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CHA P. action of fire, and that the matrix, to which it was united,

VI.

was nothing more than the scoria of the metal. However this be, it is certain that the natives of the inland countries, just mentioned, dig up and manufacture iron; for I was affured of the fact by several respectable officers at Goree.

Men and

plants fimilarly affected by being

72.

HA

CHA P. VI.

THE MEANS OF PRESERVING HEALTH.

AVING given fome account of the climate, soil, and produce of the part of the coast laid down in the map, it seems natural to make a few observations on the comparative falubrity of different places and fituations; and to offer to Europeans, who propose to refide in that region, fome advice respecting the preservation of health, in a country fo very different from that to which they have been accustomed. This appears to me to be a matter of such serious importance, that I mean afterwards to propose the superintendance of it, as a separate department in the direction of every new colony.

66

73. Men," fays Dr. Lind, "who exchange their native, for a diftant, climate, may be confidered as affected in a manner fomewhat analogous to plants removed into a foranfplanted. reign foil; where the utmost care and attention are required to keep them in health, and to inure them to their new fituation; since, thus transplanted, some change must happen in the conftitutions of both *."

* Effay on the Diseases of hot Climates, Introduction, p. 2.

74. During

VI.

74. During my ftay in Africa, I have often observed with CHA P. astonishment, how little the Europeans, both individuals and public bodies, appear to regard the preservation of health. They could not act more abfurdly, if they aimed at ruining their conftitutions, in order to bring upon the climate a degree of reprobation which, with all it's faults, it really does not deferve. I cannot better express my own fentiments and obfervations on this head, than in the words of the able and intelligent physician juft quoted.

cleared,

the most fa

lubrious West

Indian If

lands.

75. "It is not uncommon," fays he, "in many-trading Africa, if factories, to meet with a few Europeans pent up in a fmall would be as spot of low, damp ground, fo entirely furrounded with healthful as thick woods, that they can scarcely have the benefit of walking a few hundred yards, and where there is not so much as an avenue cut through any part of the woods for the admiffion of wholesome and refreshing breezes. The Europeans have also unfortunately fixed fome of their principal fettlements on low, inland, unventilated spots, on the foul banks, or near the swampy and oozy mouths of rivers, or on falt marshes, formed by the overflowing of the ocean, where, in many places, the putrid fish, scattered on the shore by the negroes, emit fuch noifome effluvia, as prove very injurious to health. Notwithstanding what has been faid, I think it will hardly admit of doubt, that if any tract of land in Guinea was as well improved as the island of Barbadoes, and as perfectly freed from trees, underwood, marshes, &c. the air would be rendered equally healthful there, as in that pleasant West Indian Ifland*."

76. As an instance, in fupport of this pofition, the doctor Inftance in mentions the Portuguese town of St. Salvadore, which, “not

* Essay on the Difeafes, &c. p. 50.

St. Salvadore.

VI.

CHAP. withstanding it lies 150 miles up the river Congo, or Zaire, and within fix degrees of the equator; yet, from it's being situated on a hill, and the neighbouring country being cleared of the natural woods and thickets, it's inhabitants breathe a temperate and pure air, and are in a great meafure, exempted from all the plagues of an unhealthy climate*."

Trade preferred to health.

77. Thus we fee, that the Europeans have their own conduct, more than the climate, to blame for their unhealthiness in Africa. If the intelligent reader ask, why their factories and forts have been so abfurdly placed? I can only answer, that the speedy acquifition of gain feems hitherto to have been the fole object of the European visitors of Africa, who, intending only a temporary refidence, have not been very nice as to their accommodation. To trade (as before hinted) every confideration of health and utility has been foolishly sacrificed: and, provided they could place advantageously their factories, for carrying it on, and their forts for protecting it, the falubrity of the situation was regarded as a matter of small moment, and sometimes not regarded at all. So univerfally has trade been preferred to health, that I believe it would be difficult to name a single fort or factory on the coaft, in the settlement of which, the convenience of trade was not the ruling confideration. In establishing so many settlements it could not but happen, that some situations, proper for trade, would also be not unfavourable to health; but that this was at best only a fecondary object, is evident from the little pains which have been taken to cut down the woods, drain the marshes,

* Id. p. 51.-I have often heard St. Salvadore mentioned as the most healthful fpot on the globe, except the Island of Ceylon.

and

and cultivate the land, in the vicinity of the forts and facto ries on the coaft. But why do I mention the cultivation of land, as if I did not know it to be fo perfectly contrary to the views and habits of the European factors, that even the prefervation of their own lives cannot incite them to use such obvious, pleasant and certain means of improving the climate?

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Caufes of foldiers and

mortality of

feamen.

78. When, to the effluvia of marshes, woods, and the flimy beds of rivers, we add bad lodgings, bad cloathing, unwholesome, and fcanty food, naftiness, both perfonal and domestic, intoxication with very bad fpirits, exposure to damps, rains, and dews, and other fimilar causes of disease, we can no longer wonder at the mortality of soldiers in garrison, and other whites, on fhore. As to feamen, the wonder is not that fo many die, but that any furvive, the operation of the causes of mortality which are infeparable from the flave-trade. For, befides the evils they suffer in common with foldiers, &c. on fhore, but generally in a much greater degree, they are often, in collecting flaves by boating," expofed to the weather up the rivers, for days and nights together, as well as to exceffive fatigues in wooding and watering. And, as if these hardships were not fufficient to destroy their conftitutions, very many of the poor men are barbarously treated by the flave-captains, who, to account for the enormous mortality which enfues, falfely attribute to the climate a malignity which more properly belongs to their own difpofitions. I am the more confident in afferting these facts, as they have been proved, before the British legislature, by the most respectable evidence. mortality.. Two other important facts are also established by the fame evidence, namely, that the wood-veffels which trade, chiefly for produce, to the fame parts of the coaft, do not lofe nearly

H

Ships of war, ed from that

&c. exempt

VI.

CHAP. nearly so many men as the flave-fhips; and that ships of war make their voyages to that pretendedly fatal shore, with as little mortality as to the Weft Indian Islands, and with far less than takes place in the East Indies *.

Comparative falubrity of different places.

79. It is not pretended, however, that the climate of Africa is perfectly congenial to the conftitutions of all European strangers. There, as in other hot countries, new-comers. must, in general, expect what is called a feafoning. All I would be understood to attempt, is to vindicate the climate of Africa fom any peculiar malignity, never before experienced in other tropical regions, in the like unimproved ftate.

80. It is the general opinion, that the climates of Senegal and Whidah are the worst on the whole western coast of Africa. The neighbourhood of the mouth of the River Gambia, however, lately much frequented, has been found to be equally unfavourable to health. But the country becomes more falubrious as we advance up that river. From Elephant's Island to Yanimaroo, the climate is tolerable, and above this last place, it may be pronounced healthful. The climates of Sierra Leona, Cape Verd, Cape Mount, and above all Cape Mefurado, are comparatively falubrious. The Ifles de Los, the Iflands of Bananas, Cape Verd, Goree, and Bulama, one of the Biffao Islands, may be faid to enjoy a climate inferior to few or none within the tropics. I was affured by a French physician of Senegal, that the mortality at the Ifland of Goree does not exceed that of

* See the Privy Council's Report, and Minutes of Evidence before a felect Committee of the House of Commons, particularly the Evidences of the Reverend Mr. Clarkfon and the Reverend Mr. Newton; allo thofe of the feven following captains in the navy, viz. Sir George Young, and Captains Hall, Smith, Thompfon, Scott, Hills and Wilfon.

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