Climate— is better than temperance, either in Africa or in
Part I. .
Europe. Employment for the mind I have already
urged; and if a man can keep in good humour with
the world it means that he is in good health from wise
living, a happy situation, agreeable employment, and
that the world is pleasant with him.
It must be remembered, however, that if a man in a
violent state of perspiration subjects his unprepared
person to a cold draught of wind while in such a condition,
the fact that he is temperate in his life and
habits, and has always dieted his body wisely, richly,
and nobly, will not save him in Africa from a fever,
any more than that it will save him in northern Europe
from a cold and its tedious pains. Neither “ beef and
beer ” or “ beef and brandy,” nor all the drugs of the
phármacopoeia will save him. Or, if the position of his
house is so unwisely chosen that his body is perpetually ,
subjected to violent changes of temperature—one
minute in a state of profuse perspiration and the other
minute outdoors without additional clothing, exposed
to a chilling blast that closes the pores, and chills the
damp flannel pressed against the body—his perfect diet
will not avail him. My wonder is, not that so many
have returned to Europe disheartened at the weakness
of the resistance their constitutions were able to offer
to the vicissitudes which their ignorance subjected
their own persons to, but at the fact that there are still
so many who bravely endured all. And, now that so
much has been cleared of what was before so mysterious
to us in Africa, let us try how it would answer in welldrained
and well-fed London, or any other English CHmat
city. Let us heat our sitting-room, until the underclothing
gets thoroughly soaked with perspiration, then
walk outdoors to a street corner, and stand on a windy
day without additional clothing, and wait till next
morning for the result. Or go to a London ball,
become heated with dancing in a. crowded room, then
walk home in the same dress, and tell me honestly
if, in addition to months of this experience, you add
months of poor diet, bad cooking, and other indescribable
discomforts, you wonder that the African
continent has an evil character, and that so many unfortunate
pioneers of trade and exploration have left
their bones in its earth.
Let future governors of Sierra Leone bear this great
cause in mind, and see if they cannot rectify the position
of their residence, and that of the barracks in
their town. It may be, a new light will dawn on
them, to the great benefit of themselves and the comfort
of their families.
I have said that Mivi owed its unhealthiness principally
to its defective position, to its exposure to the
cold blast blowing up the mountain funnel from the
south-west. I have taken Aivi as a type and the
same is applicable to any similarly exposed camp,
station, town, or city in equatorial Africa. Another
singular illustration of this is the fact that in ascending
the Congo, notwithstanding the long array of swampy
islands and shores, and the want of exercise on such
small boats, we enjoyed excellent health. But when