"WITH THE KINDEST REMEMBRANCES OF HIS MUCH OBLIGED AND ATTACHED FRIEND, DAVID LIVINGSTONE": RARE PRESENTATION FIRST EDITION OF LIVINGSTONE'S MISSIONARY TRAVELS IN SOUTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA, BOLDLY INSCRIBED IN THE MONTH OF PUBLICATION BY HIM

LIVINGSTONE, David. Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; Including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior of Africa. London: John Murray, 1857. Thick octavo, original blind-stamped brown cloth, custom clamshell box.

First edition, first issue, of Livingstone's first book, a rare presentation copy inscribed in the month of publication by Livingstone on a tipped-in leaf (as is commonly the case with this work): "Major General Charles Murray May with the kindest remembrances of his much obliged and attached friend David Livingstone, London 29th Octr. 1857." Splendidly illustrated with folding color lithographed frontispiece and 24 engraved plates (including portrait and two tinted lithographs), numerous in-text woodcuts, two folding maps with Livingstone's routes hand-colored, and folding elevation chart of South Central Africa.

The London Missionary Society ordained Livingstone in 1840 and sent him to South Africa. This extraordinary book documents his first South African expedition during which "he explored vast regions of central Africa, many of which had never been seen by white men before. He first discovered the Zambesi River at Secheke and followed it northwards, eventually reaching the west coast of Africa at Luanda, Angola, and the east coast at Quelimane, Mozambique. In 1855 he discovered the great falls of the Zambesi and named them the Victoria Falls. He explored the Zambesi, Shire and Ruyuma rivers and found the salt lake Chilwa and Lake Nyasa… During his travels Livingstone was appalled at what he saw of the terrible effects of the slave trade (mainly carried on by Arabs) on African life. He followed the principles of Wilberforce and became a protagonist in the fight to abolish slavery. The geographical results of his journeys were of supreme importance, and made it possible to fill in great stretches of the maps of Central Africa which hitherto had been blank" (PMM 341). First issue, with colored lithographed folding frontispiece and plates 8 ("Lake Ngami") and 16 ("Bechuana Reed Dance") tinted lithographs rather than uncolored wood-engravings: each signed by T. Picken . Abbey surmises, based upon the copy received by the British Museum in 1857, that copies with the folding frontispiece, plates 8 and 16 in uncolored wood engraving are first issue; however, it is now widely accepted that the first issue had a colored lithographed frontispiece and plates 8 and 16 tinted lithographs, as does this first-issue copy prepared by Livingstone for presentation just days after publication. With two folding color-outlined maps. one tipped-in at rear, and one housed in rear pocket. Publisher's catalog dated November 1, 1857. Abbey Travel 347. Cole, 124. Hosken, 126. Mendelssohn I, 908. Norman 1377. With later ownership signatures of "Captain [Arthur] Forbes, R.N. Seabank" (Forbes was a commanding officer on board the HMS Calyso, HMS Curacao and HMS Renown) and British geologist and paleontologist John Pringle.

Scattered foxing to plates and text, maps fine; expert reinforcement to inner paper hinges, expert restoration to original cloth.