i 7 8 
Return to the River . 
adopts the profession from taste, not because it 
faut vivre . He is better bred; he knows the 
negro from his childhood, and his education is 
more practical, more generally useful than that of 
his rivals. Moreover, I never yet heard him ex¬ 
claim, “ Capting, them heggs is ’igh ! ” Lastly 
he is more temperate and moderate in his diet: 
hitherto it has not been my fate to assist in carry¬ 
ing him to bed. 
Perhaps the American missionary carries so¬ 
briety too far. In dangerous tropical regions, 
where there is little appetite and less nutritious 
diet, where exertion of mind and body easily 
exhaust vitality, and where “ diffusible stimu¬ 
lants ” must often take the place of solids, he dies 
first who drinks water. The second is the man 
who begins with an “ eye-opener ” of “ brandy- 
pawnee,” and who keeps up excitement by the 
same means through the day. The third is the 
hygienic sciolist, who drinks on principle poor 
“Gladstone” and thin French wines, cheap and 
nasty ; and the survivor is the man who enjoys a 
quantum suff. of humming Scotch and Burton 
ales, sherry, Madeira, and port, with a modicum 
of cognac. This has been my plan in the tropics 
from the beginning, when it was suggested to me 
by the simplest exercise of the reasoning faculties. 
“ A dozen of good port will soon set you up! ” 
said the surgeon to me after fever. Then why 
not drink port before the fever ? 
