David Livingstone letter reveals explorer ate elephant

A letter which describes how David Livingstone killed and ate an elephant during a African expedition has sold for £28,800 at auction. The Scots-born explorer wrote the 12-page missive to British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston in November 1861.

It tells how his party on the famous Zambezi expedition of 1858-1864 killed an elephant for food and then saw the rest of the herd apparently mourning. The letter fetched more than treble its estimated price at Bonhams in London.



In it, Livingstone reveals a series of incidents, including being robbed by "professional" thieves who struck just before dawn. He said the local people appeared to be afraid to kill elephants for the ivory, as the animals were "not disturbed by the presence of man".

"When we killed one for food the rest of the herd stood a mile off for two days," he wrote. "Elsewhere they would not have stood within 30 or 40 miles."