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ALS, one page, 5 x 8, 35 South Street letterhead, January 23, 1872. Handwritten letter to "Sir Bartle Frere," in part: "I send you my little mite for Dr. Livingstone's Search. May God speed every effort to save one of the greatest men of our time, or if he is dead, to save his discoveries! If it cost £10,000 to send him a pair of boots, England ought to give it. But England provides the great men—and then England leaves them to perish!" Mounted, matted, and framed to an overall size of 10 x 12.5. In fine condition, with trivial paper loss to the upper left edge of the letter, and some chipping to the frame.
The recipient of this letter, Henry Bartle Frere (1815–1884), was a British colonial administrator who served as governor of Bombay from 1862 to 1867. During that time, Frere hosted Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone as he prepared for his expedition in search of the source of the Nile. Frere seconded a number of Bombay army sepoys to accompany the expedition and, in January 1866, sent it underway to Zanzibar in a government steamer. Shortly after arriving on the African continent Livingstone completely lost contact with the outside world for six years, falling seriously ill and never fulfilling his mission.
In 1869, Henry Morton Stanley was sent to search for Livingstone by the New York Herald newspaper. Stanley eventually found Livingstone in the town of Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on November 10, 1871, apparently greeting him with the now famous words 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?' Stanley had originally planned to depart quickly for Zanzibar, racing back to the outside world with news of his achievement. Instead, he stayed with Stanley, nursing him back to health and assisting in his expedition at Lake Tanganyika. After five months together, the men parted ways on March 14, 1872, with Livingstone remaining behind to continue his search for the source of the Nile. Stanley’s finding of Livingstone—finally reported in the May 2, 1872, edition of the New York Herald under the headline 'Livingstone Safe'—was an international sensation.
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