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