David Livingstone's last letters

The contents of a letter written by David Livingstone in which he condemns slavery and talks about his loneliness and ill-health have been revealed for the first time. The Letter from Bambarre addressed to friend and future biographer Horace Waller was written six years into the explorer's final, ill-fated mission to discover the source of the Nile and shortly before his famous encounter with Henry Morton Stanley.

Livingstone had run out of paper and ink, so he improvised by writing on torn-up pages of an old newspaper, using 'ink' squeezed from berries. Over the decades his handwriting had all but faded but researchers using spectral imaging, a technique that involves illuminating an object with successive wavelengths of light, were able to separate the explorer's handwriting from the newspaper type, thus revealing the contents of the document.

The publication of the letter by the Livingstone Online project is the prelude to a much larger project over the next 18 months, that will utilise spectral imaging to recover the diaries and remaining letters written by Livingstone 1870-71. Works by him can be found on the Missionary Etexts archive.

There was plenty of Livingstone coverage in the Guardian and Observer, but the following letter from the Guardian, September 24 1872, provides a revealing snapshot of the Scottish explorer's "useless tramp" around the Lake Tanganyika region of Africa.

The tomb of Sir Richard Burton

Good to hear that there are moves afoot to restore the mausoleum where British explorer Sir Richard Burton is buried. Last Saturday's Times reported that the Friends of Burton are aiming to return the Bedouin tent shaped building to something like its original state. Built in 1890 by his wife Isabel, the structure in St Mary Magdalen's churchyard, Mortlake, fell into disrepair during the 20th Century, although some repairs were made in 1975.

Sir Richard Burton was one of the most famous (possibly infamous) Victorian explorers, known for his travels in Asia and Africa. He was also a writer, linguist and translator of such works as the Arabian Nights and Kama Sutra. In 1853 he undertook a Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca, in disguise and the account of the trip make him famous. However, it's an account of Burton's time in West Africa that made it into Those Who Dared.

A few years after reaching Mecca in disguise, Burton, having now joined the Foreign Office, was sent to Fernando Po, a small island off the West African coast, a place he was to describe as 'the very abomination of desolation'. From here he managed to make a number of excursions into the interior including a mission to visit Gelele, King of Dahomey (now part of modern day Benin). As well as making diplomatic moves, he wanted to investigate claims of human sacrifice and find the fabled Amazon warriors of Dahomey. He concluded that the former was exagerrated and was severely disappointed with the latter.

The full text of many of Burton's books can be read here and plenty of information about the man on this site.

Amazon Adventure

Following the Colonel Percy Fawcett posting, Ben Hammott got in touch to say that he's just written Amazon Adventure, a novel about the explorer's journey to the Lost City of Z. Billed as an "exciting archaeological mystery thriller", the book story begins at Dead Horse Camp, Fawcett's last known position in 1925. From there, using old letters and diaries, Hammott's story "weaves together an exciting blend of fact and fiction linked to the legends surrounding the lost Fawcett expedition and the mysterious Amazonian Jungle."

As well as news about the book, the Fawcett Adventure website is a treasure trove of information about the man, including a list of the documents the Royal Geographical society holds about him.

Colonel Percy Fawcett

Last week's story in the Guardian about the discovery of a lost city in the Amazon jungle, and the search for it by Colonel Percy Fawcett, has been picked up by other papers. See Ben Macintyre's column in The Times, and yesterday's Sunday Times featured a big piece which included an artist's impression of what the city might have looked like.

Amazon explorers find the Lost City of Z

For centuries, explorers and adventurers have ventured into the Amazon jungle in search of a lost civilisation known as El Dorado or the City of Z. Long dismissed as a myth, it now turns out that there was indeed a human settlement in the upper Amazon basin. The Guardian reports that new satellite imagery and fly-overs have revealed more than 200 huge geometric earthworks near Brazil's border with Bolivia. Some date to as early as 200 AD, others to 1283.

The discovery vindicates many of those who have gone in search of the Amazonian 'new world'. One in particular was Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, who christened the lost El Dorado, the City of Z. In 1925 he set off, along with his son, to find it, leaving a note that nobody should follow them in the event that they did not return. They vanished without a trace and over the past 80 years numerous expeditions have tried to find out what happened, no doubt spurred on by reported sightings. This news story appeared in the Guardian, March 16 1932:

Fawcett's earlier Amazonian reports were to provide an inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. Naturally, he features in Those Who Dared, but for a brilliant study of the man I would recommend David Grann's The Lost City of Z. A film of the book, starring Brad Pitt as the explorer, should be realeased, later on this year.