SECT. II.] ACCLIMATIZATION. 133 



selves sooner to its influence. Negroes from dry countries, 

 such as Bornou, Hausa, or the Sahara, die soon after their 

 arrival in Sierra Leone. Their acclimatization seems as diffi- 

 cult as that of Europeans, 1 which is scarcely surprising, when 

 we hear of the winter cold in Bornou, where before sunrise the 

 thermometer sometimes sinks to +4? c. 2 In Khartoum the 

 natives are said to suffer as much, and even more, from the 

 climate than Europeans ; 3 this is, however, an exceptional case. 

 In Senegambia fevers not dangerous to the natives usually kill 

 the white. 4 In the West Indies the Negro exposes himself with- 

 out injury to rain, which would cause a fever to the white. 5 

 The Negro can bear the rays of the sun upon a bare head. 6 

 It is even said that during the rainy season, which is the most 

 dangerous for the European, he enjoys better health than 

 during the dry season. This is reported of the Negroes in 

 Senegambia, in Ruffi, and on the Niger, of the Ibus and of those 

 in Iddah, on the Prince's Island, St. Thomas and Annabon, on 

 the southern part of the west coast of Africa. 7 The rainy 

 months in Angola, October and November, are for the Eu- 

 ropean the healthy, and for the natives the unhealthy, season. 8 

 Upon the Island St. Thomas, June, July, and August are 

 favourable to Europeans, and the reverse to the natives, who, 

 though they suffer less from the prevailing diseases, are by no 

 means exempt from them. 9 



On the coast of Guinea, the rainy season so injurious to the 

 white, is, according to Roemer, 10 not less so to the Negroes. In 

 I Sierra Leone the month of July is dangerous to the blacks, and 



1 Koelle, " Gramm. of the Bornu lang.," p. 8. 



2 Earth, iv, p. 12. 



Eussegger, " Eeise," ii, pp. 2, 38. 



Eaffenel, " Voy. dans 1' Afr. ou.," p. 322, 1846. 



Day, " Five years' resid. in the W. Indies," i, p. 37, 1852. 



Werne, " Feldz. nach Taka," p. 134. 



Brunner, " E. n. Senegambier," p. Ill, 1840 ; Schoen and Crowther, 

 "Journals of the exped. up. the Niger," p. 166. 1842; Allen and Thomson, 

 i, p. 325 ; Boteler, " Jour. E. G. S.," ii, p. 275 ; Des Marchais, " Voy. en 

 Guinee," iii, p. 9, 1731 ; Tarns, " Die Portug. Besitz. in siid West Afr.," 1845. 



8 Livingstone, ii, p. 65. 



9 Des Marchais, loc. cit., iii, pp. 9, 5. 



10 " Nachr. v. d. Kiiste Guinea," 1769, p. 10. 



