OF DR. J. R. T. VOGEL. 19 
is beaten hard like a barn-floor, the cook brings every day 
his iron grate, and prepares, with a monstrous consumption 
of wood, in four or five iron pots, every thing that can be 
procured for food. There is, however, no great choice. We 
have fowls, and beef when ships come, but only then, and 
. Occasionally fish, Yams never fail, and they are excellent ; 
so that I prefer them by far to our potatoes. What a pity 
that there is no possibility of introducing this plant at 
home! We can have them every day; indeed the poorer 
people live almost entirely upon yams. Add to this, rice, 
Which however is not cultivated here; and it is almost all 
that the country can afford to set a poor invalid on his legs 
again ; and it is little enough! If any thing else be wanted, 
it must be procured from Europe. For our domestic affairs, 
we are obliged to have two servants, of whom one is cook. 
Each receives daily a shilling; so that the two cost above 
three pounds sterling a month, and we have to keep them 
too. Both together do not accomplish in a day half so much 
as one European would. Meanwhile, my life passes in eating, 
drinking and sleeping; for Lam fit for nothing else, and am 
unfit even for that. The Expedition will go up the Niger 
again in March, and it is hoped will be in a condition to 
remain there till autumn; if so, we shall return at the end of 
next year to Europe. Should I regain my strength by the 
commencement of the dry season, and be able to devote so 
many months to this island, I expect to reap such a harvest 
as will content me for some time." : 
Vogel’s last letter is from the same place, dated the 22nd 
of November, and is as follows: “ Since I wrote last, there 
has been no great alteration. My recovery is tardy, but pro- 
gressive; or, rather, I have been well for some time; only 
my strength returns very slowly. Yet I am able to under- 
take moderate excursions : longer ones I must defer ; till the 
occasional rains cease entirely. I am most desirous of going 
to the mountains and to lead there for some time a really 
natural existence; for here there is a wretched mixture of 
artificial and natural. For these last five weeks, we have 
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