK.

29 Ibid.

30 JRGS 22 (1852), pp.168–169.

31 RGS Archives, DL 2/12. ‘Livingstone to Editor of Athenaeum’, 25th November 1856.

32 Sir Thomas Maclear (1784–1879) was HM Astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope from 1834 until 1870.

33 JRSG 24 (1854), p.301, ‘Maclear to Herschel, 19th April 1854’.

34 Today the much used and damaged copy of this map, owned and extended towards the north by Livingstone himself, can be seen in the Archives of the London Missionary Society in the School for Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of London University.

35 Some of the sketch maps are listed in Livingstone Online’s digital catalogue ‘Browse by Digital Catalogue Record’ in Livingstone Online, dir. Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, new vers., second ed. (N.p., 2019). Available at: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?f%5B%5D=genre_ms%3A%22manuscript±maps%22 (Accessed: 16th January 2019).

36 NLS, Microfiche MS 10780/3 = MF MSS 274, ‘Livingstone to Edmund Gabriel, 15th November 1854’. Original in BL, Add. MS.37410.

37 NLS, Microfiche MS 10780/3 = MF MSS 274, ‘Livingstone to Edmund Gabriel, 14th February 1855’. Original in BL, Add. MS.37410.

38 NLS, Microfiche MS 10780/3 = MF MSS 274, ‘Livingstone to Edmund Gabriel, 4th February 1855’. Original in BL, Add. MS.37410.

39 NLS, Microfiche MS 10780/3 = MF MSS 274, ‘Livingstone to Edmund Gabriel, 12th February 1855’. Original in BL, Add. MS.37410.

40 NLS, Microfiche MS 10780/3 = MF MSS 274, ‘Livingstone to Edmund Gabriel, 14th February 1855’. Original in BL, Add. MS.37410.

41 For more on Livingstone’s 1871 field diary, see http://livingstoneonline.org/spectral-imaging/livingstones-1871-field-diary (Accessed: 3rd May 2020).

42 John Arrowsmith (1790–1873) was by the middle of the nineteenth century one of England’s foremost cartographers. He became a founding member of the RGS in 1830 and was a member of its council. He remained an active member for over forty years during which time he met many explorers and persons of influence who were instrumental in supplying him with information for his maps. In 1831 the Society's Journal was established and Arrowsmith began producing maps for it from 1832 until 1870. He received the Gold medal of the Society in 1863.

43 Although map reproduction by lithography had already taken root in Britain by the middle of the nineteenth century, the Livingstone maps Arrowsmith—produced for the JRGS and for DL’s books were all copperplate engravings. Also see NLS, MF. MSS.420. Acc. 8773, Rhodesian File L 1/1/1, ‘Livingstone to Maclear, 28th October 1865’.

44 BL, Add. MS.31356, pp.33 to 55.

45 Ibid., p.43.

46 Ibid.

47 Ibid., p.25. Arrowsmith’s translation and copy of H.M. Dyke’s 1847 French map of Basutoland is here done in such a way that it difficult to believe that it was done by hand and not printed.

48 For more information on the actual publication of this book, see http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?f%5B%5D=genre_ms%3A%22maps±%28documents%29%22 (Accessed: 3rd May 2020).

49 Livingstone, David, ‘Letter to John Murray III, 27th June 1857’, in Livingstone Online, dir. Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, new vers., second ed. (N.p., 2019). Available at: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?query=liv_001048 (Accessed: 16th January 2019).

50 Livingstone, David, ‘Letter to John Murray III, 11th July 1857’ in Livingstone Online, dir. Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, new vers., second ed. (N.p., 2019). Available at: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?query=liv_001062 (Accessed: 16th January 2019).

51 NLS, MS.10768, ff.31–32.

52 NLS, Microfiche MS 10780/3 = MF MSS 274, ‘Letter to Agnes Livingstone, 4th July 1866’. Also in BL, Add.MS.50184.

53 Ibid.

54 NLS, MF. MSS. 421. Acc. 8773. ‘Livingstone to Maclear and Mann’, 2nd September 1869.

55 Admiral Sir George Back (1796–1878) was a Royal Navy officer, an explorer of the Arctic and a vice-president of the RGS, having received its gold and silver medals. Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911) was an English polymath who made important contributions in many fields in science, including meteorology, statistics, psychology, biology and criminology. He was also a member of the RGS and in 1850–1852 explored and mapped Damaraland and Ovamboland in South West Africa, financing the expedition himself.

56 ‘Livingstone to Murchison, 18th December 1867’ as published in Jeal (2013), p.317.

57 Some of Livingstone’s published maps are available on Livingstone Online at: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?f%5B%5D=genre_ms%3A%22maps±%28documents%29%22 (Accessed: 3rd May 2020).

58 William Mann was assistant to Sir Thoman Maclear at the Cape Observatory, and Ujiji was a large town and slave market on the north-eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika.

59 David Livingstone, ‘Letter to Thomas Maclear, 8th July 1868’ in Livingstone Online, dir. Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, new vers., second ed. (N.p., 2019). Available at: http://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?query=liv_002528 (Accessed: 16th January 2019).

60 Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904) was a Welsh journalist and explorer attached to the New York Herald. He became famous for his search and find of David Livingstone, his search for the source of the Nile, his exploration of the Congo Basin, and his command of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition.

61 An image of the sealed mail bag can be viewed at http://livingstoneonline.org/resources/livingstone-online-project-documents (Accessed: 3rd May 2020).

62 Unfinished letter, ‘Livingstone to Waller, 1873’. Mentioned in Waller (1874), Vol.1, p.vi.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elri Liebenberg

Elri Liebenberg was Professor and Head of the Department of Geography at the University of South Africa where she is a Research Fellow. She has published widely on the history of cartography of Southern Africa; was Chair of the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography from 2007 until 2015; is Regional Editor of The Cartographic Journal for Africa, and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Cartography.