Chap. XXIX. MORTALITY ON THE WEST COAST. 



605 



by Lord Palmerston's policy on the West Coast demands the 

 continuance of that policy in unabated strictness. 



The Report of Colonel Ord, — the Commissioner appointed to 

 inquire into the condition of the British Settlements on the 

 West Coast of Africa, — which was ordered to be printed by 

 the House of Commons, 29th March, 1865, says : " As re- 

 gards the slave-trade, it is a well established fact that it has 

 disappeared from the neighbourhood of every spot on the 

 West Coast which has been made a British settlement ; the 

 distance to which it has been removed depending in a great 

 measure on the extent to which the authorities of the Settle- 

 ment have been able to make their influence felt. Nor 

 need this statement be limited to British territory, the Dutch 

 and Danish possessions on the Gold Coast, and the Republic 

 of Liberia, having been equally the means of banishing the 

 traffic from their vicinity " (p. 28). 



Although it is a little apart from the point to which our 

 observations tend, and we would not willingly be thought 

 indifferent to the loss of even a single human life, it is desir- 

 able that it should be more widely known than it is, that the 

 employment of our squadron does not now involve the 

 mortality that it once did. The men are not so much 

 employed in the rivers as formerly; condensed water has 

 been brought into common use, and the treatment of fever is 

 better understood. In our own experience, instead of bleeding, 

 as was the practice, we found an aperient combined with quinine 

 so efficacious, that an attack of fever was generally not much 

 worse than a common cold, and no strength was lost by the 

 patient. Somewhat similar treatment has reduced the rate 

 of mortality in H. M. Ships on the Coast of Africa lower 

 than on the West Indies and North American Station.* 



* The following table shows the 

 ratio per 1000 of mean force, at the 

 different Stations, of men daily sick 



from all diseases and injuries, of in- 

 validings, and of deaths : — 



Stations. 



