254 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



he had a sudden relapse, sinking so rapidly that we had soon 

 to abandon all hope of his recovery in spite of the wonderfully 

 plucky fight he made. He was cheerful to the end. Just 

 before losing consciousness for a time, he said with a whim- 

 sical smile to Parsons, who appeared that morning with his 

 beard shaved, " Hullo, where's the old doctor gone to ? " 

 And when Parsons readily answered, " On to the rubbish 

 heap," his face lit up with appreciation of the prompt reply. 

 Two days before he died, with a tremendous effort, he 

 sat up to write the following letter. After the first four lines, 

 the exertion was too great for him, and the writing became 

 illegible, so I took the pen and finished from his dictation. 



" My dear a, — All thanks for your last letter which 

 arrived late after the mail, and with one of mother's. . . . 

 I have received a tremendous lot from you, and all such 

 splendid ones ; they are all so cheery I have often made an 

 attempt to get off an answer at once, but many failures dis- 

 heartened me for a time. Finally I wrote from near Bauchi, 

 and lastly from this district. Here we are now with every- 

 thing satisfactorily in hand for a fairly long stay in the area 

 of Lake Chad. Unfortunately at the present moment I 

 have been on my back for five weeks with a bad attack of 

 gastro-enteritis, but I shall be on Chad in a week or two, 

 and then there will be a good deal of work in the way of 

 photography. I have had some tremendously cheery days 

 lately. A good long sickness without malaria in a hot chmate 

 very often has a clearing-up effect. My best love to mother 

 and yourself. This is going by an extraordinary mail in the 

 morning, via Yola, which does not always succeed owing 



