JOURNEYS AND RESEARCHES 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Personal Sketch. — Highland Ancestors. — Family Traditions. — Grandfather removes 

 to the Lowlands. — Parents. — Early Labors and Efforts. — Evening School. — Love 

 of Reading. — Religious Impressions. — Medical Education. — Youthful Travels. — 

 Geology. — Mental Discipline. — Study in Glasgow. — London Missionary Society. — 

 Native Village. — Medical Diploma. — Theological Studies. — Departure for Africa. 

 — No Claim to Literary Accomplishments. 



My own inclination would lead me to say as little as possible 

 about myself; but several friends, in whose judgment I have 

 confidence, have suggested that, as the reader likes to know 

 something about the author, a short account of his origin and 

 early life would lend additional interest to this book. Such is 

 my excuse for the following egotism ; and, if an apology be 

 necessary for giving a genealogy, I find it in the fact that it is 

 not very long, and contains only one incident of which I have 

 reason to be proud. 



Our great-grandfather fell at the battle of Culloden, fighting 

 for the old line of kings ; and our grandfather was a small farmer 

 in Ulva, where my father was born. It is one of that cluster of 

 the Hebrides thus alluded to by Walter Scott : 



"And Ulva dark, and Colonsay, 

 And all the group of islets gay 

 That guard famed Staffa round."* 



Our grandfather was intimately acquainted with all the tradi- 

 tionary legends which that great writer has since made use of in 

 * Lord of the Isles, canto iv. 



A 



