for offspring: "I am getting old;
you see gray hairs here and there on my head, and I have no child; you
know how Bechuana husbands cast their old wives away; what can I do? I
have no child to bring water to me when I am sick," etc.

The whole of the country adjacent to the Desert, from Kuruman to
Kolobeng, or Litubaruba, and beyond up to the latitude of Lake Ngami, is
remarkable for its great salubrity of climate. Not only the natives, but
Europeans whose constitutions have been impaired by an Indian climate,
find the tract of country indicated both healthy and restorative. The
health and longevity of the missionaries have always been fair, though
mission-work is not very conducive to either elsewhere. Cases have been
known in which patients have come from the coast with complaints closely
resembling, if they were not actually, those of consumption; and they
have recovered by the influence of the climate alone. It must always be
borne in mind that the climate near the coast, from which we received
such very favorable reports of the health of the British troops, is
actually inferior for persons suffering from pulmonary complaints to
that of any part not subjected to the influence of sea-air. I have
never seen the beneficial effects of the inland climate on persons of
shattered constitutions, nor heard their high praises of the benefit
they have derived from traveling, without wishing that its bracing
effects should become more extensively known in England. No one who
has visited the region I have above mentioned fails to remember with
pleasure the wild, healthful gipsy life of wagon-traveling.

A considerable proportion of animal diet seems requisite here.
Independent of the want of salt, we required meat in as large
quantity daily as we do in England, and no bad effects, in the way of
biliousness, followed the free use of flesh, as in other hot climates. A
vegetable diet causes acidity and heartburn.

Mr. Oswell thought this climate much superior to that of Peru, as far as
pleasure is concerned; the want of instruments unfortunately prevented
my obtaining accurate scientific data for the medical world on this
subject; and were it not for the great expense of such a trip, I should
have no hesitation in recommending the borders of the Kalahari Desert as
admirably suited for all patients having pulmonary complaints. It is
the complete antipodes to our cold, damp, English climate. The winter
is perfectly dry; and as not