8 NO CLAIM TO LITERARY MERIT. 



to China. I had fondly hoped to have gained access to that then 

 closed empire by means of the healing art ; but there being no 

 prospect of an early peace with the Chinese, and as another in- 

 viting field was opening 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 

 enjoyed 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 Al- 

 goa Bay, and soon proceeded inland, and have spent the follow- 

 ing sixteen years of my life, namely, from 1840 to 1856, in med- 

 ical and missionary labors there without 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 accom- 

 plishments, but quite the reverse; it has made gomposition irk- 

 some and laborious. I think I would rather cross the African 

 continent again than undertake to write another book. It is far 

 easier to travel than to write about it. I intended on going to 

 Africa to continue 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, manual 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-improve- 

 ment was the only source of regret that I experienced during my 

 African career. The reader, remembering this, will make allow- 

 ances 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. 



