Presumptious

In your 16 September Now and then you note that David Livingstone discovered Lake Nyasa in 1859. The locals already knew that it was there – and swam and fished in it, as I have done. When Dr Livingstone got there he asked a local its name and got the reply “Nyasa” which means “Lake” in the Chiyao language. Had he asked a speaker of Chinyanja he would have got the reply “Nyanja”. “Lake Nyasa” means “Lake Lake” (or “Loch Loch”). Since Malawian independence in the 1960s it has usually been called Lake Malawi.

DAVID STEVENSON Blacket Place, Edinburgh