NO CLAIM TO LITERARY MERIT. 
InTROD. 
8t 
life, namely, from 1840 to 1856, in medical and missionary 
labours in Africa without cost to the inhabitants. 
As to those literary qualifications which are acquired by habits 
of writing, and which are so important to an author, my African 
life has not only not been favourable to the growth of such accom¬ 
plishments, but quite the reverse : it has made composition irk¬ 
some and laborious. I think I would rather cross the African 
continent again than undertake to write another book. It is far 
easier to travel than to write about it. I intended on going to 
Africa to continue my studies; but as I could not brook the idea 
of simply entering into other men’s labours made ready to my 
hands, I entailed on myself, in addition to teaching, manual 
labour in building and other handicraft work, which made me 
generally as much exhausted and unfit for study in the evenings 
as ever I had been when a cotton-spinner. The want of time for 
self-improvement was the only source of regret that I experienced 
during my African career. The reader remembering this will 
make allowances for the mere gropings for light of a student who 
has the vanity to think himself not yet too old to learn.” More 
precise information on several subjects has necessarily been 
omitted in a popular work like the present; but I hope to 
give such details to the scientific reader tlirough some other 
channel. 
