THE EUROPEAN SETTLERS 
l 77 
result is that its waters are quite unfit for drinking purposes. A few of the settlers have 
wells, but all of these except two seem to produce slightly brackish unwholesome water. 
Away to the north of Blantyre arises another very fine stream, the Likubula. This is 
rather too much below the level of Blantyre to make it easy to convey the water to the 
township. The simplest expedient would seem to be the purification of the Mudi. 
“ But if the Mudi be at present unwholesome its banks are charming for the foliage 
of the trees and the loveliness of the wild flowers. I would notice specially one crimson 
lily which gives a succession of flowers for many months of the year. 
“ And yet how extraordinary people are in regard to wild flowers ! I remember when 
I had just been admiring these red lilies on the Mudi’s banks I went to dinner with one 
of the married couples in Blantyre, and the lady of the house apologised to me for the 
bareness of the table, complaining that her garden as yet produced no flowers. Yet she 
had only got to send one of the servants out to the banks of the stream and to the 
adjoining fields and she could have decked her table with red lilies, mauve, orange, and 
white ground-orchids, and blue bean flowers in a way which would excite anyone’s envy 
at home. 
“ My reference to ‘ married couples ’ reminds me to tell you that a good many of 
the men settled here are married and their wives seem to stand the climate as well 
as if not even better than their husbands, because, I imagine, they are exposed less to the 
sun and do not have so much outdoor work. Although it is not consistent with the 
duties of the planter still it is borne in on my mind that the healthiest life in Central 
Africa is an indoor life. People who keep very much to the house and do not go out 
or go far afield between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. never seem to get fever. At the same time 
you should not remain out after sunset as you are apt to get a chill. 
******** 
I do not know whether in the foregoing extracts from supposititious 
letters I have succeeded in giving a fairly correct idea of the life that Europeans 
lead under present conditions in British Central Africa. More will be said 
on this subject in dealing with the Missionaries. 
For the trader and the planter I think it may 
be said that the country offers sufficiently sure and 
rapid profits for their enterprise to compensate the 
risk run in the matter of health. The various 
trading companies in the country appear to be 
doing well with an ever-extending business and 
to be constantly increasing the number of their 
establishments. Even traders in a small way, if 
they have energy and astuteness, may reap con¬ 
siderable earnings with relatively small outlay. 
One man, for instance, went up to Kotakota on 
Lake Nyasa with a few hundreds of pounds at his 
disposal, bought a large number of cattle at a 
very low price in the Marimba district and pur¬ 
chased all the ivory the Arabs at Kotakota had 
to dispose of, and on his total transaction made a 
clear profit of £2000 by selling the cattle and 
ivory at Blantyre ; but it appears to me that as 
time goes on the European trading community 
will be limited to the employes of two or three 
great trading companies commanding considerable capital, and to a number 
of British Indians who will not in any way conflict with the commerce of the 
Europeans because they will often act as the middlemen buying up small 
A PLANTER 
12 
