LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



party, died of it. As the malaria seemed to exist in a more concentrated form 

 near the Ngami than in any other part, we were compelled to leave, after 

 spending two Sundays with the Batavana ; and as the time at my command 

 would have been spent before I could safely leave my people, the fever and 

 the fly (the tsetse) forced me to return to Kolobeng. I was mistaken last year 

 in supposing the epidemic, of which we heard, to be pneumonia ; there is 

 undoubtedly a greater amount of cough on the river than at Kolobeng, but 

 the disease which came under my observatien this year was real marsh-fever. 

 The paludal miasma is evolved every year as the water begins to flow and 

 moisten the banks of vegetable matter. When the river and lake are full the 

 fever ceases, but it begins again when evaporation has proceeded so far as to 

 expose the banks to the action of the sun. Our visit was made last year 

 when the river was nearly at its height ; but the lake had now retired about 

 20 feet from the spot on which we stood last year ; this might be about 

 3 feet in perpendicular height. In the natives, the effects of the poison 

 imbibed into the system appear most frequently in the form of a bilious fever, 

 and they generally recover after a copious evacuation of bile. In some it 

 appears as continued fever. In a child there was the remittent form, while 

 in two cases it was simply intermittent. In one case the vascular system of 

 the abdomen was greatly affected, and the patient became jaundiced and 

 died ; in another there were only muscular pains and rapid decline of 

 strength ; while in several others there was only pain in the head, which a 

 dose of quinine removed. Mr. Wilson, an enterprising trader, who had it in 

 its most severe form, had several violent fits of intermittent fever when 

 recovering from the other, while at a distance of 400 miles from the lake. This 

 disease seems destined to preserve intertropical Africa for the black races of 

 mankind. If the Boers, who have lately fallen upon the plan of waylaying 

 travellers between Kuruman and this, should attempt to settle on either lake or 

 river, they would soon find their graves. As the Ngami is undoubtedly a hollow 

 compared to Kolobeng, and the Teoge, a river which falls into the lake at 

 its N.W. extremity, is reported to flow with great rapidity, the region beyond 

 must be elevated. A salubrious spot must be found before we can venture 

 to form a settlement : but that alone will not suffice, for Kolobeng is 

 270 miles by the trochameter from Kuruman, and the lake by the 

 same instrument is 600 miles beyond this station. We must have a 

 passage to the sea on either the eastern or western coast. I have hitherto been 

 afraid to broach the project, but as you are aware, the Bechuana mission was 

 virtually shut up in a cul-de-sac on the North by the Desert, and on the East by 

 the Boers. The Rev. Mr. Fridoux, of Motito, lately endeavoured to visit the 

 Ramapela, and was forcibly turned back by an armed party. You at home 

 are accustomed to look upon a project as half finished when you have secured 

 the co-operation of the ladies. Well, then, my better half lias promised me 



