Chap. XXXI CINCHONA BAEK. 647 



Having waited a month for the commencement of the healthy- 

 season at Kilimane, I would have started at the beginning of 

 April, but tarried a few days in order that the moon might make 

 her appearance, and enable me to take lunar observations on my 

 way down the river. A sudden change of temperature happening 

 on the 4th, simultaneously with the appearance of the new moon, 

 the Commandant and myself, with nearly every person in the 

 house, were laid up with a severe attack of fever. I soon re- 

 covered by the use of my wonted remedies, but Major Sicard and 

 his little boy were confined much longer. There was a general 

 fall of 4° of temperature from the middle of March, 84° at 9 a.m. 

 and 87° at 9 p.m. ; the greatest heat being 90° at mid-day, and 

 the lowest 81° at sunrise. It afforded me pleasure to attend the 

 invalids in their sickness, though I was unable to show a tithe of 

 the gratitude I felt for the Commandant's increasing kindness. 

 My quinine and other remedies were nearly all expended, and 

 no fresh supply was to be found here, there being no doctors at 

 Tete, and only one apothecary with the troops, whose stock of 

 medicine was also small. The Portuguese, however, informed 

 me that they had the cinchona bark growing in their country — 

 that there was a little of it to be found at Tete — whole forests of 

 it at Senna and near the delta of Kilimane. It seems quite a 

 providential arrangement, that the remedy for fever should be 

 found in the greatest abundance where it is most needed. On 

 seeing the leaves, I stated that it was not the Cinchona longifolia, 

 from which it is supposed the quinine of commerce is extracted, 

 but the name and properties of this bark made me imagine that 

 it was a cinchonaceous tree. I could not get the flower, but when 

 I went to Senna I tried to bring away a few small living trees 

 with earth in a box. They, however, all died when we came to 

 Kilimane. Failing in this mode of testing the point, I submitted 

 a few leaves and seed-vessels to my friend, Dr. Hooker, who 

 kindly informs me that they belong " apparently to an apocy- 

 neous plant, very nearly allied to the Malouetia Heudlotii (of 

 Decaisne), a native of Senegambia." Dr. H. adds, " Various 

 plants of this natural order are reputed powerful febrifuges, and 

 some of them are said to equal the cinchona in their effects." 

 It is called in the native tongue Kumbanzo. 



The flowers are reported to be white. The pods are in pairs, a 



