v WHITE MEN IN THE TROPICS 103 



of doors for six or seven hours during the heat of the day, 

 and I found that I could take as much exercise without 

 fatigue as I could at home. 



At Para, in 1848, I saw a striking case of how a white 

 man can work in the tropics. A tall, gentlemanly young 

 Scotchman, finding no suitable occupation, and seeing that 

 good milk was scarce in the city, determined to turn 

 milkman. He hired a hut and some sheds about half a 

 mile away, surrounded by second-growth forest and coarse 

 grassy fields, obtained three or four cows, and when I 

 made his acquaintance had got his business in full swing ; 

 and his work was certainly rather heavy. He lived 

 absolutely alone ; all the fodder for his cows when in milk 

 had to be cut with a scythe and carried to the sheds where 

 they were kept ; water had also to be brought to them 

 and the sheds kept clean. Early in the morning the cows 

 were milked, filling two large cans, when he immediately 

 started for the city, carrying them from a yoke across the 

 shoulders in the orthodox manner, and making his rounds 

 to all the houses he served. Returning, he had to get his 

 own breakfast. Then for several hours there was grass- 

 cutting and attending to the cows, and getting his own 

 dinner. Yet often in the early evening he was dressed 

 and made calls, often -at the very houses he had served 

 with milk in the morning. Notwithstanding this hard 

 work, with the thermometer from 80 to 90 degrees or 

 upward every day, he was the picture of health, and 

 appeared to enjoy his life. 



It is a well-known fact that in Ceylon and India the 

 men who have the best health are the enthusiastic 

 sportsmen who seize every opportunity of getting away 

 from civilization, and who often submit to much privation 

 and fatigue with benefit rather than injury to their 

 health. Our soldiers, again, even in the unhealthy 

 climate of India, most of which is really outside the tropics, 

 have to do a good deal of work, and when marching 

 against an enemy undergo much fatigue, and we do not 

 hear that they are unequal to it on account of the heat. 

 The same is even more clearly the case with our sailors, 

 who do their regular work when stationed in the tropics, 



