A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 91 



I was to my future wife, and hastening to settle 

 down as medical man in Manchester, happily for me 

 I at once declined the offer. 



I say happily, since the expedition was sent forth, 

 and the results were most disastrous. The appoint- 

 ment declined by me was accepted by Dr. Stanger, 

 whose acquaintance I had made some years previ- 

 ously, and whose name is now associated with a re- 

 markable genus of Cycas, viz.,]Cycad Stangeria, which 

 he discovered in South Africa at a much later date. 



The expedition made its way for a considerable 

 distance up the river, but was ultimately brought to 

 a standstill in an atmosphere charged with the most 

 deadly of African miasmata. It became absolutely 

 necessary to get the steamer back to the coast if a 

 single life was to be saved. But there was no one 

 left in a condition to navigate the ship. Crew, 

 captain, and engineer, were alike down with the 

 fearful fever. The only men on board with any 

 pretensions to health and strength were my substi- 

 tute, Dr. Stanger, who knew nothing of either 

 navigation or steam engines, and a second man who 

 was equally ignorant of these subjects. There was r 

 however, no time for delay. One of these men 

 found a book on steam engines, and undertook the 

 work to be done below, and the other hunted out 

 the river charts, and placed himself at the helm. 

 These two brave men together successfully brought 

 the ship and its remaining invalids down to the pure 

 air of the open sea. 



