Chap. XXV. FIELD FOE THE PHILANTHROPIST. 505 



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

 cut off. I have seen but one case 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 cannot 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 starcli that the eyes become affected (as in the case 

 of animals fed for experiment on pure gluten or starch), and 

 being exposed dining many hours each day in comparative 

 inaction to the direct rays of the sun, the thermometer standing 

 above OS 3 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 anything 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 unfavourable 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 laboured with most astonishing 

 devotedness 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 winch 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 be 



