NO CLAIM TO LITERARY MERIT. 17 



with the Chinese, and as another inviting field was open- 

 ing out through the labors of Mr. Moffat, I was induced to 

 turn my thoughts to Africa; and, after a more extended 

 course of theological training in England than I had en- 

 joyed in Glasgow, I embarked for Africa in 1840, and, after 

 a voyage of three months, reached Cape Town. Spending 

 but a short time there, I started for the interior by going 

 round to Algoa Bay, and soon proceeded inland, and have 

 spent the following sixteen years of my life, namely, from 

 1840 to 1856, in medical and missionary labors there with- 

 out cost to the inhabitants. 



As to those literary qualifications which are acquired by 

 habits of writing, and which are so important to an author, 

 my African life has not only not been favorable to the 

 growth of such accomplishments, but quite the reverse; 

 it has made composition irksome and laborious. I think I 

 would rather cross the African continent again than under- 

 take to write another book. It is far easier to travel than 

 to write about it. I intended on going to Africa to con- 

 tinue my studies; but as I could not brook the idea of 

 simply entering into other men's labors made ready to my 

 hands, I entailed on myself, in addition to teaching, ma- 

 nual labor in building and other handicraft-work, which 

 made me generally as much exhausted and unfit for study 

 in the evenings as ever I had been when a cotton-spinner. 

 The want of time for self-improvement was the only source 

 of regret that I experienced during my African career. 

 The reader, remembering this, will make allowances for 

 the mere gropings for light of a student who has the vanity 

 to think himself "not yet too old to learn." More precise 

 information on several subjects has necessarily been omitted 

 in a popular work like the present ; but I hope to give such 

 details to the scientific reader through some other channel 



