Oct.  I,  1895.] 
the  tropical  AGRICULPURIST. 
245 
find  them  an  enovinons  depth.  It  N\  asnot, 
liowever,  till  he  reached  the  sea  and  eonhl  take 
the  whole  (luestioii  broadly  into  view  that  he 
saw  the  i)ossil)ilities  of  the  Congo,  ami  he  wrote 
in  the  Ust  letter  he  sent  ^rom  the  mouth  ot 
the  Congo  in  1877  “The  time  will  come  lyhen 
this  "-reat  river,  now  known  for  the  lirst  time, 
will  bo  an  international  question.  Happv  the 
nation  that  will  take  time  by  the  forelock, 
and  be  warned.”  They  all  knew  the  way^  they 
set  about  founding  the  State  of  the  Congo. 
They  did  not  lose  any  time  in  studying  scientihc 
o-eodraphy.  He  had  never  seen  a Colony 
Uiat  had  been  founded  upon  scientihc  geo- 
<-raphy.  He  asked  what  was  known  of  scientihc 
<i'eo"'r€a])hy  by  .John  Smith,  founder  of  ^ irginia,  1»y 
the"  Pilgrim’  Fathers,  by  Cortes  and  Pizarro,  or 
by  tho  fouiulers  of  New  Zealand  find  Austialia. 
To  take  another  instance — Cecil  Khodes,  the  re- 
doubtable hero  of  South  Africa  he  doubted  v eiy 
much  whether  he  knew  anything  about  scientilic 
f'eooraphy,  and  yet  he  had  planned  Colonies  so 
vast  as  to  be  the  wonder  of  the  century.  He  did 
believe,  Mr.  Stanley  continued,  in  pioneering 
slowly  and  cautiously,  and  not  going  too  reck- 
lessly into  rash  enterprises.  The  pioneer  must 
clear  the  way,  hnd  out  whether  a country  was 
liable  or  no’t,  and  he  must  try  to_  make  the 
mechanical  instruments  of  civilisation  do  lor 
him  a part  of  the  work,  such  as  travelling. 
On  the  Congo  they  had  .something  like  40 
steamers  and  800  white  men,  where  16  years 
ao’O  there  was  not  one.  Now,  if  those  men 
had  to  tr.avel  on  shanks’s  mare,  with  all  the 
knowledge  of  science  they  might  have,  he 
doubted  very  mucii  whether  tliey  would  go  very 
far  ; but,  being  taken  aboard  those  vast  ste.ainers, 
they  could  travel  thousands  of  miles  north  and 
soiitli,  east  and  west.  So  now  they  had  the 
whole  of  the  Congo  basin  navigated,  and  this 
Avas  what  they  were  trying  to  get  the  British  Govern- 
ment to  do  in  British  East  Africa.  They  thought 
they  would  be  able  to  show  that  Central  Africa  was 
just  as  livable  as  India  or  l->razil.  Itiecjuiied  bii 
Samuel  Baker  to  go  up  to  the  mountainous  parts 
of  Ceylon  to  find  that  that  region  was  capable 
of  supiiorting  English  families  and  children. 
They  had  also  found  that  English  people  and 
Emdish  children  could  live  on  the  Congo.  M hen 
they  had  completed  the  railway  to  Stanley  Pool, 
and  had  got  steamers  going  15  or  16  knots 
instead  of  six  or  seven,  and  when  they  had  got 
telegraph  stations,  they  would  have  done  Avonder.s, 
and”by  that  time  they  would  have  carried  hotels 
and  all  necessaries  of  civilisation  into  tliose 
regions.  People  went  to  Africa  and  found  that 
there  were  no  hansom  cabs,  that  they  could  not 
even  "et  a cup  of  caf^  an  lait,  that  if  they 
ottere(T  a thousand  pounds  for  a loaf  of  white 
bre.ad  they  could  not  get  it.  They  fonnd  they 
had  to  carry  their  house  and  stores  on  their 
ba(d<s.  So  they  went  home  at  once  and  con- 
demned Afric.a.  Now  that  Avas  not  the  Av.ay  to 
look  .at  a great  region.  India  had  been  the  av lute 
man’s  grave,  but  they  found  people  there  who 
never  Tbouglit  ot  going  over  to  England.  They 
found  people  in  Br.azil  who  never  thought  of  going 
to  Portugal,  their  mother  country;  people  in  Chili, 
Peru,  and  .Mexico,  avIio  never  thought  of  going  to 
Spain,  Avho  liad  made  their  homes  there  and  intended 
to  liA’e  and  die  tliere;and  the  t ime  would  come  when 
the  Avhole  of  Central  Afric.a,  barring  the  maritime 
regions,  of  course,  Avould  be  in  the  same  position 
as  Mexico  and  Brazil  and  Ceylon.  Put  it  took  a lon;f 
time  fora  nation  to  learn  how  to  IIa’c.  Heh.ad 
been  in  a cert.ain  State  in  the  United  States 
Avhere  there  Avere  more  fevers  in  24  hours  than 
Could_be  found  in  any  part  of  Africa.  He  was 
constrained  to  live  in  it  for  a certain  number  of 
months,  and  lie  had  more  fevers  in  that  time 
than  he  had  in  live  years  in  Africa.  At  tliat 
time  that  State  eontained  only  425, UOU  men, 
Avomen,  and^  children,  and  now  it  containeil 
1,650,000.  Why  ? Not  because  they  had  le.arned 
science,  he  Avas  sure,  but  because  they  had 
learned  the  art  of  living.  Take,  on  the 
other  hand.  New  York.  Tliere  they  had  a great 
city  groAving  from  year  to  year',  and  yet  tlie 
most  iiiAentive  peojde  in  the  Avorld  had  not 
learnt  the  art  of  living  in  hot  Aveather.  It  was 
the  same  in  Australia.  A little  comnion.sense 
only,  not  the  study  of  scientific  geography, 
would  ha\e  enabled  them  to  live,  and  people 
Avould  have  been  .able  to  jiass  safely  from  one 
street  to  the  other  instead  of  being  stricken  by 
the  sun.  It  Avas  the  art  of  living  they  needed  to 
teach  in  troiiical  countries.  He  had  tried  to 
teach  young  men  from  England  and  Scotland  Iioav 
to  live  in  Africa,  but  he  invariably  failed,  be- 
cause if  one  saAv  one’s  good  advice  rejected,  one 
got  .sick  and  tired  of  preaching  it.  He  load 
seen  a young  fellow  avIio,  after  going  there  Avith 
a Avhole-.souled  desire  to  distingui.sk  himself, 
Avalked  under  the  A'ery  hottest  sun  Avith  a black 
cloth  cap  he  Avas  accustomed  to  Avear  in  the 
temperate  regions  of  Scotland.  That  man  never 
returned  to  Scotland.  He  had  seen  another  too 
fond  of  the  liquor  bottle,  and  he  had  said : — 
“ My  dear  fellow,  you  do  not  need  Dutch  courage 
in  tiiis  country  any  more  than  you  need  it  in 
your  oAvn.  Take  a teaspoonful  at  nigiit  .as  a 
nightcap  if  you  Avant  it,  but  not  in  the  d.ay, 
Avhen  the  sun  is  hot.  Take  a tabloid  of  quinine. 
Thiit  will  be  ever  so  much  better.”  But  those 
men  never  returned.  He  had  gone  himself  seven 
times  into  Africa,  twdee  .across,  and  .altogether 
he  h.ad  been  there  23  years,  and  he  felt  just  as 
strong  tod.ay  as  though  he  had  never  been  there. 
He  mentioned  various  other  cases  of  men  Avho 
hail  lived  in  Afiica  for  many  years  and  Avere 
quite  .as  he.althy  .as  Avhen  they  Avent  to  it.  At 
present  Ave  A\’ere  sending  young  men  fresh  from 
the  college  and  from  the  University,  fresh  from 
their  mothers’  haps,  into  .Africa,  and  they  f erished 
almost  the  first  d.ay  they  found  a ditt’ere.nt  at- 
mosphere .and  a ditlerent  sun.  Before  sending 
these  young  men  into  Afric.a  they  should  go  and 
study  for  two  or  three  months  the  v.arious  arts 
of  conquering  these  fevers,  wardisig  them  olf,  and 
living  Avisely. — Colonics  and  India. 
COFFEE  CULTURE  IN  HONDURAS. 
The  United  States  Consul  at  Tegucigalpa  iii  a 
recent  report  to  his  Government  deals  with  the  sub- 
ject of  the  prospecis  of  coffee  culture  in  Hondnr.is, 
and  stales  ; — 
*•  The  cultivation  of  the  coffee  plant  is  yet 
in  its  infuicy  in  tlie  Republic  of  Honduras. 
While  there  are  numerous  so-called  plunt.itions  of 
coffee,  they  are  sm  ill  and  indifferently  c.ired  for, 
and,  consequently,  the  production  is  far  from  being 
up  to  the  proper  standard. 
“ The  soil,  climate,  and  conditions  in  Honduras  are 
equal  in  evei'y  respect  to  those  of  Guatemala, 
Micaragua  or  Costa  Rica,  where  the  coffee  industry 
has  already  reached  large  proportions.  The  only 
drawback  in  Honduras  is  lack  of  merns  of  transporta- 
tion and  facilities  for  shipment  to  the  coast.  At 
present  there  is  practically  no  exportation  of  ctTfee 
from  Honduras,  the  produc.t  of  iho  plantations  be'ng 
readily  sold  at  home.  I have  unown  the  price  of 
coffeei  even  in  time  of  peace,  to  reach  the  sum  of 
40  cents  (gold)  per  pound,  a .d  in  lime  of  war,  as  much 
as  7.5  cents,  notwithstanding  the  splendid  adaptation 
of  the  country  to  its  production. 
“ The  Houdurean  coffee  is  equal  in  every  respect  to 
the  Mexican,  Guatemala  or  Costa  Rica  on  product^ 
