544 FIELD FOR THE PHILANTHROPIST. 



from which to inoculate the rest, nearly the whole village was cut 

 off. I have seen but one ease of hydrocephalus, a few of epilepsy, 

 none of cholera or cancer, and many diseases common in England 

 are here quite unknown. It is true that I suffered severely from 

 fever, but my experience can not be taken as a fair criterion in 

 the matter. Compelled to sleep on the damp ground month after 

 month, exposed to drenching showers, and getting the lower 

 extremities wetted two or three times every day, living on native 

 food (with the exception of sugarless coffee, during the journey to 

 the north and the latter half of the return journey), and that food 

 the manioc roots and meal, which contain so much uncombined 

 starch that the eyes become affected (as in the case of animals 

 fed for experiment on pure gluten or starch), and being exposed 

 during many hours each day in comparative inaction to the direct 

 rays of the sun, the thermometer standing above 96° in the shade 

 — these constitute a more pitiful hygiene than any missionaries 

 who may follow will ever have to endure. I do not mention 

 these privations as if I considered them to be " sacrifices" for I 

 think that the word ought never to be applied to any thing we 

 can do for Him who came down from heaven and died for us ; 

 but I suppose it is necessary to notice them, in order that no un- 

 favorable opinion may be formed from my experience as to what 

 that of others might be, if less exposed to the vicissitudes of the 

 weather and change of diet. 



I believe that the interior of this country presents a much more 

 inviting field for the philanthropist than does the west coast, where 

 missionaries of the Church Missionary, United Presbyterian, and 

 other societies have long labored with most astonishing devoted- 

 ness and never-flagging zeal. There the fevers are much more 

 virulent and more speedily fatal than here, for from 8° south 

 they almost invariably take the intermittent or least fatal type: 

 and their effect being to enlarge the spleen, a complaint which is 

 best treated by change of climate, we have the remedy at hand by 

 passing the 20th parallel on our way south. But I am not to be 

 understood as intimating that any of the numerous tribes are 

 anxious for instruction : they are not the inquiring spirits we 

 read of in other countries ; they do not desire the Gospel, because 

 they know nothing about either it or its benefits ; but there is no 

 impediment in the way of instruction. Every head man would 



