1854-56.] FROM LOANDA TO QUILIMANE. 187 



With regard to that part of Africa which he had been 

 exploring, he gives his views at great length in a letter 

 to the Directors, dated Linyanti, 12th October 1855. 

 After fully describing the physical features of the country, 

 he fastens on the one element which, more than any 

 other, was likely to hinder missions — fever. He does not 

 deny that it is a serious obstacle. But he argues at great 

 length that it is not insurmountable. Fever yields to 

 proper treatment. His own experience was no rule to 

 indicate what might be reckoned on by others. His 

 journeys had been made under the worst possible con- 

 ditions. Bad food, poor nursing, insufficient medicines, 

 continual drenchings, exhausting heat and toil, and wear- 

 ing anxiety had caused much of his illness. He gives a 

 touching detail of the hardships incident to his peculiar 

 case, from which other missionaries would be exempted, 

 but with characteristic manliness he charges the Directors 

 not to publish that part of his letter, lest he should 

 appear to be making too much of his trials. " Sacri- 

 fices " he could never call them, because nothing could 

 be worthy of that name in the service of Him who, 

 though he was rich, for our sakes became poor. Two or 

 three times every day he had been wet up to the waist 

 in crossing streams and marshy ground. The rain was 

 so drenching that he had often to put his watch under 

 his arm-pit to keep it dry. His good ox Sindbad would 

 never let him hold an umbrella. His bed was on grass, 

 with only a horse-cloth between. His food often con- 

 sisted of bird-seed, manioc-roots, and meal. No wonder if 

 he suffered much. Others would not have all that to 

 bear. Moreover, if the fever of the district was severe, 

 it was almost the only disease. Consumption, scrofula, 

 madness, cholera, cancer, delirium tremens, and certain 

 contagious diseases of which much was heard in civilised 

 countries, were hardly known. The beauty of some parts 

 of the country could not be surpassed. Much of it was 



