common axe remittent and intermittent fevers, and
these are the most important ones to avoid, since they
bring so many bad effects after them. In the first
place, they attack the brain, and often deprive one of
his senses. Then there is no rallying from the weakness
they produce. A little attack, which one would
only laugh at in India, prostrates you for a week or
more, and this weakness brings on other disorders:
cramp, for instance, of the most painful kind, very
often follows. When lying in bed, my toes have
sometimes curled round and looked me in the face ; at
other times, when I have put my hand behind my
back, it has stuck there until, with the other hand, I
have seized the contracted muscles, and warmed the
part affected with the natural heat, till, relaxation
taking place, I was able to get it back. Another nasty
thing is the blindness which I have already described,
and which attacked another of our party in a manner
exactly similar to my complaint. He, like myself,
left Africa with a misty veil floating before his eyes.
There are other disorders, but so foreign to my
experience that I dare not venture to describe them.
For as doctors disagree about the probable causes of
their appearance, I most likely would only mislead if
I tried to account for them. However, I think I may
safely say they emanate from general debility, produced
by the much-to-be-dreaded fevers.
15th.—The caravan broke ground at 4 p .m ., and,
completing the principal zigzag made to avoid wars,
arrived at Senagongo. Kanoni, followed by a host of
men, women, and children, advanced to meet the caravan,
all roaringly intoxicated with joy, and lavishing
greetings of welcome, with showers of “ Yambo, Yambo
Sanas ” (“ How are you ? ” and, “ Very well, I hope ?”)
which we as warmly returned : the shakings of hands
were past number, and the Beluches and Bombay
could scarcely be seen under the hot embraces and
sharp kisses of admiring damsels. When recovered
from the shock of this great outburst of feelings, Kanoni
begged me to fire a few shots, to apprise his enemies,
and especially his big brother, of the honours paid
him. No time was lo s t: I no sooner gave the order
than bangr bang went every one of the escort’s guns,
and the excited crowd, immediately seeing a supposed
antagonist in the foreground, rushed madly after bim.
Then spears were flourished, thrust, stabbed, and withdrawn
; arrows were pointed, huge shields protected
black bodies, sticks and stones flew like hail \ then
there was a slight retreat, then another advance—
dancing to one side, then to the other—jumping and
prancing on the same ground, with bodies swaying
here and bodies swaying there, until at length the
whole foreground was a mass of moving objects, all
springs and hops, like an army of frogs, after the first
burst of rain, advancing to a p o n d : then again the
guns went off, giving a fresh impulse to the exciting
exercise.
Their great principle in their warfare appears to
be, that no one should be still. At each report of the
guns, fresh enemies were discovered retreating, and the