300 CLIMATE OF FERNANDO PO. 



health, had I not exposed myself at Calebar 

 and relapsed in consequence. I certainly lost one 

 man while lying there : he went on shore, got 

 drunk, and slept upon the grass, exposed to heavy 

 rain, — which would kill most men in any country. 

 Fernando Po has acquired the reputation 

 of being unhealthy and pestilential from two 

 causes : — one, that Europeans were employed as 

 artificers in the erection and construction of the 

 buildings, instead of coloured people. If it be 

 difficult in England to keep mechanics steady, it 

 is impossible to do so in a tropical climate ; and 

 if to this be added the exposure while clearing the 

 ground of the jungle, it will excite no surprise 

 that the residents suffered so much from sick- 

 ness, and lost so many upon their first landing. 

 The other cause of complaint is, that a great 

 part of the mortality that takes place at Fernan- 

 do Po is from diseases contracted on the main 

 land, which in common fairness should not be 

 charged upon the island. Several Europeans 

 died in the hospital during my residence there ; 

 but they had been landed from ships, in the last 

 stages of disease. Leaving the mortality cre- 

 ated by these two causes, — one of which (the 

 clearing, &c.) will not occur again, and the 



