JOUENEYS AND EESEAECHES 
IN 
SOUTH AFRICA. 
INTEODUCTION. 
Personal sketch — Highland ancestors — Family traditions — Grandfather 
removes to the Lowlands — Parents — Early labours and efforts — Evening- 
school — Love of reading — Religions impressions — Medical education 
— Youthful travels — Geology — Mental discipline — Study in Glasgow 
— London Missionary Society — Native village — Medical diploma — 
Theological studies — Departure for Africa — No claim to literary 
accomplishments. 
My own inclination would lead me to say as little as possible 
about myself; but several friends, in whose judgment I have 
confidence, have suggested that, as the reader likes to know 
something about the author, a short account of his origin and 
early life would lend additional interest to this book. Such is 
my excuse for the following egotism; and, if an apology be 
necessary for giving a genealogy, I find it in the fact that it is 
not very long, and contains only one incident of which I have 
reason to be proud. 
Our great-grandfather fell at the battle of Culloden, fighting 
for the old line of kings; and our grandfather was a small 
farmer in Ulva, where my father was born. It is one of that 
cluster of the Hebrides thus alluded to by Walter Scott:— 
“ And Ulva dark, and Colonsay, 
And all the group of islets gay 
That guard famed Staffa round.’' * 
Our grandfather was intimately acquainted with all the tra¬ 
ditionary legends which that great writer has since made use of 
Lord of the Isles, canto iv. 
