Chapter III: Part 3

The liberality which is here accorded to the people of Abbeokuta may be also accorded to most other places. The king of Illorin sat in his court exposed to our view, because, he said, we were "his people"; a privilege which he never allowed "a strange white man," who was never permitted to look upon his royal black face publicly. He also sent with us an escort of a horseman and five footmen, with sword and spear, as a guard of honor, sending us cowries to pay the expenses. The king of Oyo paid us distinguished honors through his great Arie Kufu, calling me a relative, and sending the chief to inquire after our health. On my leaving Oyo finally, he sent with me a very large escort, at the head of whom was his commander-in-chief Kufu, as a guard of honor, and three native gentlemen, high in rank, as my special carriers. These gentle men complained to the missioners, Mr. and Mrs. Hinderer at Ibaddan, that I was quite mistaken as to their true social position at home. To this I plead guilty, as they were quite right.

Domestic Animals; Fowls, Chickens, Ducks, Muscovy, Turkeys Swine; Common, Guinea

Chickens (and eggs plentifully) the sweetest and tenderest, ducks and turkeys; also Guinea fowls, as well as the fine Muscovy, are abundant.

The swine consist of two distinct classes; the common, descended from the wild--a long, lean, gaunt, long-eared, long-nosed, sharp-featured, hungry-looking brute, like the American hog; and the Guinea, a short-legged, heavy-bodied, short-nosed, short-eared, fat-jawed, full-headed, jolly-looking animal, closely resembling the Berkshire of English breeding.

Goats, Sheep

The goats are the most beautiful, shiny, plump, active, saucy creatures, the mutton being most excellent flesh; and the sheep, though hairy instead of woolly, in every other particular are like other sheep, and the mutton frequently equaling English mutton in flavor and sweetness. I suspect the common sheep of this country to be of another genus, as there are some very fine woolly sheep in the interior. We intend testing the woolly sheep when we get settled there.

Cattle--Mandingo and Golah

The cattle are of two classes, and merit particular attention. The windward or Mandingo, a tall, long-horned, beautiful animal, the type of the Herefordshire; and the leeward or Golah, a short-legged, short-horned, heavy-bodied, broad-backed ox, the exact conformation of the splendid English Durham beeves.

Horses; Aku, Bornou

The horses are of two distinct classes, and not only merit much attention here, but must be regarded as among the most surprising evidences (as well as the cattle and improved breed of swine) of the high degree of intelligence and heathen civilization attained by the people.

Aku, or Yoruba Horse

The Aku or Yoruba, is a small, well-built, generally sprightly animal, equal in size to the largest American-Indian pony. They are great travelers, and very enduring, and when broke to the shafts or traces will be excellent in harness as family hackneys.

Bornou, or Soudan Horse

The Bornou, a noble horse, from twelve to seventeen hands high, finely proportioned and symmetrically beautiful, and the type of the description of the sire of the great first English blood horse, Godolphin, is exceedingly high-spirited, and fleet in the race or chase. These noble animals abound in all this part of Africa; are bred in Bornou, where great attention is paid to the rearing of them, from whence they are taken by the Ishmaelitish traders, in exchange for their commodities, to Arabia; from thence they are sent to Europe as their own production; just as, a few years since, and probably up to the present day, mules were reared in great numbers in Mexico, purchased by Ohio and Kentucky muleteers, who sold them in the eastern and northern States of America, where for years the people supposed and really believed that they were bred in the western States, from whence they were purported to come. The fine Bornou, known as the Arabian horse, is a native of Africa, and raised in great numbers. Denham and Clapperton, as long ago as thirty-five or forty years, wrote, after visiting that part of Africa, "It is said that Bornou can muster fifteen thousand Shonaas in the field mounted. They are the greatest breeders of cattle in the country, and annually supply Soudan with from two to three thousand horses." These animals are used for riding, and well exercised, as the smallest boys are great riders, every day dashing at fearful speed along the roads and over the plains.

Game; Quadrupeds

Game is also very plentiful. Deer, antelopes, wild hogs, hedge hogs, porcupines, armadillos, squirrels, hares and rabbits, raccoons and opossums, are among the most common quadruped game.

Wild Fowl

Wild turkey, wild ducks of various kinds, wild pigeons, ocpara (a very fine quail, much larger, fatter and plumper than the American pheasant), and the wild Guinea fowl, are among the most common biped game.

Markets, and Domestic Habits of the People

The markets are also worthy of note, and by their regular establishment and arrangement indicate to a certain extent the self-governing element and organized condition of the people. Every town has its regular market-place or general bazaar, and everything to be had in the town may be found, in more or less quantities, in these market-places. In describing the large cities through which Mr. Campbell my colleague, and I passed, and those through which I passed alone (none of which were under seventy thousand of a population) there were numerous smaller places of various sizes, from very small villages of one hundred to two thousand inhabitants, which were not mentioned in the enumerated towns. Of these market-places I may mention that Illorin has five, the area of the largest comprising about ten acres, and the general market of Abbeokuta comprising more than twelve altogether, whilst that of Ijaye contains fully twenty acres or more, in which, like the markets generally, everything may be obtained. These markets are systematically regulated and orderly arranged, there being parts and places for everything, and "everything in their places," with officially appointed and excellent managing market-masters. The cattle department of the Abbeokuta and Ijaye markets, as well as Illorin are particularly attractive, there being as many as eight hundred sheep at one time in either of the two former, and horses and mules, as well as sheep and goats exhibited in the latter. When approaching the city of Ibaddan, I saw at a brook, where they had been let out of their cages or coops to drink and wash themselves, as many as three thousand pigeons and squabs going to the Ibaddan market.

The following description of the Illorin market, extracted from "Bowen's Central Africa," is truthful as far as it goes, and will give a general idea of markets in the great cities of Africa:

The most attractive object next to the curious old town itself--and
it is always old--is the market.... Here the women sit and chat all
day, from early morn till nine o'clock at night, to sell their
various merchandise. Some of the sheds however, are occupied by
barbers, who shave people's heads and faces; and by leather
dressers, who make charms like Jewish phylacteries, and bridle
reins, shoes, sandals, &c.; and by dozens and scores of men, who
earn an honest living by dressing calabashes, and ornamenting them
with various neat engravings.[6] ... The principal market hour, and
proper time to see all the wonders, is in the evening.... As the
shades of evening deepen, if the weather allow the market to
continue and there is no moon, every woman lights her little lamp,
and presently the market presents, to the distant observer, the
beautiful appearance of innumerable stars.

The commodities sold in market are too tedious to mention, even if
all could be remembered. Besides home productions, there are
frequently imported articles from the four quarters of the globe.
Various kinds of meat, fowls, sheep, goats, dogs, rats, tortoises,
eggs, fish, snails, yams, Indian corn, Guinea corn, sweet potatoes,
sugar-cane, ground peas, onions, pepper, various vegetables,
palm-nuts, oil, tree-butter, seeds, fruits, firewood, cotton in the
seeds, spun cotton, domestic cloth, imported cloth, as calico,
shirting, velvets, &c., gun-powder, guns, flints, knives, swords,
paper, raw silk, Turkey-red thread, needles, ready-made clothing,
as trowsers, caps, breeches shirts without sleeves, baskets,
brooms, and no one knows what all.

This description was given by Mr. Bowen in his (in many respects) admirable work, published in 1857, after a missionary residence and tour of seven years, from 1850 to the time of writing, among the people of whom he wrote.

Native Houses and Cities

The houses are built of unburnt clay which hardens in the sun, covered with a beautiful thatch-long, peculiar grass--exhibiting only the walls to the streets, the doors all opening inside of these walls, which are entered by a gate or large doorway; the streets generally irregular and narrow, but frequently agreeably relieved by wider ones, or large, open spaces or parks shaded with trees; all presenting a scene so romantic and antiquated in appearance, that you cannot resist the association with Babylon, Nineveh, Tyre, and Thebais. The buildings are heavy and substantial for their kind, many of which are very extensive. These towns and cities are all entrenched and walled; extending entirely around them; that of Abbeokuta with the new addition being twenty-seven miles, though the population is less by forty thousand than Ibaddan, which embraces about twenty-three miles.

Conjugal and Filial Affection. Activity of Children

Great affection exists between husband and wife, the women being mostly restricted to household work, trading, and gathering in the fields, and aiding in carrying, whilst the men principally do the digging, planting, chopping, and other hard work. The children are also passionately beloved by their parents, sometimes with too much indulgence. They are very active, and every day some of them of all sizes may be seen dashing along a road or over a plain at fearful speed on horseback. They are great vaulters and ankle-springers, and boys may frequently be seen to spring from the ground whirling twice--turning _two_ summersets--before lighting on their feet.

Population of Monrovia and the State

It may not be out of place here to add, that the population of the capital of Liberia is certainly not above three thousand, though they claim for it five thousand. And what has been said of the lack and seeming paucity of public improvement may be much extenuated when it is considered that the entire population of settlers only number at present some 15,000 souls; the native population being 250,000, or 300,000, as now incorporated.

Canine and Feline

As the enquiry has been frequently made of me as to "whether there are really dogs and cats in Africa," and if so, "whether they are like other dogs and cats"; and since a very intelligent American clergyman said to me that he had read it somewhere as a fact in natural history, that dogs in Africa could not bark; I simply here inform the curious enquirer, that there are dogs and cats plentifully in Africa, which "look like other dogs and cats," and assure them that the dogs bark, eat, and _bite_, just like "other dogs."

Slavery

A word about slavery. It is simply preposterous to talk about slavery, as that term is understood, either being legalized or existing in this part of Africa. It is nonsense. The system is a patriarchal one, there being no actual difference, socially, between the slave (called by their protector _son or daughter_) and the children of the person with whom they live. Such persons intermarry, and frequently become the heads of state: indeed, generally so, as I do not remember at present a king or chief with whom I became acquainted whose entire members of the household, from the lowest domestic to the highest official, did not sustain this relation to him, they calling him _baba_ or "father," and he treating them as children. And where this is not the case, it either arises from some innovation among them or those exceptional cases of despotism to be found in every country. Indeed, the term "slave" is unknown to them, only as it has been introduced among them by whites from Europe and America. So far from abject slavery, not even the old feudal system, as known to exist until comparatively recent in enlightened and Christian Europe, exists in this part of Africa.

Criminals and prisoners of war are _legally sold_ into slavery among themselves, just as was the custom in almost every civilized country in the world till very lately, when nothing but advanced intelligence and progressive Christianity among the people put a stop to it. There is no place, however, but Illorin, a _bona fide_ Mohammedan kingdom, where we ever witnessed any exhibition of these facts.

How Slaves Are Obtained

Slaves are abducted by marauding, kidnapping, depraved natives, who, like the organized bands and gangs of robbers in Europe and America, go through the country thieving and stealing helpless women and children, and men who may be overpowered by numbers. Whole villages in this way sometimes fall victims to these human monsters, especially when the strong young men are out in the fields at work, the old of both sexes in such cases being put to death, whilst the young are hurried through some private way down to the slave factories usually kept by Europeans (generally Portuguese and Spaniards) and Americans, on some secluded part of the coast. And in no instances are the parents and relatives known to sell their own children or people into slavery, except, indeed, in cases of base depravity, and except such miserable despots as the kings of Dahomi and Ashantee; neither are the heads of countries known to sell their own people; but like the marauding kidnapper, obtain them by war on others.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Lagos is an exception to this, the market commencing early in the day, and closing at night.

IX

DISEASES OF THIS PART OF AFRICA, TREATMENT, HYGIENE, ALIMENT

Diseases, Face of the Country, Spring Water

The diseases in this part of Africa are still more simple than those of Liberia; and even the _native fever_, for known causes, generally is much less severe. In Liberia, and all that part of Africa, the entire country (except the cleared farms in the republic and the limited rice-fields of the natives) is a dense, heavy-wooded, _primitive_ forest, rank with the growth and putrified vegetation of a thousand ages. But the entire Aku country, throughout the second plateau, presents a very different phase. Here, one is struck with the beautiful clear country which continually spreads out in every direction around; and (except the thickets or forests left as defences, ambuscades, and arbors of rest, rugged hilltops, and gullies), there is nothing but recent timber to be found growing on the lands. Timber in Africa is reproduced very speedily; hence may be found in some parts designedly left very heavy timber; but the greatest unbroken forest through which we passed at any one time, of this description, never exceeded, I think, ten miles. All the spring (shallow wells generally) and other living water, as perennial streams, is both good-tasted, and if the constant use of running stream water be a fair test, I would decide as wholesome. There are some good springs in Africa, and good water doubtless may everywhere be obtained by digging suitable wells.

To Keep Water Cool. Kind of Vessels

Drinking water in the tropics should always be kept in large vessels of crockery ware (usually termed "stone" and "earthen ware") and smaller bottle or decanter-shaped jugs or vessels for table convenience. If earthen or crockery ware cannot be obtained for table use, by all means use glass bottles--the more globular, or balloon-shaped, the better.

Cool Water

To make and keep water cool in any crockery or glass vessel, wrap around it a cloth or any kind, but especially _woolen_--flannel or blanket being the best--which keep simply _wet_, and the water in the vessel, by _evaporation_ from the _cloth_, can be made or kept almost ice cool.

To Keep the Cloth Wet. Apparatus

A most simple method by which the cloth may be kept wet, and evaporation thereby kept up, is to have a large vessel, with the water in for common use, so placed that a small vessel with water can be suspended over it in such a manner that a _drip_ can be kept constantly on the cloth. The cloth being first saturated, it will readily be seen that a very small drip is required to keep up the dampness. The drip may be arranged, where convenient, with a small _faucet_ so as to regulate the drop, or the more primitive method of a little _spiggot_ or _sharpened stick_ put into a hole made in the vessel, so regulated as to keep up a sufficient dripping to keep the cloth of sufficient dampness. Simple as this may appear to the reader, it is an important sanitary measure, besides adding greatly to the immediate comfort of the traveler or resident in those regions.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere in this region of the continent is much purer than that of Liberia and the region round about; and, although incorporated with odors, these are pleasant and seem familiar to the sense, and not obnoxious with the rich rank fragrance so sensibly experienced in that country. There is little, comparatively, of the decayed vegetation, which sends up malaria from the surface in Liberia; and the immense fields and plains of grass not under cultivation at the time, are burnt down during the dry season, thereby bringing to bear, though probably unawares to them, a sanitary process throughout that extensive country at least once every year.

Kinds of Disease

_Intermittent fever_, as described in section VI., page 280 on Liberia, though generally of a mild type, _diarrhoea_, _dysentery_ (neither of which is difficult to subdue by a little rational treatment), _opthalmia_, and _umbilical hernia_, and sometimes, but not frequently, _inguinal hernia_, are the principal diseases. The opthalmia I suspected as originating from taint, probably having been primarily carried from the coast, as it was not so frequently met with as to warrant the idea of its being either a contagion or the effects of poisonous sands or winds, as supposed to exist. The hernia is caused by the absence of proper _umbilical attention_ and _abdominal support_ to the child after _parturition_. Umbilical hernia is fearfully common all through Africa, I having frequently seen persons, especially females, with the hernial tumor as large as their own head, and those of little children fully as large as the head of an infant a month old.

Guinea Worm

A singular disease affects some persons, though I have never seen this upon a native, and believe it to be peculiar to the region round about Liberia. The person whose case I examined had formerly resided in Liberia, where, doubtless, the disease commenced, but for the last three years previously had resided at Ijaye, in the capacity of cook, for the American Baptist Missionaries, Revs. A. D. Phillips and J. R. Stone and lady, and then resided at Abbeokuta. This is a peculiar ulceration of the leg, immediately above the ankle-bone, where they say it usually commences; the edges of the ulcer, and the cuticle quite up to the edge, and all the surrounding parts, having a healthy appearance, as though a portion of the flesh had been recently torn out, leaving the cavity as it then was. The most peculiar feature of this singular disease is a _white fiber_, which, coming out from the integuments of the muscles of the leg above, hangs suspended in the cavity (ulcer) the lower end loose, and somewhat inclined to coil (and when _straightened_ out, resuming again the serpentine curves, of course from the _elasticity_ with _motion_), is supposed to be a _worm_; hence its name--_Guinea worm_. The fibre seems in color and texture to be in a normal condition; indeed, there appear to be little or no pathological symptoms about the parts at all, except a slight appearance of _vermillion_ inflammation over the surface of the ulcer, which is more apparent sometimes than others.

What Is Guinea Worm?

I have examined closely this fibre, and from its appearance, color, size, and texture, especially as it is sensibly felt high up in the leg near the tuberosity of the tibia, when pulled by the dangling end, my own impression is that the so-called "Guinea worm" is nothing more than the _external saphenus_ or _communis tibiae_ (nerve) exposed in a peculiar manner, probably by a disease, which, by a curious pathological process, absorbs away the muscular parts, leaving the bare nerve detached at its lower extremity, suspended loose in this unnatural space. I have never seen but this one case of Guinea worm, but had frequent opportunities of examining it; indeed, the patient consulted me concerning it, and by the advice and consent of the very clever native gentleman, Samuel Crowther, Esq., who received his professional education at the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, insisted on my taking the case, which I declined, partly for the want of time to do justice to the patient, and aside from courtesy and equity to the surgeon who had the case in hand, mainly because I _knew nothing about it_--the best reason of all. The patient was an American quadroon, black nearly in complexion, of one-fourth white blood, from North Carolina. This, of course was a black quadroon.

I should add, that the fiber at times entirely _disappears_ from the cavity (by _contraction_, of course), when again it is seen suspended as before. This is one reason why it is believed to be a _worm_, and supposed to _creep_ up and down in the flesh.

Treatment of Diseases--Diarrhoea

The treatment of fever in this part of Africa should be the same as that in Liberia, given on page 280. The best remedy which I have found for diarrhoea is:

[TN: symbol: Rx]. Pulv. Rad. Rhei. [TN: symbol: drachm] j.; Syr.
Simp. [TN: symbol: ounce] jv.; Spts. Terebinth, [TN: symbol: dracm] j.;
Tinct. Opii., gtt. x. M. ft.

Pulverized rhubarb, one drachm, (or one-eighth of an ounce); simple syrup, four ounces (or eight large tablespoonfuls); laudanum, ten drops; spirits of turpentine, one spoonful. Mix this well together to take.

Dysentery

For dysentery the recipe is:

[TN: symbol: Rx]. Pulv. Rad. Rhei. Pulv. C. Catech. a. a.,
[TN: symbol: drachm] j.; Syr. Simp. f. [TN: symbol: ounce] jv.; Spts.
Terebinth. Spis. Ammon. Arromat., a. a. f.
[TN: symbol: drachm] j.; Tinct. Opii. gtt. x.M.ft.

Pulverized rhubarb and pulverized gum catechu, each, one-eighth of an ounce; simple syrup, eight large tablespoonfuls; spirits of turpentine and aromatic spirits of ammonia, of each one teaspoonful; laudanum, ten drops. Mix this well together to take. Of this take one teaspoonful (if very bad, a dessert spoonful) every three hours, or four times a day (always beginning at least one hour before breakfast), till the symptoms cease.

Fever Antidote

During the presence of febrile symptoms, in the absence of all diarrhoea and dysenteric symptoms, even when the person is not complaining, an excellent simple antidote to be taken at discretion, not oftener than once every hour during the day, is:

[TN: symbol: Rx] Syr. Simp., [TN: symbol: ounce] jv.; Spts. Ammon.
Arromat. [TN: symbol: drachm] jss. M. ft.

Simple syrup, eight large tablespoonfuls; aromatic spirits of ammonia, one and a-half teaspoonfuls. Mix this well together. Take a teaspoonful of this preparation in a little cold water, or a glass of lemonade if preferred, and the condition of the bowels will admit, as often as thought advisable under the circumstances.

I have thus thought proper to simplify this treatment, that it may be in the reach of every person going to the tropics, as I am certain that there has been a great deficiency in the treatment and discovery of remedies in diseases of that continent especially. These prescriptions, as compounded, are entirely new, originating with the writer, who has only to add that he is in hopes that they prove as advantageous and successful in other hands as they have been in his.

Regimen

Persons laboring under fever should eat moderately of such food as best agrees with their appetite; but frequently, if required or desired, that the system may be well supported. When there is _diarrhoea_ or _dysentery_ present, there should be no solid food taken, but the patient or ailing person should be confined strictly to a thin milk porridge of fine Guinea-corn flour, which is always obtainable in Africa, crumbled crackers or soda biscuits, light (leavened) wheat bread if to be had, or well-done rice boiled to a pulp. The soda-biscuit as a porridge with milk rather aggravates the bowels of most persons; therefore, whenever it is found to have this effect, its use should be immediately abandoned. In many instances, where there is either diarrhoea or dysentery present, without other prominent symptoms, I have found the mere use of cooked milk (merely "scalded," as women usually term it--being heated to the boiling point without permitting it to boil), taken as food alone, to be the only remedy required.

Hygiene--Eating

The laws of health should be particularly observed in going to Africa. In respect to eating, there need be no material change of food, but each individual observing those nourishments which best agree with him or her. When there is little inclination to eat, eat but little; and when there is none, eat nothing. I am certain that a large percentage of the mortality which occurs may be attributed to too free and too frequent indulgence in eating, as was the case with the Lewis family of five at Clay-Ashland, in Liberia--all of whom died from that cause; as well as others that might be mentioned.

Coffee, Air, Fruits

So soon as you have taken your bath and put your morning wrapper, even before dressing, you may eat one or more sweet oranges, then take a cup of coffee, creamed and sweetened, or not, to your taste. Make your toilet, and walk out and take the cool air, always taking your umbrella or parasol, because no foreigner, until by a long residence more or less acclimated, can expose himself with impunity to a tropical sun. If preferred coffee should always be taken with cream or milk and sugar, because it is then less irritating to the stomach. One of the symptoms of native fever is said to be _nervous irritability of the stomach_; hence, all exciting causes to irritation of that part should be avoided as much as possible. Such fruits as best agree with each individual should be most indulged in; indeed, all others for the time should be dispensed with; and when it can be done without any apparent risk to the person, a little fruit of some kind might be taken every day by each new comer. Except oranges, taken as directed above, all fruits should be eaten _after_, and _not_ before breakfast. The fruits of the country have been described in another place.

Drinks

Let your habits be strictly temperate, and for human nature's sake, abstain from the erroneous idea that some sort of malt or spirituous drink is necessary. This is not the case; and I am certain that much of the disease and dire mortality charged against Africa, as a "land of pestilence and death," should be charged against the Christian lands which produce and _send bad spirits_ to destroy those who go to Africa. Whenever wine, brandy, whisky, gin, rum, or pure alcohol are required as a medical remedy, no one will object to its use; but, in all cases in which they are used as a beverage in Africa, I have no hesitation in pronouncing them deleterious to the system. The best British porter and ale may, in convalescence from fever, be used to advantage as a tonic, because of the bitter and farinaceous substances they contain--not otherwise is it beneficial to the system in Africa. Water, lemonade, effervescent drinks--a teaspoonful of super-carbonate of soda, to a glass of lemonade--all may be drunk in common, when thirsty, with pleasure to the drinker as well as profit. Pure ginger-beer is very beneficial.

Bathing

Bathing should be strictly observed by every person at least once every day. Each family should be provided with a large sponge, or one for each room if not for each person, and free application of water to the entire person, from head to foot, should be made every morning.

Early Rising--Breezes

Every person should rise early in Africa, as the air is then coolest, freshest, and purest; besides the effect upon the senses, the sight and song of the numerous birds to be seen and heard, produce a healthful influence upon the mental and physical system. The land and sea-breezes blow regularly and constantly from half-past three o'clock P.M. till half-past ten o'clock A.M., when there is a cessation of about five hours till half-past three again.

Never Sultry

The evenings and mornings are always cool and pleasant, _never sultry_ and oppressive with heat, as frequently in temperate climates during summer and autumn. This wise and beneficent arrangement of Divine Providence makes this country beautifully, in fact, delightfully pleasant; and I have no doubt but in a very few years, so soon as scientific black men, her own sons, who alone must be more interested in her development than any other take the matter in hand, and produce works upon the diseases, remedies, treatment, and sanitary measures of Africa, there will be no more contingency in going to Africa than any other known foreign country. I am certain, even now, that the native fever of Africa is not more trying upon the system, when properly treated, than the native fever of Canada, the Western and Southern States and Territories of the United States of America.

Dress, Avoid Getting Wet

Dress should be regulated according to the feeling, with sometimes more and sometimes less clothing. But I think it advisable that adults should wear flannel (thin) next to their person always when first going to Africa. It gradually absorbs the moisture, and retaining a proper degree of heat, thus prevents any sudden change of temperature from affecting the system. Avoid getting wet at first, and should this accidentally happen, take a thoroughly good bath, rub the skin dry, and put on dry clothes, and for two or three hours that day, keep out of the sun; but if at night, go to bed. But when it so happens that you are out from home and cannot change clothing, continue to exercise until the clothes dry on your person. It is the abstraction of heat from the system by evaporation of water from the clothing, which does the mischief in such cases. I have frequently been wet to saturation in Africa, and nothing ever occurred from it, by pursuing the course here laid down. Always sleep in clean clothes.

Sanitary Measures

I am sure I need inform no one, however ignorant, that all measures of cleanliness of person, places, and things about the residences, contribute largely to health in Africa, as in other countries.

Ventilation of Houses

All dwellings should be _freely ventilated_ during the _night_ as well as day, and it is a great mistake to suppose, as in Liberia (where every settler sleeps with every part of his house closely shut--doors, windows, and all) that it is deletereous to have the house ventilated during the evening, although they go out to night meetings, visit each other in the evening, and frequently sit on their porches and piazzas till a late hour in the night, conversing, without any injurious effects whatever. Dr. Roberts, and I think Dr. McGill and a few other gentlemen, informed me that their sleeping apartments were exceptions to the custom generally in Liberia. This stifling custom to save themselves does not prevail among the natives of Africa anywhere, nor among the foreigners anywhere in the Yoruba country, that I am aware of, and I am under the impression that it was the result of fear or precaution, not against the night air, but against the imaginary (and sometimes real) creeping things--as insects and reptiles--which might find their way into the houses at night.

Test of Night Air

While in Liberia, I have traversed rivers in an open boat at night, slept beyond the Kavalla Falls in open native houses, and at the residence of Rev. Alexander Crummel, Mount Vaughan, Cape Palmas, I slept every evening while there with both window and door as ventilators. The window was out and the door inside. In Abbeokuta, Ijaye, Oyo, and Ogbomoso, we slept every night with ventilated doors and windows, when we slept at all in a house. But in Illorin we always slept out of doors by preference, and only retired to repose in-doors (which were always open) when it was too cool to sleep out, as our bedding consisted only of a native mat on the ground, and a calico sheet spread over us. And I should here make acknowledgments to my young colleague, Mr. Campbell, for the use of his large Scotch shawl when I was unwell, and indeed almost during our entire travel--it being to me a great accommodation, a comfort and convenience which I did not possess.

Test of Exposure

I have started two and three hours before daybreak, laying on my bed in an open canoe, ascending the Ogun river, at different times during the six days' journey up to Abbeokuta; Mr. Campbell and myself have frequently slept out in open courts and public market-places, without shed or piazza covering; and when journeying from Oyo to Ibaddan, for three successive evenings I lay in the midst of a wilderness or forest, on a single native mat without covering, the entire night; and many times during our travels we arose at midnight to commence our journey, and neither of us ever experienced any serious inconvenience from it.

Improved Window and Door Ventilation

That houses in Africa may be properly ventilated during the night without annoyance, or, what is equally as bad, if not worse, the continual fear and imagination of the approach of venomous insects, creeping things, and reptiles, the residents should adapt them to the place and circumstances, without that rigid imitation of European and American order of building. Every house should be well ventilated with windows on opposite sides of the rooms, when and wherever this is practicable, and the same may be said of doors. And where the room will not admit of opposite windows, or windows at least on two sides of a room, whether opposite or otherwise, a chimney or ventilating flue should be constructed on the opposite side to the window--which window should always be to the windward, so as to have a continual draught or current of fresh air. Persons, however, should always avoid sitting in a _draught_, though a free circulation of air should be allowed in each room of every house.

Instead of window-sashes with glass, as in common use, I would suggest that the windows have a sash of four, or but two (if preferred) panels, to each window (two upper and two lower, or one upper and one lower--or one lower and two upper, which would make a neat and handsome window), each panel or space for panes being neatly constructed with a sieve-work, such as is now used as screens during summer season in the lower part of parlor windows. To prevent too great oxydization or too rapid decay of so delicate a structure as the wire must be, it should be made of brass, copper, or some composition which would not readily corrode. Inside or outside doors of the same material, made to close and open like the Venetian jalousies now in use in civilized countries, would be found very convenient, and add much to the comfort and health of dwellings as a sanitary measure. The frames of the panels or sashes should be constructed of maple, cherry, walnut, or mahogany, according to the means of the builder and elegance of the building--as these articles seasoned are not only more neat and durable, but, from their solidity, are less liable to warp or shrink. This would afford such a beautiful and safe protection to every dwelling against the intrusion of all and every living thing, even the smallest insect--while a full and free circulation of fresh air would be allowed--that a residence in Africa would become attractive and desirable, instead of, as now (from imagination), objectionable.

Sanitary Effects of Ants--Termites, and Drivers

A word about ants in Africa--so much talked of, and so much dreaded--will legitimately be in place here, regarding them as a sanitary means, provided by Divine Providence. The _termites_, bug-a-bug or white double ant, shaped like two ovals somewhat flattened, joined together by a cylinder somewhat smaller in the middle, with a head at one end of one of the ovals, is an herbivorous insect, and much abused as the reputed destroyers of books, papers, and all linen or muslin clothing. They feed mainly on such vegetable matter as is most subject to decay--as soft wood, and many other such, when void of vitality--and there is living herbage upon which they feed, and thereby prove a blessing to a country with a superabundance of rank vegetable matter. It is often asserted that they destroy whole buildings, yet I have never seen a person who knew of such a disaster by them, although they may attack and do as much mischief in such cases at times as the wood-worms of America; and, in regard to clothing, though doubtless there have been instances of their attack upon and destruction of clothing, yet I will venture to assert that there is no one piece of clothing attacked and destroyed by these creatures, to ten thousand by the moths which get into the factories and houses in civilized countries, where woolen goods are kept. In all my travels in Africa, I never had anything attacked by the termite; but during my stay of seven months in Great Britain, I had a suit of woolen clothes completely eaten up by moths in Liverpool.

Drivers

Drivers, as every person already knows, are black ants, whose reputation is as bad for attacking living animals, and even human beings, as the termites' for attacking clothing. This creature, like its white cousin, is also an instrument in the hands of Providence as a sanitary means, and to the reverse of the other is carnivorous, feeding upon all flesh whether fresh or putrified. Like the white, for the purpose of destroying the superabundance of vegetable, certainly these black ants were designed by Providence to destroy the excess of animal life which in the nature of things would be brought forth, with little or no destruction without them; and although much is said about their attacking persons, I will venture the opinion that there is not one of these attacks a person to every ten thousand musquitoes in America, as it is only by chance, and _not by search after it_, that drivers attack persons.

How They Travel

They usually go in search of food in narrow rows, say from half an inch to a hand's breadth, as swiftly as a running stream of water, and may in their search enter a house in their course--if nothing attract them around it--when, in such cases, they spread over the floor, walls, and ceiling; and finding no insect or creeping thing to destroy, they gather again on the floor, and leave the premises in the regular order in which they entered. Should they encounter a person when on these excursions, though in bed, does he but lie still and not disturb them, the good-hearted negro insects will even pass over the person without harm or molestation; but, if disturbed, they will retaliate by a sting as readily as a bee when the hive is disturbed, though their sting, so far from being either dangerous or severe, is simply like the severe sting of a musquito. An aged missionary gentleman, of twenty-five years' experience, informed me that an entire myriad (this term is given to a multitude of drivers, as their number can never be less than ten thousand--and I am sure that I have seen as many millions together) passed over him one night in bed, without one stinging him. Indeed, both the black and white ants are quite harmless as to personal injury, and very beneficial in a sanitary point.

How to Drive Them Out of the Houses

There is much more in the imagination than the reality about these things; and one important fact I must not omit, that, however great the number of drivers, a simple _light set in the middle of the floor_ will clear the room of them in ten minutes. In this case they do not form in column, but go out in hasty confusion, each effecting as quick retreat and safe escape for himself as possible, forming their line of march outside of the house, where they meet from all quarters of their points of escape.

How to Destroy Them

_Chloride of sodium_ or common salt (fine), slightly damped, will entirely destroy the termites; and _acetum_ or vinegar, or _acetic acid_ either, will destroy or chase off the drivers. These means are simple, and within the reach of every person, but, aside from this, both classes or races of these creatures disappear before the approach of civilization. In a word, moths, mice, roaches, and musquitoes are much greater domestic annoyances, and certainly much more destructive in America and Europe than the bug-a-bug or driver is in Africa.

Their Pugnacious and Martial Character

I cannot endorse the statement from personal knowledge of the desperate hostility which the drivers manifest towards the termites, as given by Dr. Livingstone, who, calling them "black rascals," says "they stand deliberately and watch for the whites, which, on coming out of their holes, they instantly seize, putting them to death." Perhaps the whites were _kidnappers_, in which case they served the white _rascals_ right. Though I have never seen an encounter, it is nevertheless true, that the blacks do subdue the whites whenever they meet. In fact, they go, as do no other creatures known to natural science, in immense incalculable numbers--and I do not think that I exaggerate if I say that I have more than once seen more than six hogsheads of them traveling together, had they been measured--and along the entire line of march, stationed on each side of the columns, there are warriors or soldiers to guard them, who stand sentry, closely packed side by side with their heads towards the column, which passes on as rapidly as a flowing stream of water. I have traced a column for more than a mile, whose greatest breadth was more than a yard, and the least not less than a foot. It is inconceivable the distance these creatures travel in a short time. Should anything disturb the lines, the soldiers sally out a few feet in pursuit of the cause, quickly returning to their post when meeting no foe. The guards are much larger than the common drivers, being about the length of a barley-corn, and armed with a pair of curved horns, like those of the large American black beetle, called "pinching bug." There are no bed-bugs here.

Cesspools

One important fact, never referred to by travellers as such, is that the health of large towns in Africa will certainly be improved by the erection of _cesspools_, whereas now they have none. With the exception of the residences of missionaries and other civilized people, there is no such thing in Africa. Every family, as in civilized countries, should have such conveniences. Our senses are great and good faculties--seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling--God has so created them, and designed them for such purposes; therefore, they should neither be perverted nor marred when this can be avoided. Hence, we should beautify, when required and make pleasing to the sight; modify and make pleasant to the hearing; _cleanse_ and _purify_ to make _agreeable_ to the smelling; improve and make good to the taste; and never violate the feelings whenever any or all of these are at our will or control.

Wild Beasts and Reptiles

A single remark about these. The wild beasts are driven back before the march of civilization, I having seen none, save one leopard; and but four serpents during my entire travels, one three and a half feet long (a water snake); one fourteen inches long; and another ten inches long; the two last being killed by natives--and a tame one around the neck of a charmer at Oyo. During the time I never saw a centipede, and but two tarantulas.

X MISSIONARY INFLUENCE

To deny or overlook the fact, the all-important fact, that the missionary influence had done much good in Africa, would be simply to do injustice, a gross injustice to a good cause.

Protestant Missionaries

The advent of the Protestant Missionaries into Africa, has doubtless been effective of much good, though it may reasonably be expected that many have had their short comings. By Protestant, I mean all other Christian denominations than the Roman Catholic. I would not be regarded either a bigot or partialist so far as the rights of humanity are concerned, but facts are tenable in all cases, and whilst I readily admit that a Protestant monarch granted the first letters-patent to steal Africans from their homes to be enslaved by a Protestant people, and subsequently a _bona-fide_ Protestant nation has been among the most cruel oppressors of the African race, my numerous friends among whom are many Roman Catholics--black as well as white--must bear the test of truth, as I shall apply it in the case of the Missionaries, as my object in visiting my fatherland, was to enquire into and learn every fact, which should have a bearing on this, the grandest prospect for the regeneration of a people, that ever was presented in the history of the world.

Influence of Roman Catholic Religion in Favor of Slavery

In my entire travels in Africa, either alone or after meeting with Mr. Campbell at Abbeokuta, I have neither seen nor heard of any Roman Catholic Missionaries; but the most surprising and startling fact is, that every slave-trading point on the coast at present (which ports are mainly situated South and East) where the traffic is carried on, are either Roman Catholic trading-ports, or native agencies protected by Roman Catholics; as Canot, formerly at Grand Cape Mount, Pedro Blanco, and Domingo at Wydah in Dahomi. And still more, it is a remarkable and very suggestive reality that at all of those places where the Jesuits or Roman Catholic Missionaries once were stationed, the slave-trade is not only still carried on in its worst form as far as practicable, but slaves are held in Africa by these white foreigners at the old Portuguese settlements along the Southern and Eastern coasts, of Loango and Mozambique for instance; and although some three years have elapsed since the King of Portugal proclaimed, or pretended to proclaim "Liberty to all the people throughout his dominions," yet I will venture an opinion, that not one in every hundred of native Africans thus held in bondage on their own soil, are aware of any such "Proclamation." Dr. Livingstone tells us that he came across many ruins of Roman Catholic Missionary Stations in his travels--especially those in Loando de St. Paul, a city of some eighteen or twenty thousand of a population--all deserted, and the buildings appropriated to other uses, as store-houses, and the like. Does not this seem as though slavery were the legitimate successor of Roman Catholicism, or slave-traders and holders of the Roman Catholic religion and Missionaries? It certainly has that appearance to me; and a fact still more glaring is, that the only professing Christian government which in the light of the present period of human elevation and national reform, has attempted such a thing, is that of Roman Catholic Spain, (still persisting in holding Cuba for the wealth accruing from African Slaves stolen from their native land) which recently expelled every Protestant Missionary from the African Island of Fernando Po, that they might command it unmolested by Christian influence, as an export mart for the African Slave-Trade. To these facts I call the attention of the Christian world, that no one may murmur when the day of retribution in Africa comes--which come it must--and is fast hastening, when slave-traders must flee.

Influence of Protestant Religion against Slavery, and in Favor of Civilization

Wherever the Protestant Missionaries are found, or have been, there are visible evidences of a purer and higher civilization, by the high estimate set upon the Christian religion by the natives, the deference paid to the missionaries themselves, and the idea which generally obtains among them, that all missionaries are opposed to slavery, and the faith they have in the moral integrity of these militant ambassadors of the Living God. Wherever there are missionaries, there are schools both Sabbath and secular, and the arts and sciences, and manners and customs, more or less of civilized life, are imparted. I have not as yet visited a missionary station in any part of Africa, where there were not some, and frequently many natives, both adult and children, who could speak, read, and write English, as well as read their own language; as all of them, whether Episcopalian, Wesleyan, Baptist, or Presbyterian, in the Yoruba country, have Crowther's editions of religious and secular books in the schools and churches, and all have native agents, interpreters, teachers (assistants) and catechists or readers in the mission. These facts prove indisputably great progress; and I here take much pleasure in recording them in testimony of those faithful laborers in that distant vineyard of our heavenly Father in my fatherland. Both male and female missionaries, all seemed much devoted to their work, and anxiously desirous of doing more. Indeed, the very fact of there being as many native missionaries as there are now to be found holding responsible positions, as elders, deacons, preachers, and priests, among whom there are many finely educated, and several of them authors of works, not only in their own but the English language, as Revs. Crowther, King, Taylor, and Samuel Crowther, Esq., surgeon, all show that there is an advancement for these people beyond the point to which missionary duty can carry them.

Kindness of Missionaries and Personal Acknowledgments

I am indebted to the Missionaries generally, wherever met with, whether in Liberia or Central Africa, for their uniform kindness and hospitality, among whom may be named: Rev. J. M. Harden and excellent wife, (a refined highly educated native Ibo lady at Lagos), Revs. H. Townsend, C. H. Gollmer, J. King, E. Bickersteth and ladies in Abbeokuta; A. D. Phillips, J. A. Stone and lady, Ijaye; T. A. Reid, and Mr. Mekin, Oyo; and Rev. D. Hinderer and lady; Ibaddan. I am indebted to the Baptist Missionaries for the use of their Mission House and furniture during our residence at Abbeokuta: Rev. John Roberts and lady, Miss Killpatrick, Reverend Bishop Burns and lady, Rev. Mr. Tyler, Rev. Mr. Gipson, Rev. Edward W. Blyden and others, Rev. Mr. Hoffman and lady, and Rev. Mr. Messenger and lady, all of Liberia, I am indebted for marks of personal kindness and attention when indisposed among them, and my kind friends, the Reverend Alexander Crumell and lady, whose guest I was during several weeks near the Cape, and who spared no pains to render my stay not only a comfortable, but a desirable one.

Hints to Those to Whom They Apply

I would suggest for the benefit of missionaries in general, and those to whom it applies in particular, that there are other measures and ways by which civilization may be imparted than preaching and praying--temporal as well as spiritual means. If all persons who settle among the natives would, as far as it is in their power and comes within their province induce, by making it a rule of their house or family, every native servant to sit on a stool or chair; eat at a table instead of on the ground; eat with a knife and fork (or _begin_ with a spoon) instead of with their fingers; eat in the house instead of going out in the yard, garden, or somewhere else under a tree or shed; and sleep on a bed, instead of on a bare mat on the ground; and have them to wear some sort of a garment to cover the entire person above the knees, should it be but a single shirt or chemise, instead of a loose native cloth thrown around them, to be dropped at pleasure, at any moment exposing the entire upper part of the person--or as in Liberia, where that part of the person is entirely uncovered--I am certain that it would go far toward impressing them with some of the habits of civilized life, as being adapted to them as well as the "white man," whom they so faithfully serve with a will. I know that some may say, this is difficult to do. It certainly could not have been with those who never tried it. Let each henceforth resolve for himself like the son of Nun, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Changing Names