The Fever Is Certainly A Drawback To This Otherwise Important
Missionary Field.
The great humidity produced by heavy rains and inundations,
the exuberant vegetation caused by fervid heat in rich moist
Soil,
and the prodigious amount of decaying vegetable matter annually exposed
after the inundations to the rays of a torrid sun, with a flat surface
often covered by forest through which the winds can not pass, all combine
to render the climate far from salubrious for any portion of the human family.
But the fever, thus caused and rendered virulent, is almost the only disease
prevalent in it. There is no consumption or scrofula,
and but little insanity. Smallpox and measles visited the country
some thirty years ago and cut off many, but they have since made no return,
although the former has been almost constantly in one part or another
of the coast. Singularly enough, the people used inoculation
for this disease; and in one village, where they seem to have chosen
a malignant case from which to inoculate the rest, nearly the whole village
was cut off. I have seen but one case of hydrocephalus, a few of epilepsy,
none of cholera or cancer, and many diseases common in England
are here quite unknown. It is true that I suffered severely from fever,
but my experience can not be taken as a fair criterion in the matter.
Compelled to sleep on the damp ground month after month, exposed to
drenching showers, and getting the lower extremities wetted two or three times
every day, living on native food (with the exception of sugarless coffee,
during the journey to the north and the latter half of the return journey),
and that food the manioc roots and meal, which contain so much
uncombined starch that the eyes become affected (as in the case of animals
fed for experiment on pure gluten or starch), and being exposed during
many hours each day in comparative inaction to the direct rays of the sun,
the thermometer standing above 96 Deg. in the shade - these constitute
a more pitiful hygiene than any missionaries who may follow
will ever have to endure. I do not mention these privations
as if I considered them to be "sacrifices", for I think that the word
ought never to be applied to any thing we can do for Him
who came down from heaven and died for us; but I suppose it is necessary
to notice them, in order that no unfavorable opinion may be formed
from my experience as to what that of others might be, if less exposed
to the vicissitudes of the weather and change of diet.
I believe that the interior of this country presents
a much more inviting field for the philanthropist than does the west coast,
where missionaries of the Church Missionary, United Presbyterian,
and other societies have long labored with most astonishing devotedness
and never-flagging zeal. There the fevers are much more virulent
and more speedily fatal than here, for from 8 Deg. south
they almost invariably take the intermittent or least fatal type;
and their effect being to enlarge the spleen, a complaint which
is best treated by change of climate, we have the remedy at hand
by passing the 20th parallel on our way south. But I am not to be understood
as intimating that any of the numerous tribes are anxious for instruction:
they are not the inquiring spirits we read of in other countries;
they do not desire the Gospel, because they know nothing about either it
or its benefits; but there is no impediment in the way of instruction.
Every head man would be proud of a European visitor or resident
in his territory, and there is perfect security for life and property
all over the interior country. The great barriers which have kept Africa shut
are the unhealthiness of the coast, and the exclusive, illiberal disposition
of the border tribes. It has not within the historic period been cut into
by deep arms of the sea, and only a small fringe of its population
have come into contact with the rest of mankind. Race has much to do
in the present circumstances of nations; yet it is probable
that the unhealthy coast-climate has reacted on the people, and aided
both in perpetuating their own degradation and preventing those more inland
from having intercourse with the rest of the world. It is to be hoped
that these obstacles will be overcome by the more rapid means of locomotion
possessed in the present age, if a good highway can become available
from the coast into the interior.
Having found it impracticable to open up a carriage-path to the west,
it became a question as to which part of the east coast
we should direct our steps. The Arabs had come from Zanzibar
through a peaceful country. They assured me that the powerful chiefs
beyond the Cazembe on the N.E., viz., Moatutu, Moaroro, and Mogogo,
chiefs of the tribes Batutu, Baroro, and Bagogo, would have no objection
to my passing through their country. They described the population there
as located in small villages like the Balonda, and that no difficulty
is experienced in traveling among them. They mentioned also that,
at a distance of ten days beyond Cazembe, their path winds round
the end of Lake Tanganyenka. But when they reach this lake,
a little to the northwest of its southern extremity, they find no difficulty
in obtaining canoes to carry them over. They sleep on islands, for it is said
to require three days in crossing, and may thus be forty or fifty miles broad.
Here they punt the canoes the whole way, showing that it is shallow.
There are many small streams in the path, and three large rivers.
This, then, appeared to me to be the safest; but my present object
being a path admitting of water rather than land carriage,
this route did not promise so much as that by way of the Zambesi or Leeambye.
The Makololo knew all the country eastward as far as the Kafue,
from having lived in former times near the confluence of that river
with the Zambesi, and they all advised this path in preference to that
by the way of Zanzibar.
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