TIIE STABT—MOMBASA TO TAITA. 
41 
inmates. The captain saw my hesitation, and offered 
most kindly to rig up a cot for me on deck. I accepted 
his proposal eagerly, forgetting the danger in it, of 
which both of us were unaware. The steamer, accord¬ 
ing to custom, would remain all night in Zanzibar 
harbour, and leave at dawn. Now—and this is the 
only reason I record this incident—there is no surer 
way of getting a bad fever than to sleep in the open 
air in a tropical port. The reasons for this are many 
and would take up a great deal of time and space to 
describe properly ; I therefore confine myself to the 
dogmatic assertion, which I here record in the interest 
of such of ray readers as may be proceeding to the 
tropics, and are likely to be tempted to pass a quiet 
night in harbour on the cool upper deck instead of in 
their stuffy berths below. Sleep in the air as much as 
you like at open sea, but never when you are lying 
off shore in a port or land-locked bay. I paid the 
penalty of this one night’s mistake in a very bad fever 
which attacked me soon after I landed at Mombasa, 
and left me horribly weak from its effects. Most for¬ 
tunately, in my hour of extremity, I had fallen among 
friends. Captain Gissing, the Yice-Consul, was my 
host, and not only quartered me and my baggage in 
his Consulate, but also put up my thirty Zanzibar 
followers, an act of kindness for which I fear he was 
ill-rewarded by their noisy behaviour and continual 
squabbles with the populace of the town. So kind was 
Captain Gissing, that I was not made aware of this 
till after my recovery, and I beg to thank him again 
here for his considerate patience. The men were any-, 
thing but bad fellows, but I suppose, finding themselves 
masterless with plenty to eat and nothing to do, they 
waxed riotous. In the meantime, the Rev. Mr. Hand- 
