DR. LIVINGSTONE'S AFRICAN EXPEDITION.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 6, 20 November 1863, Page 2 (Supplement)

DR. LIVINGSTONE'S AFRICAN EXPEDITION.

Dr. lii ivings tone-hag Addressed tbe follovring, le&tef&to 'the'" editor of^'the Medical {Times $£& Gazette : — v - „ "Sir,: — In a "leading article in, your journal of July 5, 1862, tieaded* English* Sacrifices in Central Afri6a^ after remarking on the general^ sickness thati prevailed >»t the, mission station* Magoraero, you very naturally ask, ' Hpw, then, can we reconcile these sad facts with the "statement that the mission in the direction -of Dr. Livingstone settled down in an admirable station high u l p the river, where" "the country is an elevated plateau, where the climate is tolerably salubrious, and where a dense population is immediately available for missionary work ? ' The quotation as from the bishop, and expresses the opinion I formed, and still hold, as to the general healthiness of the ,plateau r referred to. The spot taken as a' temporary residence, until extensive acquaintance with the whole region should enable the head of the mission to select a suitable locality for a permanent abode, was 40 or 50 iniles distant, from the Elephant Marsh, and at an altitude of between 3/000 and 4,000 feet above it. \Ve shall therefore try to think of the marsh and mission station as distinct as 'Oxford, and London. >The. plateau is 10 or 1- miles broad, -and probably | 100 in length. We happened to travel along it at the hottest season of the year, and even t*hen found the climate deliciously cool. "When, previously in the Upper Shi re -Valley, at an altitude of 1,200 feel above the level of the sea, we were drinking water at 84 deg.. and on one day, mounting up td .an" altitude of between 3#oo and 4,000 feet, we had every few miles a gushing -stream with the water at 65 deg. The^ir had that bracing effect wliich tbe mountain breezes have tit home, and we were all struck by observing far more ve*y old people than We had £een anywhere else. Our stay was too short for our own experience to be worth an) thing, and th° | experience of the missionaries amounts i only to this — that* wi hout ordinary sanitary -precautions, the health is endangered here as it is everywhere else. " The missionaries were placed in very peculiar circumstances, and such .as prabably they never anticipated Aa we climed up the plateau together and felt its- refreshing *breezes we me*t parties of Portuguese witb -long lines of bound captives in their possession. These werev.-s'odn made -free, and the bishop, Hustings to the support *of these who sent b^^fehravely took charge (If them. The^e) icecap tives sobn* amounted to 200 ; JbuVig^wK^t fpllows-I have only the testimoVi^.^of the^ missionaries themse , lvels,^f6r;i4iien left arid pursued the exploration,- >p£ Lake Nyassa for spme 225 -miles. Magomera was situated on the bend of a small river cfl exactly the same shape as that inv© -which General M'Clelland 'for 'strategic reasons ' ran. It shaded by lofty trees; wliich the poor bishop admired exceedingly and resolved to preserve. The effoi ts of the missionaries failed to prevent these 200 people from ..depositing their droopings all over a space of less than 100 yards by 50, and was then fitly described as a * pest hole.' For Borne months the people; adjacent and around them brought abundance of provisions for sale, and no one imagined that these "Were all their surplus stores, but after 'the expenditure of the surplus cattle -famine-. The missionaries nobly • shared their own provisions with the poor wretches whom they had adopted, t and were reduced to the same hardi and scanty fa¥e. About 50 ©f the natives perished by uteers and dj sen- 1 tery. and to me tbe wonder is, not that in that foul den the whites'preseiated the sorry figure you have drawn, but that they were not all cut off together. Now, don't blame them ; tbey felt the necessity of removing out of the ,pj st-hole, but the grass had all been burnt off and, new huts could not be built; slave-, hunting at the instigation of the Portuguese of .Tette** was going on all around them ; they were in new and untried had ) to retire to ( the lowlands-; but still aii think that the, plateau >ts the 'healthiest 'abode, and will , , return as soon as possible-, v s < I "The bishop,- whose, ultimate fate everyone who knew him must deeply deplore, never> spared himself, and was foremost in depriving himself of the, * comforts which you, Tightly concluded are indispensable'to Europeans, in order , to save, hisyor-pbau ;childreru lie and ' Burrupr'iWel^the-strongest ofthe party, and were proportionately disregavdful ' i s of'their'ieatt^ '^Exposed for more than a week previously to hard fast marches, worse fare* and' drenching showers he set out for Magomera, ill with diarrhoea, , on his last and fatal- trip, and began by walking througlnthejstream, remarking " that he would soon be wet, at any rate. > ' Afte'r two' days' walking in a plight in -which you may imagine he reached the Sliire, embarked in a miserable small canoe, and after dropping down, the stream one day waß7upsetj,lost clothes * and medicines, and went on, of course, still wet — coffee, tea, and. sugar all gone; it is scarcely possible ip conceive, atmore miserable plight. But, let any'one?go * through the same amount' -of exposure, in' England, and he will aVcertaply'be cut off by consumption as tbe Bishop and Mr Burrub were by fever and dysentery. When 1 began to travel I walked < through streams 'and braved rains in the same way the .Bishop did ; but I found tnat I had fever perpetually, and gave up the habit, though it was really pleasant to have the extremities cooled. You will perf rm a good service if you warn all Europeans going to the tropics to take as good care of their health there as they do at home. 1 In addition to the loss of invaluable services, these uatimely deaths are a great misfortune to the cause of African civilization, because people immediately ascribe them to the inevitable

effects of the climate, and, with' you, say 'it is of n o use sending missionaries. ~where they cannot live.' In our expedition, we have undergone exposure to wliich -no missionary need 'subjetft himself, we "have, had but two deaths'among alarge number of Eurojpean's in f oujr . yeirs, tfnd 'these were caused by detention, sorely against our will rn most unwholesome localities. * - ' w No great work can be accomplished without pain and „ suffering, and even •death.. Thpse who, with you,v*,;would not say a word to damp the energies of missionaries and of those that send them,' must expect to -hear <sases^like that of the noble-minded Indian officer who lately fell a victim to gigantic labors during the- Indian famine, or that of Lord Canning, and try to place aslight drag on the imagination, horror seems to lay hold on f you at the bare mention of ' Elephant Swamp.' am actually to pass through it to-morrow, and- am only sorry that the enormous herds of elephants— We <have seen 800 in it at once—— have become so knowing that We 'haye no chance of getting a st««ak or a foot. But see the effects o' bad example'; my imagination, do as I will to prevent it/e'bslinately pictures you sitting on -that "wilderness of -800 ■cesspools, Which the 'commissioners only "the other day swept 'away, and drinking water mixed,' according 1 to Dr Acland, with all the abominations sand unutterable fiithiness. which are pbared o«t of Oxford, Kea(diug, i &c., intto^yoafr, Oh, you filter your water through a few inches of sand, do you ? I would" not trust it(unless I were in London) though filtered through T the Great -Sa'haTa. The delicious unconsciousness with which you exclaim, "AKtep^arit M&rSh^ good heavens ! wli.a.t a- vista of deep swamp, rotting vegetattony-flies, vermin, stiuks, agues, and dyseiitery do the words-call iip! ' only excite a merry laugh, which 1 beg you to believe has not oue pWticle of iil-uat?Ure in it, and the quotation, — ""' Oh, wad^ome poAY^: the gif fie gie us, '" • To see oursels as others see as.' x You have actually; a larger area of cesspool and marsh around and above London than exists .in ,tlie Elephant Swamp, aiid to the direful effects lt't typhrns, typhoid, diptheria, cholera, consumption, scrofula, "&C;, , testify. Here they are absolutely unknown. But our fever, if ill-treated as by bleedings, or net treated, as it was viu the case Of missionaries at 21jinyanti, who took, only a little Dover's powder, i& as fatal as any two in your cataloguer* And while it would be * pen*y wise and pound foolish ' *to make missionaries of inferior men, good men ought invariably, to be accompanied by a tfhorough'ly educated and w»ell-paid medical officer. " 1 an^ Ste, ':./-• A •«« Datid LivjkgstoSe."