MEDICAL EXPEDIENCES. 
231 
sent off by special messenger to the capital for 
use in the royal household. I was not quite 
so fortunate in my lancet. The only instrument 
worthy of the name was so overlaid by the rust 
of years, that when I proceeded to sharpen it, 
it broke in my hands. My last resource was a 
steel pen. With this very efficient substitute for 
the lancet, I operated upon some hundreds of the 
native population day after day, until fairly 
wearied with the incessant presentation of dusky 
arms for the all-saving puncture. As soon as 
one or two of the cases showed abundant signs 
of success, I had sufficient lymph for all our 
needs. It was doubtless due to the entire 
absence of vaccine matter in the system that 
these periodical outbreaks of small-pox created 
in time past such devastation throughout the 
country. In this respect, however, matters are 
improving; and the extremely fatal phase of 
the complaint, known amongst the natives them¬ 
selves as “ black small-pox,” is now less frequently 
met with. 
In spite of all our efforts, however, the summer 
of 1877 was a terrible time for the east coast 
tribes, and the ghastly scenes of that sorrowful 
year will never be forgotten by those who had 
to be witnesses of them. My reputation as 
a successful operator soon spread; and as I 
passed from village to village, little crowds of 
