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AFRICAN FEVER 
 
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 TO 
 
 COUNTERACT MALARIA IN ITALY. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 JOHN CROUMBIE BROWN, LL.D., &c. 
 
 ABERDEEN : 
 
 PRINTED BY W. & W. LINDSAY, 
 
 
 :/o. 
 
 MARKET STREET. 
 
 ^r 
 
 %.« 
 
 1890. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Circular Addressed to Secretaries of British and 
 American Missions to Foreign Lands, - . . 
 II. Fatal Effects of Malaria in Equinoctial Africa : 
 
 1. Sketch of DesolatioE in the District of the 
 
 Zambesi and Lake Nyaza, given by Pro- 
 fessor Drummond, - . _ _ 
 
 2. Death of Mrs. M 'II wain on the Zambesi, 
 
 3. Death of Mr. Wilkinson on the Congo, - 
 
 4. Deaths of Missionaries of the Baptist Mission- 
 
 ary Society on the Congo, - - - - 
 
 5. Death of Mr. Henderson at Zanzibar, 
 
 6. Death of other Missionaries there, - - - 
 
 7. Death of Mr. Mackay, 
 
 8. Reflections on Mortality thus indicated, - 
 III. Report by M. Auguste Vallee on the culture of the 
 
 Blue Gum-tree, Eucalyptus Globulus^ on the Pontine 
 Marshes, near Rome : 
 
 1. Constitution of the Soil, ----- 35 
 
 2. Species of Eucalyptus Cultivated, - - - 37 
 
 3. Preparation of the Ground, - . - - 38 
 
 4. Early Culture, 40 
 
 5. Rapidity of Growth, ----- 44 
 
 6. Economic Products, 47 
 
 7. Vine Culture, 4» 
 
 8. Remunerative Amelioration of the Soil, - - 49 
 
CD 
 
 /. Circular addressed tO'' Secretaries of British and 
 American. Missions to Foreign Lands. 
 
 Haddington, 25th December, 1889. 
 
 ' Gentlemen, — I send herewith a copy of a circular 
 which I issued last year offering a gift of treatises on 
 Forestry free of charge to Librarians in British Colonies, 
 and in the United States of America. There remain 
 with me still several complete sets, and of some of the 
 treatises a good many. If it seem to you as it does to 
 me after a lifelong interest in Missions to the Heathen, 
 intercourse with Missionaries to various lands, and pro- 
 longed and repeated co-operation with them, first in 
 Russia, and subsequently in South Africa, that it might 
 be useful to missionaries at some stations to have at 
 command information on some of the subjects treated of 
 in these volumes, I shall with pleasure place at your 
 service one, two, three, or more sets complete or partial as 
 may be desired, or as the copies on hand may permit, 
 forwarding them in the order in which applications may 
 reach me.' 
 
 The following is an excerpt from the circular referred 
 to:— 
 
 In a Vokime which I published last year under the title of 
 Schools of Forestry in Germany^ with Addenda Relative to a Desider- 
 ated British National School of Forestry, I stated : — 
 
 ' While a British National School of Forestry might be made 
 available for instruction in Modern Forestry to any party who may 
 desire this through the medium of the English language, I know of 
 no insuperable difficulties in the way of such institutions being 
 organised in any of the States of the American Union, or in any of 
 the Colonies of the British Empire, in connection with existing 
 educational arrangements of their own. As a contribution of infor- 
 mation, which might be of use to any residents in these, in deter- 
 mining what might be done in the matter, I am prepared to deliver 
 
free, to any address in Edinburgh or London, which may be given to 
 me, a copy, in sheets, of any or all of the following works, to be 
 placed in a Free Public Library in any of these States or Colonies, 
 on an application to me certified by the Government of the State or 
 Colony. 
 
 1. Origin and History of Schools of Forestry in Germany, with 
 
 A ddenda Relating to the Desiderated School of Forestry 
 in Britain. 
 
 2. The School of Forest Engineers in Spain, indicativ^e of a 
 
 Type for a British School of Forestry. 
 
 3. Introduction to the Study of Modern Forest Economy. 
 
 4. French Forest Ordinance of 1669, with Historical Sketch of 
 
 Previous Treatment of Forests in France. 
 
 5. The Forests of England, and the Management of them in 
 
 By-gone Times, 
 
 6. Forestry in Norway. 
 
 7. Finland — its Forests, and Forest Management. 
 
 8. Forestry and Forest Lands ii^ Northern Pussia. 
 
 9. Forestry in the Mining Districts of the LTral Mountains in 
 
 Eastei'n Russia. 
 
 10. Forestry in Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic Provinces of 
 
 Russia. 
 
 11. Pine Plantations on Sand Wastes in France. 
 
 12. Reboisement in France ; or Records of the Re-planting of the 
 
 Alps, the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees, with Trees, 
 Herbage, and Bush, with a view to Arresting and Pre- 
 venting the Destructive Consequences of Torrents. 
 
 13. Hydrology of South Africa ; or Details of the form'er Hydro- 
 
 graphic Conditions of Cape of Good Hope, and of Causes 
 of its Present Aridity, with Suggestions of Appropriate 
 Remedies for this Aridity. 
 
 14. "Water Supply of South Africa, and Facilities for the Storage 
 
 of it. 
 
 15. Forests and Moisture ; or Effects of Forests on Humidity of 
 
 Climate.' 
 
 Of that offer the Directors of above a hundred Libraries in the 
 United States, British Colonies, Great Britain, aud on the Continent 
 of Europe, have availed themselves. But the offer was limited to 
 Free Libraries ; and this has repeatedl}'' been brought under my 
 consideration. To meet difficulties which have been felt, I remove 
 the restrictions, and proffer the gift to any one or more of three 
 Libraries in each Colony or State, irrespective of their being Proprie- 
 tory, Subscription, or Free, on the condition of their meeting the 
 expense of transmission from Edinburgh, the jDlace of Publication. 
 Applications will be met in the order in which they may be received ; 
 and should it happen that more than three applications be received 
 
from any one Colony or Sta.cc, die others will be met to the extent 
 practicable from the Volumes at command, at the expiry of Six 
 Months from this date. By arrangements of the Smithsonian 
 Institution, Washington, gifts of Books can be transmitted free of 
 charge from London to any Town in the United States. The offer is 
 made of the Books in Sheets, partly because this is preferred by the 
 Managers of many Public Libraries ; but they may be bound here at 
 an average charge of 8d. per Volume.' 
 
 ' At the risk of appearing to offer with one hand, and 
 to beg with the other, which would not correctly repre- 
 sent my design, I may state that times innumerable I 
 have been grieved at the loss of valuable lives through 
 Malarious Fever in Central Africa; and at some Missionary 
 Stations in other lands. I have not the knowledge 
 required for a comparison of these fevers with the 
 Malarious Fevers of Italy, but I believe them to be 
 similar if not identical; and under this impression I have 
 prepared detailed accounts of what has been done, and 
 what has been effected by Plantations of the Eucalyptus 
 Globulus or Blue Gum-tree in counteracting the insalu- 
 brious effects of residences near marsh lands in that 
 country, and of the natural history of the Microbe to 
 which the fatal disease is attributed, and I am ready to 
 give the manuscript to any one who will meet the 
 expense of piinting it, for extensive distribution in lands 
 in which such fevers prevail, on the sole condition of 
 fifty or a hundred copies being placed at my own disposal. 
 
 ' The expense I reckon may be about £50. There are 
 embodied in the memoir or report translations of two 
 French reports in regard to the success of the enterprise, 
 the expense of printing either of which might be about 
 £5, and I am ready to carry either through the press on 
 the same terms if the whole be not printed, 
 
 I am, Gentlemen, 
 
 Your fellow workman, 
 
 John C. Brown. 
 
6 
 
 //. Fatal Effects of Malaria in Equinoctial ^Africa. 
 
 1. It is at times saddening to read details of ravages in 
 
 the mission field occasioned by African fever, a type of 
 
 fever by no means confined to that Continent. Some of the 
 
 latest sketches of desolation which has thus been wrought 
 
 occur in the narratives given by Professor Drummond of 
 
 his exploratory journeyings between the East Coast and 
 
 Lake Tanganyeka. In these at one place he writes : 
 
 ' It was a brilliant summer morning when the ' Ilala * 
 
 steamed into Lake Nyassa ; and in a few hours we were 
 
 anchored in the little bay at Livingstonia. My first 
 
 impressions of this famous mission station certainly will 
 
 never be forgotten. Magnificent mountains of granite, 
 
 green to the summit with forests, encircled it, and on the 
 
 silver sand of a still smaller ba.y stood the small row of 
 
 trim white cottages. A neat path through a small garden 
 
 led up to the settlement, and I approached the largest 
 
 house and entered it. It was the Livingstonia manse — 
 
 the head missionary's house. It was spotlessly clean ; 
 
 Eno'li.sh furniture was in the room, a medicine chest, 
 
 • • • -I 
 
 and familiar-looking dishes were m the cupboards, 
 
 books were lying about, but there was no missionary. I 
 went to the next house — it was the School, the benches 
 were there and the blackboard, but there were no 
 scholars and no teacher. I passed to the next it was the 
 Blacksmith's Shop ; there were the tools and the anvil, 
 but there was no Blacksmith, and so on to the next and 
 the next, all in perfect order and all empty. Then a 
 native approached and led me a few yards into the forest, 
 and there among the mimosa trees under a huge granite 
 mountain were four or five graves ; these were the mis- 
 sionaries.' 
 
 Take another sketch: 'We struck across a low neck 
 of land, and after a few hours found ourselves suddenly 
 on the banks of the Zambesi. I saw that a red bungalow 
 was in sight, and opposite it the little steamer of the 
 
Africa Lakes Company, which was to take us up the 
 Shire. There is more in the association perhaps than in 
 the landscape to strike one as he furrows the waters of 
 this virgin river. We are fifty miles from its mouth ; 
 the mile-wide water is shallow and brown, the low sandy 
 banks fringed with alligators and wild birds ; the great 
 deltoid plain yellow with sun-tanned reeds and sparsely 
 covered with trees stretching on every side ; the sun is 
 blistering hot ; the sky as it will be for months, a mono- 
 tonous dome of blue — not a frank, bright blue like a 
 Canadian sky, but a veiled blue, a suspicious and Malarious 
 blue, partly due to the perpetual heat haze, and partly to 
 the imagination, for the Zambesi is no friend to the 
 European, and the whole region is heavy with saddening 
 memories. 
 
 'This impression perhaps was heightened by the fact 
 that we were to spend that night within a few yards of 
 the place where Mrs. Livingstone died. Late"^ in the 
 afternoon we reached the spot— a low ruined hut a 
 hundred yards from the river's bank, with a broad 
 verandah shading its crumbling walls. A grass-grown 
 path straggled to the doorway, and the fresh print of a 
 hippopotamus told how neglected this spot is now. 
 Pushing the door open we found ourselves in a long dark 
 room, its mud floor broken into fragments, and remains 
 of native flres betraying its latest occupants. Turning 
 to the right we entered a smaller chamber, the walls bare 
 and stained with two glassless windows facing the river. 
 The evening sun setting over the Morumballa mountains 
 silvering with his soft glow, took us back to that Sunday- 
 twenty years ago, when in the same bedroom at this 
 same hour Livingstone knelt over his dying wife, and 
 witnessed the great sunset of his life. Under a huge 
 Baobab tree — a miracle of vegetable vitality and luxuri- 
 ance — stands Mrs. Livingstone's grave. The picture in 
 Livingstone's book represents the place as well kept and 
 surrounded with neatl}^ planted trees ; but now it is an 
 utter wilderness marked by jungle grass, and trodden by 
 beasts of the forest ; and as I looked at the forsaken mound 
 
8 
 
 and contrasted it with her husband's tomb in Westminster 
 Abbey, ] thought perhaps the woman's love which 
 brought her to a spot like this, might be not less worthy 
 of immortality.' 
 
 Take yet another sketch — ' Our next stoppage was 
 to pay another homage — truly this is a tragic region — at 
 another white man's grave. A few years ago, Bishop 
 M'Kenzie and some other missionaries were sent to Africa 
 by the English Universities, with. instiTictions to try to 
 establish a mission in the footsteps of Livingstone. They 
 came here ; the climate overpowered them ; one by one 
 they sickened and died. With the death of the Bishop 
 himself the site was abandoned, and the few survivors 
 returned home. Among the hippopotamus trampled 
 reeds on the banks of the Shire, under the rough iron 
 cross, lies the first of three brave Bishops who have 
 already made their graves in Equatorial Africa.' 
 
 If we go again to the sacred spot, the grave of Mrs. 
 Livingstone, we find that there have been deposited there 
 the remains of yet another victim. 
 
 In the Report of the committee for the propagation of 
 the gospel in foreign parts to the General Assembly of 
 the Church of Scotland in 1888, in the account of 
 missionaries who had sailed in the course of the previous 
 year for East Africa, it is stated — ' The first and larger 
 missionary party reached Quilimane on 25th April. 
 Before leaving this country the}^ were assured that the 
 new steamer of the African Lakes Company would be 
 ready for them on their arrival. It was not ready ; and 
 after a detention of ten days they proceeded up the 
 Kwakwa, to make the ascent of the Zambesi, in the old 
 steamer, the Lady Nyassa. But the old steamer quickly 
 broke down, and they were stranded for weeks at- 
 Yicenti, on the Zambesi, near the confluence of the Shire 
 with the Zambesi, in a low and unhealthy country. 
 
 'Mrs. MLlwain had been married only two months- 
 
9 
 
 before at Braco, Perthshire, where her parent.s, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Cameron live. She was a younger sister of Mrs. 
 Duncan, who died at Blantyre a few years ago. Several 
 of the party suffered from malarious illness ; but with 
 Mrs. M'llwain the fever was very intense, and ran its 
 course in four days. She died on her twenty- first birth- 
 day, Sunday, the 29th of May, the day on which, as 
 already mentioned, we here were ordaining another 
 missionary for Africa [the Rev. Robert Cleland], who was 
 on that day, during the sitting of the Assembly, ordained 
 and commended to God as a missionary about to proceed 
 thither. She was buried at Shupanga, close to the 
 grave of Mrs. Livingstone. David Livingstone wrote in 
 his Last Journals — ' Poor Mary lies on ShupangdT Brae.' 
 And doubly sacred is now the place where this young wife 
 lies, as truly given for Africa as if she had spent a 
 lifetime in the mission field. 
 
 In the Mission Record of the Church of Scotland for 
 September, 1887, appears a letter of which the following 
 
 is a copy : 
 
 Vicenti Elver, Zambesi, 
 30th May, 1887. 
 
 My dear Mr. M'Murtie, — I have very very sad news. Mrs. 
 M'llwain died here yesterday of fever of a very intense kind. Could 
 Dy. Rankin Lreak the news to her poor mother and father, for whom I 
 am very sorry 1 I know what the grief in parting with her was to 
 them, for Mrs, Scott and 1 were at her wedding at Braco a few days 
 before we all left for Africa ; this is the second daughter given for 
 the kingdom of Christ in the heart of this dark land. Her death 
 was somewhat like her sister's in the heroic noble hold she had of 
 life and death. And she died conscience of entrance into heaven. 
 
 The fever ran its course in four days. I thought she was gone 
 in the first rush. Her pulse rose to 106 and beyond. At first she 
 said she could not see Christ and wished to see Him ; and we prayed, 
 and she did see Him. It was only for our sakes she consented to 
 pray that she might come back to life : when she did come the strong 
 life instincts returned, and she did do all she could. We got the 
 fever under before the second rise of temperature and the heart kept 
 steady : the third rise we also kept under, though it continued longer 
 than the second ; but the fever seemed in the fourth rise to gather 
 frightful force, and then the heart failed too. It (the temperature) 
 went up rapidly to 106, 107, 108, and past, and then we measured no 
 
10 
 
 more. The remedies seemed each to do what we wanted, and yet 
 nothing could stay it. She was almost gone, then she rallied, and 
 then the breathing ceased as Miss Beck was holding her head on her 
 kriee. It was her twenty-tirst birthday, Sunday the 29th May. 
 
 * Poor Mr. M'llwain is down at the mouth of the river ; I don't 
 know what this will be to him. He is a noble fellow. Both he and 
 Tanner are there helping on the steamer ; and we are here battling. 
 She must be buried to-day ; and we have selected Shupanga, where 
 Mrs. Livingstone is buried, as the spot. Here the bank washes 
 away every year. The grave is being dug, and Mr. Henderson of 
 Mompea is making the coffin. I can't tell you what this is to us all. 
 One thing we have all learnt— to give ourselves more, body and soul 
 for the work — not for ourselves, not for our Mission, not even to one 
 another — all that is ours — but to God's work among these people in 
 this seven-barred land. You've no idea how death breaks down the 
 bridge behind a mission party and launches us into God. 
 
 David Clement Scott. 
 
 The following is an extract from an account of the death 
 of Mrs. M'llwain in Life and Work, September, 1877, given 
 by the Rev. Dr. Scott, St. George's Church, Edinburgh : — 
 ' Her soul is with the saints, this we may safely trust, 
 while her earthly remains have been laid side by side 
 with those of Mrs. Livingstone, so that those who love 
 her and mourn her have the solace that her body in the 
 lone wilderness of Shupanga has been gathered to very 
 honoured dust. The Lord in his tenderness will be their 
 comforter.' 
 
 It is sad ! Mention is made of Miss Beck, a lady of whom 
 it is stated in the Report laid before the General Assembly, 
 that she takes no salary — her sisters at home providing 
 what is necessary by their own industry. In a letter to 
 her sisters at home, she wrote of her : — ' She took fever 
 on Thursday morning, and before night her pulse had risen 
 to 168, and temperature to 105'8. We got that under, and 
 also the second attack next day; there was a third attack 
 on the following day, not so bad, but from the beginning 
 of the fourth attack, on the fourth day, when her tempera- 
 ture rose to 108, we knew there was little hope. She 
 died on the fourth day. The doctor who afterwards 
 arrived seems to think that nothing would have saved 
 
11 
 
 her as it must have been a malignant fever from the first ; 
 and that the system must have been poisoned by a great 
 amount of malaria.' 
 
 And of herself she writes : — ' On Sabbath morning I 
 did not feel ver}^ well at breakfast, the result of having 
 been up late on the previous' night. I intended to go back 
 to bed, but as it was an exciting day did not manage this 
 till about two o'clock, when I drank some tea to induce per- 
 spiration, and lay down. In a short time they found that 
 my temperature was up to 105 and pulse 150. I did not 
 feel very ill nor at all alarmed, as I had often felt as ill 
 during an attack of sore throat. There was no pain and 
 I was only in bed for two days. The fever returned very 
 frequently afterwards for months, leaving me very well 
 in the interval. It gradually diminished in frequency till 
 there were about three weeks between the attacks.' 
 
 She wrote thus : — But I was told so ill was she on the 
 day of the funeral that the little company bore away the 
 remains of the departed under an impression that on their 
 return they would have to proceed with arrangements for 
 the burial of the writer. What was written was written 
 afterwards : she was then unconscious or delirious, and 
 wrote from what the friends who were well had told her. 
 In the same letter she wrote : ' Mr. M., another member of 
 the mission, is down this forenoon with a sharp attack of 
 fever. He was at breakfast this morning, and may be 
 up to-morrow again. I have not had any fever for 
 three or four days, and am feeling ail right.' 
 
 Two months later she wrote : — '14th July, 1887. — I 
 have had fever thrice since coming here. Dr. B. thinks I 
 may have it now and again for a little while yet. One 
 may have fever at night and be up in the morning. 
 25th July. — But having fever occasionally takes up much 
 more time.' 
 
 Happily she recovered, and some eighteen months 
 later she wrote under date of 14th December, 1888 : — 'I 
 had a little, a very little fever that night. It returned 
 
12 
 
 for three nights, and I am better now. I had not had 
 fever for more than a year before.' 
 
 But while she thus recovered at Blantyre, a younger 
 patient, with more than youth in her favour, had died. 
 Mr. Hetherwick, in a very interesting Mission Journal, 
 writes of the death of a native girl at Blantyre : 
 
 Monday, 25th April. — Several children have come from Chirazula 
 to stay with us. This is the first time we have had any from such a 
 distance. Saturday, 21st May. — This afternoon one of the manse- 
 house girls died after twenty-four hours' illness. She took ill 
 yesterday afternoon with symptoms of severe fever. At evening she 
 was a little better, but this morning dangerous symptoms manifested 
 themselves, and she sank into a comatose condition. Everything 
 possible was done for her, but to no purpose, and at two o'clock she 
 died. She Wd,s the first of the Chirazula girls who came to Blantyre, 
 and I am anxious as to how the people may look on the matter. 
 Sunday, 22nd May. — The parents and friends of the girl arrived 
 . . . Very touching was the stifled grief — stifled for our sakes, be- 
 cause they knew we should not wish the usual native wailing. 
 Monday, 23rd May. — The girl who died on Saturday was buried to- 
 day ... I spoke by the open grave of the resurrection from the 
 dead ; but how could they comprehend it on whose ears the news had 
 fallen for the first time ? If anything could make a man a missionary, 
 'tis the sight of a native mourning and f aneral. Is it not something 
 to be even the bearer of the tidings of Him who said, ' I am the 
 Eesurrection and the Life?' Tuesday, 24th May. — The Chirazula 
 people left to-daj — the mother saying she would be back soon : 'her 
 heart was here now where her child had died.' 
 
 As a companion picture to those given by Professor 
 Drummond of this region may be given the following by 
 Captain Lugard from an interesting article entitled — ' A 
 glimpse of Lake Nyassa,' which appeared in Blackwood's 
 Magazine of January last. ' . . . Hurriedly we pass 
 over the four or five days' boat journey up the Kwakwa 
 river from our starting point on the coast at Quilimane, 
 for this is not ' a thino^ to memory dear.' Yet it has its 
 fascinations. The trees on either bank drooping into the 
 silent river, great-limbed acacias with their feathery 
 foliage and sweet-scented yellow blossoms, and large fig 
 trees festooned with giant creepers ; the glorious, though 
 for you too powerful, sunshine ; the cheery and incessant 
 boatmen's song as they dip their paddles simultaneously 
 
13 
 
 to the cadence ; the lovely tinted reed-warblers and gay 
 butterjflies ; and soaring above all the great fish-eagle with 
 his weird cry, more weird and striking even than the 
 lion's roar. All these are new to us, and charm us. But 
 as evening falls the curse of the Kwakwa, the myriads on 
 myriads of mosquitoes come forth^ — a misty army athirst 
 for blood — and we are only too glad to light a fire of 
 green w^ood and sit in the blinding smoke, though it draws 
 involuntary tears from our eyes, to escape the smarting 
 pain of their venemous bites. The night is a weary one, 
 for no mosquito-net seems proof on the Kwakwa ; and in 
 our very dreams we wonder what human fiends the Bud- 
 dist creed deems to be fit tenants after death of the 
 mosquito world. The indispensible morning dip is some- 
 what hazardous, for the river is full of crocodiles. So we 
 reach the end of the Kwakwa journey where we must 
 transfer ourselves and our efiects across to the Zambesi, a 
 portage of four miles. This is a noble river, perhaps 
 three-quarters of a mile wide here. We are still in the 
 fever zone, and shall be till we leave the river. Almost 
 opposite is the mighty baobab tree, under which lies 
 Livingstone's wife, and other graves around testify to the 
 fatal malaria of the place. . . . Soon we branch off" 
 to our right, and ascend the Shire, a broad, fine river, 
 running into the Zambesi, and push on through the 
 Morambala Marshes, with the great mountain looming in 
 front and on our right ; and if you have not already had 
 an attack of fever I can promise it to you here. As we 
 wind in and out along the dead flat country the Moram- 
 bala mountain assumes new shapes, and is now on our 
 right and now on our left, and anon almost behind us, so 
 interminable are the windings of the river, but it seems to 
 get no nearer. 
 
 ' Islands of water-cabbage and vegetable debris of all 
 kinds float past us, and so we reach a pass through the 
 Elephant marshes. Doubtless in no very distant past all 
 this country was a shallow lake over which the great 
 Morambala kept silent ^vatch in the times when these 
 dreary swamps had never echoed to the sound of the 
 
14 
 
 white man's rifle. Many indeed believe that the ancient 
 Portuguese discoveries of a great lake with a mountain 
 rising out of it referred to these swarnps then flooded, and 
 not to the real Nyassa as now alleged. . . . Next day 
 we are at the end of our first river voyage. A. weary 
 climb for thirt}' miles up gradients which highlanders 
 may think trifling — for we are among Scotsmen now — 
 but which an averao^e man is o^lad to see behind and be- 
 low him, and we are at Mandala and Blantyre, some 3000 
 feet above the level of the sea. We have agreed to 
 journey on the lake, but you mus^: halt here, or you 
 would outrage the generous Scotch hospitality ; besides 
 there is only one Blant3^re in Africa, and nothing like 
 it anvwhere else. Savao;e Africa lies all around, but 
 passing up the long avenue of blue Eucalypti we find 
 ourselves in an oasis of civilisation, the more striking and 
 complete from the contrast. Well built and neatly 
 thatched houses of solid brick enclosing a square beauti- 
 fully kept in shrubs and flowers, all watered by a highly 
 skilful system of irrigation channels — which bring the 
 water from a distant brook — give a British homely charm 
 to the picture, and disarm surprise when we find well 
 stocked kitchen gardens, carpenters' shops, brickmaking 
 and laundry establishments all around us. The mission 
 children are dressed in spotlessly clean clothes, and look 
 bright and happy. . . . The children are not hap- 
 hazard comers, here to-day and absent by some whim to- 
 morrow, but boarders, manv comino from far, the sons of 
 chiefs and headsmen. Over this little model colony 
 presides the Genii Loci — Rev. D. C. Scott, and his wife ; 
 and I know not which exercises the greatest influence for 
 good. This influence is extraordinary for no one more 
 quickly recognises the real gentleman than the African 
 sav^age. It is a tempting spot to linger in, either in fact 
 or on paper. I would like to write fully of the Shire 
 Highlands, of the very pretty church, so pretentious in 
 its architectural beauty as to have gained the sobriquet 
 of the 'Blantyre Cathedral;' of Dr. Bowie and his work; 
 of Mandala, and of Mr. Moir's many experiments with 
 
15 
 
 dogs, goats, horses, poultry ; or of the coffee plantations, 
 and of Mr. Buchanan's sugar and coffee at Zoniba ; but 
 we must push on to Nyassa, and I must refer you to Mr. 
 Buchanan's interesting book.'* 
 
 Thus far Captain Lugard — but I must pause to remark 
 that here it was, in the midst of such surroundino-s, that 
 the young pupil at the Mission School died of fever ; that 
 here we read of a beginning made in the culture of the 
 Eucalyptus ; that here Miss Beck resided for years after 
 her attack of fever on the river; and that possibly the 
 little girl had brought the disease with her in an incipient 
 form. I know nothing more than has been stated ; and 
 this is by far too little to warrant me to press any 
 argument which might be raised on such facts ; but with 
 the magnitude of the interests at stake in view, I do not 
 feel free to pass them without remark. Blantyre is a 
 missionary station of the Church of Scotland. 
 
 Of Livingstonia, Captain Lugard writes: — 'The view 
 as we steam in the little ' Ilala ' round Cape JMaclear into 
 the old mission of Livingstonia is picturesque in the ex- 
 treme. A few feet from the shore we are in blue water, 
 many fathoms deep, yet so clear that we can see the 
 bottom as it were but a foot below us, and the water- 
 growths, and shells, and many coloured fishes. Above 
 and behind us tower the rugged boulders of the hills, and 
 in front of this fairy port are a series of islands standing 
 out to sea, behind which the setting sun shows with a 
 glory that is superb as it sinks below Nyassa Lake. 
 Much as I have travelled I have seen I think no lovelier 
 spot in my life. Clear as crystal to look at, the water of 
 Nyassa proves under analysis to be as good as it looks. 
 There is singularly little flotsam cast ashore by the waves, 
 and no floating debris on the waters, spite of the large 
 quantity of wood and vegetation borne into the lake by 
 the rivers then in flood.' Where could a more delectable 
 site for a home be found ? Yet this is Livingstonia 
 which had been ravaged by the fever 1 
 
 * " The Shire Highlands " by J. Buchanan. 
 
16 
 
 Of the new mission of the Free Church of Scotland 
 at Bandawe, he writes : — ' Skirting up the west coast we 
 come to the mission station of Bandawe on the lake shore, 
 lat. 12° Dr. and Mrs. Laws have effected wonders here ; 
 their schools are thronged and the practical nature of the 
 work is invaluable. But I must not allow myself to 
 digress into a description of an African mission station, 
 however tempting. Dr. Laws' contributions to science 
 and his extensive information have made his name 
 celebrated as the scientific referee on all Nyassa 'ologies. 
 The people among whom he lives and works are the 
 Atonga.' 
 
 Dr. Laws was connected with the United Presbyterian 
 Church in Scotland ; but was given b}^ himself, or by the 
 mission board of that Church, or by both conjointly to 
 the Free Church Mission in this reo-ion, as Miss Beck, a 
 member of the Free Church, gave herself at the desire of 
 Mr. Scott, to the mission of the Church of Scotland at 
 Blantyre. Thus are different sections of the Church co- 
 operating to elevate the natives of the land in knowledge 
 and civilisation, in orodliness and virtue. 
 
 2. Of scenery on the Congo, like graphic and pleasing 
 pictures, have been given ; but there too fever has been in 
 like manner destructive of life amono-st those who have 
 gone thither to carr}^ on the work of Christ. 
 
 Even since this year began, intelligence has reached 
 us that there another victim has fallen, ' perished 
 in all the leaves of his spring.' The, Missionary 
 Herald of the Baptist Missionary Society, issued in 
 February last, tells of the arrival at Underbill Station of 
 four missionaries from that Society to the Congo tribes, 
 one a missionary returning to his self-denying work, the 
 others entering for the first time upon the field. In the 
 next issue, that for March, appears an engraving from a 
 photograph of them, taken at Madeira, by a friend of the 
 mission, with a sister in the field. But the same issue 
 tells that one of them was now no more a suflTering 
 
17 
 
 soldier of the Cross ; ere the announcement of his arrival 
 had reached this land, he had been called to join the 
 great multitude of every nation and kindred and tongue 
 and people who have washed their robes and made them 
 white in the Blood of the Lamb, and now stand before 
 the throne of God. Within a fortnio-ht after his arrival 
 he died. Mr. Oram, the missionary at San Salvador, the 
 station at which the youthful missionary died, thus 
 communicates to Dr. IJnderhill the circumstances of 
 his death : — 
 
 Sau Salvador, 
 
 December 31st, 1889. 
 
 My tear Dr. Underhill, — It grieves me much that my first 
 letter to you should have to be a report of such sad news as 1 have 
 now to write. 
 
 Our brother, William F. Wilkinson, arrived here on the 14th 
 of this month to assist during the absence of Mr. Lewis ; and it was 
 hoped that on the return to the station of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, and 
 Mr. and Mrs. Graham, he and I would have the pleasure of travelling 
 to Wathen together. 
 
 For the lirst week our brother had capital health, and he was 
 rejoicing to tliink that he had escaped fevers for so long a time. He 
 had his first experience of African fever when I myself had a slight 
 touch of it, which kept me in bed on the 23rd inst, during which 
 day he conducted the business of the station. The following 
 morning I was up to breakfast, but Mr. Wilkinson complained of 
 headache and a poor night, so after a slight breakfast he returned for a 
 rest to his bedroom. At noon, I went in to take his temperature, and 
 found he was in fever. He was rolled up in blankets, and perspired, 
 but the temperature could not be brought low enough to take quinine 
 effectaally till the following morning, when I administered about 20 
 grains while a chance was ottered. It was well that I did so, for his 
 temperature did not decline below 103 during the rest of this and 
 the following day. 
 
 He was watched carefully by senior lads, besides my own 
 attendance, who did for him all that a sick man requires. Nlekai, 
 ■our assistant schoolmaster, stayed awake with him on alternate 
 nights, but would frequently come in during the day also. 
 
 On Saturday, the fever seemed to abate somewhat, and then he, 
 for the first time, felt the quinine at work by the usual humming in 
 the ears. We all entertained great hopes for the Sunday, especially 
 as in the evening he felt a desire to sleep. I had just gone to bed, 
 when the boy who was with him came in to tell me that Mr. 
 Wilkinson had seen a snake on his bed. I went in to find him in 
 a great state of alarm, and out of bed. I searched, but, as I 
 
18 
 
 expected, found no snake : he then told me of strange dreams he had 
 dreamed. He becauie quieter and I returned to my bed (because for 
 my own health I knew I must not stay up night and day), leaving 
 him with his attendant. At midnight Mr. Wilkinson awoke again 
 and sent in for me. He told me of other dreams, which showed that 
 his mind was wandering. I then sat with him a while and read 
 some favourite hymns for him to fix his thoughts upon ; he then 
 repeated one of his favourites. 
 
 Before leaviiig I sent for Nlekai, who remained with him 
 throuoh the night. The Portuguese doctor was in attendance. 
 
 But in spite of all, the temperature continued to rise and the 
 delirium accordingly with extreme violence. Once he spoke of his 
 desire to be engaged in the work at Bolobo, and his sorrow that now 
 he could not go there ; at another time he offered aloud a long earnest 
 prayer for the work, quite intelligible although it was in delirium. 
 But later on the mind becaine confused. The doctor and an English- 
 speaking gentleman came in three or four times and showed very 
 great sympathy and kindness, but when the fever mounted up to 106, 
 and finally to 107 "8, the doctor saw it was a bad case. 
 
 At 9'30 delirium suddenly ceased, coma set in, and the 
 breathing became harder and more gasping, and finally ceased at 
 ten o'clock. 
 
 The end was a wonderful contrast to the wild delirium of the 
 whole Sunday. The boys were all present when they knew that the 
 end was nigh, and over the bed we joined in prayer before we parted 
 for the night. But though we went to bed, there was little sleep for 
 some of us. To say I cim sorry he is gone is saying little. I miss 
 him intensely. For fifteen days only we were together. He was 
 very earnest in seeking souls, and in the work he undertook found 
 much delight. The blank his death has made causes much loneliness. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Lewis will, I trust, be here by the end of next week, 
 as also Mr. and Mrs. Graham, and probably they will write to you 
 further and also t o the friends of Mr. Wilkinson. A very full account of 
 the fever has been recorded, which by next mail shall be sent for 
 Dr. Roberts' inspection. 
 
 The chapel was filled with Congo friends at the funeral 
 yesterday. The Resident and Commandant, also the Dutch and 
 Portuguese traders (who displayed the warmest sympathy), were 
 present at the grave. 
 
 With kindest i-egards to yourself and deepest sympathy with 
 the bereaved friends at home, and not least with the work which calls 
 for men and help, 
 
 I am, my dear Dr. Underhill, 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 Frederic R. Oram. 
 
 1 have no reason to suppose that the missionaries of the 
 
19 
 
 Society by which Mr. Wilkinson was sent to the Congo 
 have been exceptionally exposed to the malaria of the 
 region to which they went. Some of them were 
 exceptionally favourably prepared for the occupation of 
 such a sphere of labour, having been in some measure 
 acclimitised by previous residence and labour at the 
 Cameroons : and yet, from a list of the missionaries' 
 reports, it appears that of forty-two missionaries, 
 inclusive of ladies, sent out in the decade, 1877-1886, 
 there were only sixteen in the field in September 
 last, 1889 : one, an engineer, was in Britain, studying 
 medicine ; another, a lady, was in Britain, learning 
 nursing — both with a view to future work. The 
 following is the record of the rest : — 
 
 Rev. T. J. Comber, sent to Con^o, 1877, transferred from Cameroons 
 
 Mission, died on board s.s. 'Lula Bohlen,' and was 
 
 buried at Majumba, 27th June, 1887. 
 Mrs. T. J. Comber, sent to Congo, 1879, died at San Salvador, 24tli 
 
 August, 1879. 
 Eev. H. E. Crudgington, sent to Congo, 1879, invalided and sent to 
 
 India, 1885. 
 Mrs. Crudgington, sent to Congo, , invalided and sent to India, 
 
 1885. 
 Rev. J. S, Hartland, sent to Congo, 1879, Died at Bayneston, 12th 
 
 May, 1883. 
 Rev. H. Dixon, sent to Congo, 1881, invalided and sent to China. 
 Rev. W. H. Doke, sent to Congo, 1882, died at Underbill, 14th 
 
 February, 1883. 
 Rev. H. W. Butclier, sent to Congo. 1882, died at Manyanga, 15th 
 
 October, 1883. 
 Rev. W. Hughes, sent to Congo, 1882, invalided and at present in 
 
 England. 
 Rev. S. A. Comber, M.B., sent to Congo, 1883, died at Wathen, 
 
 24th December, 1884. 
 Rev. Wm. Ross, sent to Congo, 1883, invalided and at present in 
 
 England. 
 Rev. H. G. Whitley, sent to Congo, 1883, died at Lukungu, 3rd 
 
 August, 1887. 
 Rev. J. W. Hartley, sent to Congo, 1883, died at Manyanga, 1st 
 
 March, 1884. 
 Mr. Wm. Douglas, engineer, sent to Congo, 1883, died at Manyanga, 
 
 March, 1884. 
 Mr, Arthur Baker, engineer, sent to Congo, 1883, died at Manyanga, 
 
 March, 1884. 
 
20 
 
 Mr. Minis, engineer, sent to Congo, 1SS3, died at Wathen, 27th 
 
 September, 1884. 
 Eev. F. C. Darling, sent to Congo, 1884, died at Underhill, 19th 
 
 March, 1S87. 
 Eev. A. BT. Cruickshank, sent to Congo, 1884, died at Wathen, 
 
 27th Marcii, 1885. 
 Eev. D McMillan, sent to Congo, 1884, died at Underhill, 9th 
 
 March, 1885. 
 Eev. A. Cowe, sent to (~*ono;o, 1885, died at San Salvador, 21st 
 
 May, 1885. 
 Eev. W. F. Cottingham, sent to Congo, 1885, died at Underhill, 
 
 8th June, 1885. 
 Eev. J. E. Biggs, sent to Congo. 1885, died at Arthington, 26th 
 
 August, 1887. 
 Eev. J. Maynard, sent to Congo, 1885, died at Underhill, 28th 
 
 January, ]c86. 
 Eev. M. Eichards, sent to Congo, 1885, died at Banana (mouth of 
 
 Congo), 19th August, 1888. 
 Eev. S. Silvey, sent to Congo, 1886, transferred from Cameroons. 
 Dr. Seright, sent to Congo, 1886, invalided and returned to England, 
 
 1886. 
 Eev. J. H. Shindler, sent to Congo, 1886, died at Underhill, 19th 
 
 March, 1887. 
 
 I have not the testimony which would warrant me to 
 say that all of these were the victims of Malarious Fever. 
 But I know that that fever is accompanied by so many 
 complications, is so frequently masked by other diseases, 
 and is so prevalent, of such frequent occurrence, and 
 leaves so many predispositions to the same or other 
 diseases — that I have no doubt that a majority,, 
 comprising almost the whole of them, may reasonably be 
 reckoned victims of that malady : and, continuously, 
 additions are being made to the number of the slaim 
 The death of Mr. Wilkinson, who arrived on the Congo 
 in the middle of December, and was buried on the 30th of 
 the month, closes the record for 1889, and on the 2nd of 
 January, 1890, the record of another year was opened for 
 another victim to African fever on the west coast. 
 
 3. Passing northwards to the Gult of Guinea, the whole 
 southern coast fi'om the Cameroons by the Bight of 
 Benin, the Gold Coast, and onward to Sierra Leone, we 
 
21 
 
 pass through what has long been considered a hot-bed of 
 fever, thouo-h there also in the brio-ht sunshine the 
 scenery may be considered enchanting — to the mortality 
 amongst missionaries to Calabar alone can I here direct 
 attention. 
 
 Thence Mr. Reeve Johnstone, a missionary there, in the 
 following letter to Mr. Gates. General Secretary of the 
 Young Men's Christian Associations and Fellowship Unions 
 of Scotland, reported the death of Mr. James Henderson, 
 who, with the writer of the letter, was well known to 
 many as one of the Christian workers in Glasgow before 
 fifoinof out to the mission Held on the Calabar river : — 
 
 Mission House, O'Bombois Beach, 
 Umon, 6th January, 1890. 
 
 My dExVr Friend, — Again it is my sad lot to be the medium of 
 mournful tidings — James Henderson fell asleep in Jesus on Thursday, 
 2nd January, at 7*45 p.m., at Ikorana, in the house of Mr. Jarret, 
 the XT. P. missionary there. His illness was of a bilious type, and 
 latterly a i^evere hiccough seemed to hasten the end. 
 
 His final illness lasted a week or so — he took ill on Christmas 
 day. I had been down myself with fever, and was getting better of 
 it when he took agae, which ran its course, when fever ensued, and 
 with it severe vomitiLg, which lasted with little intermission till his 
 death. I asked him if he would like to go tc Calabar to see the 
 doctor. He said no. He said he would prefer going to Ikorana, 
 which is about ten miles up river from here, and stay with Mr. and 
 Mrs. Jarret. I had previously written to the Jarrets asking advice, 
 and they sent some medicine and an invitation to come up, so we 
 went up on Monday. It appears he got on well till Wednesday 
 morning, when the vomiting began again. He fought against it 
 manfully, until, feeling he could hold out no longer, he told Mrs. 
 Jarret he was dying. He seemed so bright and happy all the time 
 that Mrs. Jarret was slow to realise the true position. He said 
 'Yes, I am going. I came out to do the Lord's work, and it is bnt 
 little I have done ; but if He sees it right to take me away, His will 
 be done.' Then tenderly referring to a young lady to whom he was 
 about to be married, he said, ' I will never see her on earth again ; 
 but I will see her in the tnoming.^ He bade the teacher's wife and all 
 around good-bye ; then after Mr. Jarret had prayed with him, he 
 said, 'Amen,' and, composing himself for a little, he went smiling 
 into glory — the battle fought, the victory won. 
 
 Thus died James Henderson one of the sweetest deaths man 
 ever died, leaving a blessed testimony to the truth of the word, 
 ' Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will 
 
22 
 
 fear no evil, for Thou are with me.' The valley was light, for Jesus 
 was there. Mr. Jarret, who was present, says he thought he was 
 falling asleep, when he fell into the arms of Jesus. Before he died he 
 repeated several texts, and part of the hymn, ' Shall we all meet at 
 Home in the morning V Mr. Jarret sent for me post haste, but ere I 
 arrived he was in heaven. On Friday, Mr. Jarret and I, with the 
 teacher, made his coffin, and held a service at the house, to which a 
 few came, Mr. Jarret read in I. Cor. xv., and ere he reached the 
 end, broke down. He spoke a few words to those present, and with 
 tears pleaded with them to turn to Jesus. At the grave he tried 
 to sing, 'Shall we meet at Home in the morning?' but it fell flat ; 
 for who could sing with a sad heart 'I and, truly, mine was sad and 
 heavy. A year ago I buried poor Gardner at Duketown, and now 
 Henderson at Ikoraua. 'Who shall be next?' is the awfully 
 solemn question which suggests itself. I am extremely sorry for 
 
 Miss , who was just coming out to be married to our departed 
 
 friend. 
 
 The United Presbyterian Missions to Calabar, like the 
 missions of the Baptist Society to the Congo, has its 
 honourable but saddening list of martyrs, men and not 
 less noble women, who have hazarded their lives in the 
 service of Christ, and have fallen 'countino- not their 
 lives dear unto them that they might finish their course 
 with joy and the minis tr}^ they had received of the Lord 
 Jesus to testify of the grace of God.' The Rev. Mr. 
 Anderson, one of the oldest of the missionaries to 
 Calabar, and at present in this country for an operation 
 for Cataract, on my application has supplied to me the 
 following list of missionaries to Calabar who are now 
 dead, with the accompanying reference to volume and 
 pages of the Churches' Missionary Record, in which 
 notices of the several deaths are given. 
 
 Edmund Miller (Xegro), Jamaica, at F. Po., Dec, 1846, see Record, 
 
 May, 1847, p. 75. 
 Rev. Wm. Jameson, Scotland, Creek Town, Aug. 5, 1847, see Record, 
 
 Jan., 1848, p. 4. 
 Alex. Sutherland, Scotland, Old Town, April, 20, 1856, see Record, 
 
 Aug., 1856, p. 136. 
 Rev. Sam. Edgerley, sen., England, Duke Town, May 25, 1857, see 
 
 Eecord, Aug., 1857, p. 148. 
 Mrs. Timson 1st, Scotland, Creek Town, Sept. 11, 1858, see Record, 
 
 Jan., 1859, p. 9. 
 
23 
 
 Henry Hamilton, Jamaica, Creek Town, Sept. 23, 1858, see Kecorcl, 
 
 Jan., 1859, p. 4, 
 Mary Stuart, Gala Water, Old Town, Sept. 26, 1858, see Eecord, 
 
 Jan., 1859, p. 10. 
 Mary Cowan, Jamaica, Ikeropion, Sept. 13, 1862, see Eecord, Dec, 
 
 1862, p. 227. 
 Eev. Jo. Baillie, Scotland, Edinburgh, May 7, 1864, see Eecord, May, 
 
 1864, p. 127. 
 
 Eev. Z. Baillie, Scotland, Liverpool, Aug. 4, 1865, see Eecord, Oct., 
 
 1865, p. 190. 
 
 Eev. Wm. Timson, Scotland, Ikamter, Jan. 10, 1870, see Eecord, 
 
 Sept., 1870, p. 263. 
 D. E. Lewis, Wales, Creek Town, Aug. 8, 1870, see Eecord, Nov., 
 
 1870, p. 313. 
 Eev. Jo. Granger, Scotland, Ikamter, Dec. 9, 1870, see Eecord, 
 
 March, 1871, p. 405. 
 Geo. Ashworth, England, Creek Town, Aug. 8, 1871, see Eecord, 
 
 Oct., 1871, p. 644. 
 Euph. Johnston, Scotland, Creek Town, Jan. 5, 1873, see Eeport, 
 
 Oct., 1873, p. 635. 
 Mrs. Timson 2nd (Margery Beety), Scotland, Duke Town, Sept. 20, 
 
 1873, see Eecord, Dec, 1873, p. 685. 
 Alex. Morton, Scotland, Duke Town, Jan. 1, 1877, see Eecord, April, 
 
 1879, p. 431. 
 Euph. Sutherland, Scotland, Duke Town, Oct. 14, 1881, see Eecord, 
 
 Jan., 1882, p. 13. 
 L. Anderson, Jamaica, Duke Town, Jan. 26, 1882, see Eecord, April, 
 
 1882, p. 92. 
 Eev. D. Williamson, Scotland, at sea, Jan. 30, 1882, see Eecord, 
 
 March, 1882, p. 57. 
 Eev. S. H. Edgerley, Jamaica, Dnke Town, Feb. 24, 1883, see Eecord, 
 
 April, 1883, p. 153. 
 Mrs. Beedie 1st, Scotland, Scotland, Jan. 26, 1886, see Eecord, 1886. 
 Mrs. Beedie 2nd, Scotland, at sea, Oct., 1887. 
 
 On applying to Mr. Anderson for information in 
 regard to the immediate cause of death, he informed me 
 that he believed that Mr. Jameson was of the number of 
 those who died from fever ; and that a goodly number 
 have died of diseases directly connected with the climate ; 
 but that he can remember few cases of which he could say 
 that African fever was the immediate cause of death. It 
 is from what I know of the frequency with which 
 intermittent fever is masked by other diseases, and the 
 frequency with which death, though attributable directly 
 
24 
 
 to fever, is the immediate consequence of complications 
 thereby induced, that in the case of these, as in the case 
 of those who have fallen in the Congo Mission of the 
 Baptist Society, I have, after consideration, given all the 
 names supplied to me. 
 
 Lately I had sent to me the following extract frDm 
 a letter, from a missionary whom I highly esteem, to one 
 of bis former fellow-students : ' The damp — the perpetual 
 drip — for it w^as the rainy season, tried the constitution 
 rather severely. Again and again I went down under 
 the prostrating touch of fever and arose but to fall once 
 more.' And I have seen another letter of another date 
 to another fellow-student, in which he ss^ys : ' It is of the 
 utmost importance that this house be put up as earty as 
 possible, as to live in an African house in fche rainy 
 season is chiefly productive of fever : and I have had my 
 share already of the embraces of this fiery foe.' 
 
 4. Of the bearers of evil tidings to Job we read that 
 whilst the first was yet speaking there came a second ; 
 and while he was yet speaking there came also a third ; 
 and whilst he was yet speaking there came also another. 
 When the circular prefixed to these details was issued, 
 Mr. Wilkinson, a missionary to the Congo, was on his 
 deathbed ; and a few days thereafter he was in his grave. 
 Scarcely was he buried when Mr. Henderson, a missionary 
 to Calabar, sickened and died and was buried. And since 
 these sheets were put into the hands of the printer, the 
 Church Missionary Societ}^ has received a telegram from 
 Zanzibar announcing the death from fever, of Mr. Alex. 
 Mackay. When Mr. Stanley's memorable letter from 
 Uganda appeared in Nov. 18, 1875, and led to the Church 
 Missionar}^ Society undertaking a mission to the Victoria 
 Nyanza, Alexander Mackay was one of the first to ofier 
 his services. He was then a mechanical engineer at 
 Berlin, and proved to be a singularly alDle and 
 accomplished young man. He sailed for Africa with 
 other members of the first party on April 27, 1876. On 
 the journey inland he was taken ill, and was sent back to 
 
25 
 
 the coast, but he refused to leave for England, and for 
 more than a year he was engaged in making a rough 
 road from the coast to Mpwapwa when news reached him 
 of the death of Lieutenant Shergold Smith and Mr. O'Neill 
 on the Victoria Nyanza. He pushed on to join the Rev. 
 C. T. Wilson, who was then alone in Uganda, He arrived 
 at Mteso's capital in December, 1878, and from that time 
 until July, 1887, Uganda was his home. At length the 
 bitter hostility of the Arab traders virtually drove him 
 out, but even then he would not come to England but 
 remained at the south end of the great lake, where Mr. 
 Stanley found him in September last, and where, it is 
 presumed, he has now died. 
 
 Under date of October 15, 1889, Mr. Stanley wrote 
 from Ugogo to Mr. A. L. Bruce, son-in-law of Dr. 
 Livingstone : ' I take this powerful body of native 
 Christians in the heart of Africa — who prefer exile for 
 the sake of their faith to serving a monarch indifferent or 
 hostile to their faith — as more substantial evidence of the 
 work of Mackay than any number of imposing structures 
 clustered toofether and called a mission station would be. 
 These native Africans have endured the most deadly 
 persecutions ; the stake and the fire, the cord and the 
 club, the sharp knife and the rifle bullet have all been 
 tried to cause them to reject the teachings they have 
 absorbed. Staunch in their beliefs, firm in their 
 convictions, they have held together stoutly and 
 resolutely, and Mackay and Ashe may point to these 
 with a righteous pride as a result of their labours to the 
 good kindly people at home who trusted them. I 
 suppose you do not know Mackay personally. Well he is 
 a Scotsman — the toughest little fellow you could 
 conceive ; young, too — probably 32 years or so, and bears 
 the climate splendidly — even his complexion is uninjured 
 — not African! sed yet by any means, despite twelve 
 years' continued residence. . . . Mackay plods on, 
 despite every disadvantage, sees his house gutted and his 
 flock scattered, and yet, with an awful fear of breach of 
 duty, clings with hopefulness to a good time coming, 
 
26 
 
 when the natives of the country will be able to tell out 
 to each other the good news of ' peace and goodwill to 
 men '.' 
 
 Yes, another man of might has fallen ! 
 
 The Editor of the British Weekly thus writes of 
 him : — 
 
 'The most popular missionary of the day is dead.' So the 
 Record last week commenced its article on Mackay of Uganda. It 
 seems bnt yesterday since he was my constant companion. He w^as 
 a native of Ehynie, the birthplace of James Macdonell, of the 
 Times, and the homes of the two families almost touched one 
 another. He was brought np under the shadow of Taj) o' Noth, the 
 hill which I daily saw at a distance of but four miles. How well I 
 remember his bright boyish face, his blue eyes, his cheerful good- 
 nature, and his extraordinary mechanical ingenuity. He did not 
 look down upon his juniors, but was ever ready to join in schemes 
 of work and play. Considering that he was the son of one of the 
 most eminent geographers of the day, it is not wonderful that he 
 showed surpassing skill in map drawing ; some of his productions 
 are before my eyes at this moment. Cheerful, courageous, indefati- 
 gable, inexhaustible in resource, and devoted to the Kingdom of 
 Christ, he found his true sphere in Uganda ; and his name, as one 
 of the most illustrious and self-sacrificing pioneers of Christianity 
 and civilisation in Africa, t\ ill never be forgotten. The story of his 
 early years is told below by him who could most fitly tell it, and it 
 is needless to add a word : — 
 
 Mr. Mackay was the eldest son of the Eev. Dr. Mackay, 
 formerly Free Church minister at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, now 
 residing at Yentnor, Isle of Wight. He was born in the Free 
 Church Manse, Bhynie, October 13th, 1849, and received his early 
 education at home, both parents contributing their share. Amid 
 his numerous other duties and engagements, pastoral and literary, 
 Dr. Mackay always made a point of devoting one hour daily to the 
 instruction of his children. 
 
 Short as this may appear to be, it is astonishing what great 
 progress may thus be made when the prescribed lessons have been 
 thoroughly prepared. 
 
 The future missionar}^ evinced almost incredible precocity. 
 He could read the Bible at the early age of three ; and before he 
 was four he was well acquainted with the geography of Europe. 
 In his father's study there hung a large wall map of Europe by 
 Chambers. The little boy, taking a rod in his hand, would instantly 
 point to any country, capital, or other important town and large 
 river or mountain chain contained in the map. Before he was ten 
 years of age he had acquired a fair knowledge of all the branches 
 
27 
 
 of a good English educatiou. But one hour a day's tuition left only 
 a very small margin for the elements of Latin and Greek, though 
 these were by no means wholly neglected. Owing to local causes 
 Dr. Mackay found it impossible to send his children to the parish 
 school, ver)^ much to their loss. 
 
 Hence Alexander was sent at a very early age to the Grammar 
 School of Old Aberdeen, in oi'de-r to obtain a competent classical 
 education, and especially to qualify him at the November term to 
 carry a bursary or scholarship, so as to enable him to enter the 
 University, where, during a curriculum of four years in the arts 
 classes, his education would be without expense to his father, whose 
 salary as a Free Church minister could not otherwise sufhce to give 
 a University education to his sons. For two years Alexander 
 attended this ver/ celebrated Grammar School, and added greatly to 
 his stock of knowledge. But when the day of competition for 
 bursaries arrived he found he had no chance amidst so many com- 
 petitors, most of whom had thrown their whole mind into the art 
 of translating English into idiomatic Latin. Indeed, it was this art 
 that was mainly taught at the Grammar School of Old Aberdeen, 
 for this alone would be of any service in carrying a schalorship in 
 those days. His failure at the competition very grievously disap- 
 pointed both of his parents, who had destined him for the ministry, 
 should it be the will of God. In short, this was the turning point 
 of his future career. Had he carried that scholarship, in all proba- 
 bility he would never have gone to Africa as a missionary. 
 
 But this could not be, for God had ordained that he should be 
 instrumental in the conversion of so many precious souls in Uganda. 
 Soon after this his mother died, at the early age of thirty-nine. He 
 was the child of many prayers. She carefully instructed him in 
 Divine truth, and early dedicated him to the Lord, whom she 
 devoutly loved and faithfully served. 
 
 In 1867, Dr. Mackay resigned his ministerial charges in Aber- 
 deenshire, and, with his family, went to reside in Edinburgh. It 
 was determined that Alexander should study practical engineering, 
 and he was sent to learn his future profession with Miller & Herbert, 
 whose large establishment was in Leith Walk. Here, however, he 
 was permitted to attend several classes at the University of Edin- 
 burgh. Amongst these were the higher Greek class, and the higher 
 mathematical class, taught by Professor Kelland. In this class he 
 distinguished himself, and at the end of the session, 1670, won a 
 prize. He also studied engineering under Professor Jenkins, and 
 received much valuable instruction by attending evening classes at 
 the Mathematical Institution and School of Arts. Here he studied 
 various sciences, and took a high prize in 1872, In 1875 he went 
 to Berlin in order still further to perfect himself in his profession, 
 and entered soon a large engineering house near it. 
 
 Early in 1876 his brother Charles, an ostensibly bright and 
 promising boy of 15, died in Edinburgh, to the great grief of the 
 
28 
 
 whole family, and Alexander was mucli impressed by the event. It 
 was about this time that he got introduced to Mr. Pearsall Smith, 
 the well-known American evangelist, whose solemn and earnest 
 entreaties induced Alexander to turn his back upon the world and 
 become the bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and to resolve no longer to. 
 live to himself, but to Him who died for him. 
 
 A few days after taking this step he happened to glance at a 
 Times newspaper, and observed an advertisement from the Church 
 Missionary Society, Salisbury-square, wanting devoted young naen 
 to become their missionaries to Uganda in East Central Africa, where 
 Mr. H. M. Stanley had induced Mtesa to agree to receive the heralds 
 of salvation. He lost no time in answering the advertisement, and 
 in offering himself to the Secretary. The Secretary expressed a wish 
 to have a personal interview with him, aud accordingly he set out for 
 London without a day's delay. 
 
 He was readily accepted as a la}'" missionary and engineer. He 
 agreed to go without any salary, but before formally engaging, he 
 considered it to be his duty to consult his father. His father was 
 more than delighted at what had taken place, and freely gave him 
 over to the Lord and to Africa. Finding in Edinburgh his old and 
 esteemed friend. Dr. John Smith, who was also a devoted Christian, 
 he had little difficulty in inducing him to ofler himself to the Society 
 as their medical missionary. The party sailed from Southampton 
 for Zanzibar, April 27, 1876. 
 
 Mr. Mackay's career thereafter is knowu to all interested in 
 missionary work. Of the greatness and worth of his achievements 
 and character the testimony of his close associate, the Rev. E,. P. 
 Ashe, is a sufficient testimony. The following may be quoted : — 
 
 It is impossible to do him any justice in some hurriedly- written 
 lines ; but if one characteristic more than another made him a great 
 missionary, it was his extraordinary patience and power of persisting 
 in any work. He was never in a hurry, yet one work after another 
 was taken in hand and finished. The amount of physical labour he 
 would go through was astonishing. Nothing was a trouble to him, 
 and he would not hear of the word impossible. Stanley, whose de- 
 tractors allow his great power and discernment of character, on 
 meeting Mackay called him the modern Livingstone. It was very 
 high praise, but it was not too high praise, for he, like Livingstone, 
 lived all for others and nothing for himself. Both wei'e actuated by 
 the strong and simple faith that God would surely and certainly 
 save Africa, and both lived and died in order that this purpose 
 might be accomplished. 
 
 Many of us had been looking forward to Mackay's return 
 home for a w^ell-earned rest. His name is a household word with all 
 who love Africa or know anj^thing of African Missions. But 
 instead of this God Himself has laid him to sleejD by the Nyanza. 
 
29 
 
 Fred E. Wigram, Hon. Secretary of the Church 
 Missionary Societ}^ in announcing the death of this 
 famous Scottish missionary, says : — 
 
 Mr. Mackay had a large share in the patient teaching of tlie 
 people of Uganda, which resulted in the conversion of hundreds to 
 Christianit}', and in the reduction of the language to writing, with 
 the translation of portions of Scripture, prayers, &c., and the 
 preparation of 'reading sheets,' by which large numbers learnt to 
 read. It was he who worked the little printing press which has 
 supplied some thousands of copies of these fragments of literature 
 for the instruction of the people. It was he who used his mechanical 
 skill in house-building, boat-building, and frequent commissions of 
 all sorts for the King of Uganda. He also contrived in a most 
 surprising way to get out from England every kind of current 
 literature, and to keep himself abreast of modern thought and 
 progress. His letters and articles are those not only of the Christian 
 missionary, but of the cultivated scholar and observant man of the 
 world. It has not been sufficiently realised that it is to Mr. Mackay 
 that we owe almost all the intelligence that reached England regarding 
 Emin Pasha prior to Mr. Stanley's expedition. The first news that 
 Emin was alive and holding his own was received b}^ the same mail, 
 in October, 1886, that brought, also from Mr. Mackay, the recovered 
 last diai-y of Bishop Hannington ; and Emin's letters aiid the bishop's 
 dairy appeared in the Times on the same day. I am sure that the 
 whole Christian w^orld will agree that another of our truest African 
 heroes is now lost to us, and I am sure that the succession will not be 
 broken. The Rev. A. R. Tucker is to be consecrated on the 25th inst. 
 as successor to Hannington and Parker in the bishopric of the Church 
 of England in Eastern Equatorial Africa, and starts the same evening 
 for East Africa. How many like-minded men will come forward and 
 follow him ? 
 
 In the same issue of The Scottish Leader, in which 
 this appeared, appeared the following : — 
 
 News from Central Africa. — Dr. Moir, Castle Street, informs 
 us that yesterday he received letters from Mandala, dated 26th 
 February, but so far as the action of the Portuguese is concerned 
 there is not much to tell. His son Frederick and his wife, who went 
 out lately, were 18 days in reaching Mandala from Vicente, near the 
 mouth of the Shire — it should have been done in six. This delay 
 was greatly owing to the Portuguese having forbidden the natives to 
 cut wood for British steamers, and threatening them with punishment 
 if they did so. This therefore had to be done by the crew, neces- 
 sitating constant stopping and delay. They had either scorching sun 
 102 degrees in the shade, or heavy rains, and the result was that both 
 were laid down with fever, and were still under it when the mail 
 
30 
 
 left. Fred, was suffering most, but his older son was also suffering 
 much, from fever induced by long-continued work and anxiety. 
 
 5. John tells — '1 heard a voice from heaven saying unto 
 me write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from 
 henceforth ; yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from 
 their labours ; and their works do follow them.' We 
 bow the head and say, Good is the will of the Lord 1 but 
 it is with tear-filled eyes. Such is the stuff of which 
 missionaries are made : and are such men so abundant 
 that we can afford to let them be cut down one after 
 another by fever — a fever which might apparently be 
 prevented ? 
 
 More than fifty years ago I was invited to accompany 
 the secretary of the Education Society of New-England 
 to different colleges in that quarter of America, to beat 
 up for recruits for the mission field. His appeal generally 
 began thus — We have at present openings for such and 
 such extended operations in so and so, and in so and so. 
 If any of you feel that with the openings before you at 
 home, as merchants, professional men, and pastors of 
 churches, you can with a free conscience remain, do so, 
 and may God bless you in your work ! You are not the 
 men we want. But if there be any who with the call 
 from their brethren in the mission field feel that they 
 cannot with an easy conscience remain at home whatever 
 its prospects of life and labour and usefulness, you are 
 the men vre want. Such men have been found ; and 
 as one and another have fallen, one and another have 
 advanced to take their place ; but were it not better that 
 the dead and the livino- had been this day labourino^ to- 
 gether? an J wherefore not, if death from fever be a 
 preventable death V 
 
 And there are the representatives and agents of other mis- 
 sionary organisations who may have fallen in corresponding 
 numbers, or in like proportions to the numbers who have 
 gone forth to labour in the fields in which those have died. 
 And there are many other fields of missions in Africa and 
 
 ^ 
 
31 
 
 elsewhere, in which the labourers are exposed to like 
 dangers. Nor are missionaries the only philanthropists 
 and enterprising emigrants who are seeking the good of 
 the benighted and the enslaved dwellers in that land, 
 who are exposed to the loss of life in the prosecution of 
 their enterprise. I write of missionaries because it is as 
 from a stand-point of observation within sight of the 
 mission field that I write ; and it is to men who are the 
 supporters of Christian Missions that I am addressing 
 myself. But we know full well that explorers, and 
 merchants, and Government officials, and men and women 
 in their employment have also fallen, fallen in numbers, 
 and fallen perhaps unnoticed, though many of them, 
 noble-minded men and noble-minded women — Men and 
 Women well deserving a nation's homage. And these con- 
 siderations add to the importance of everything practical 
 and expedient being done to secure the preservation of 
 useful lives. 
 
 The well-known editor of Livingstone's journals, the 
 Bev. Horace Waller, thus sums up his account of such 
 and of allied English enterprises in his Title Deeds to 
 Nyassaland. ' Dotted here and there from the Mangrove 
 Swamps of the Congo, south of the Zambesi to the 
 farthest extremity of Lake Nyassa, we pass the graves 
 of naval officers, of brave ladies, of a missionary bishop, 
 of clergymen, foreign office representatives, doctors, 
 ^scientific men, engineers and mechanics, all these were 
 our countrymen. They lie in glorious graves. Their 
 careers have been foundation stones, and already the 
 -edifice rises.' With him and with others I take comfort 
 in the thought that the loss of life in these noble pioneers 
 has not been in vain. But earnestly do I desire that 
 such loss of life should be stayed. 
 
 In view of the aggregate number of those who have 
 fallen, in view of the sufterings they must have endured, 
 and of the extinction of their hopes — hopes of turning 
 many to righteousness; hopes of relieving the oppressed and 
 raising the fallen; hopes of providing for aged parents, 
 
32 
 
 a widowed mother or an orphan sister ; the hope of a long 
 and happy home life with some beloved loving companion, 
 or hopes of securing a competence for life, or a fortune 
 which would make old schoohnates stare, all extinguished 
 like the snow-flake in the stream. In view of what has 
 been and of what might have been, in view of the ex- 
 penditure of care, of money, of fatigue, of thought, all to 
 end in this; and in view of the sorrow and disappoint- 
 ments experienced by bereaved ones at home, one may 
 cry aloud : O God, is there no remedy ? Is it to go on 
 thus for ever ? and this not here alone, but also in many 
 a land to which mundane considerations or higher aspira- 
 tions like unto those of Him of whom it is written 'for 
 the joy that w^as set before Him, He endured the cross 
 despising the shame, and is now set down on the right hand 
 of the Majesty on high,' may lead the sanguine, the enter- 
 prising the devoted ? When prompted to cry aloud. Can 
 nothing be done to prevent this loss of life ? I think there 
 can : and T feel as if some one of the bereaved were looking: 
 at me through tears of bitter sorrow, i eminding me with- 
 out words of the saying of Paul, ' To him who knoweth 
 to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin;' and pointing me 
 to the words of one who lived a thousand years before Pau], 
 'If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto 
 death, and those that are ready to be slain ; if thou 
 say est — Behold we knew it not, doth not He that 
 pondereth the heart consider it ? and He that keepetk 
 thy soul, doth not He know it ? and shall He not render 
 to every man according to his deeds ?' But I cannot my- 
 self do what is requisite. And while I raise the cry. 
 Help ! Help ! brethren. Help ! I wish to make more ex- 
 tensively known what has been successfull}^ done in 
 arresting the fatal effects of Malaria in Italy. 
 
 Of this Professor Drummond writes: — 'The really 
 appaling mortality of Europeans is a fact with which all 
 who have any idea of casting in their lot with Africa 
 should seriously reckon ; none but those who have been 
 on the spot, or have followed closely the inner history of 
 
33 
 
 African exploration and missionary work, can appreciate 
 the gravity of the situation. The Malaria spares no man; 
 the strong fall as the weak; no number of precautions can 
 provide against it; no kind of care can do more than 
 make attacks less frequent ; no prediction can be 
 made beforehand ; as to which regions are haunted by it, 
 and which are safe. It is not the least ghastly feature of 
 this invisible plague, that the only known scientific test 
 for it at present is a human life. That test has been 
 applied in the Congo region already with a recklessness 
 which the sober judgment can only characterise as 
 criminal. It is a smalJ matter that men should throw 
 away their lives in hundreds, if need be, for a holy cause; 
 but it is not a small matter that man after man, in long 
 and in fatal succession, should seek to overleap what is 
 plainly a barrier in nature, and science has a duty in 
 pointing out that no devotion or enthusiasm can give any 
 man a charmed life, and that those who work for the 
 highest ends will best attain them in humble obedience to 
 the common laws. Transcendently this may be denied ; 
 the warning finger may be despised, as the hand of the 
 coward and the profane ; but the fact remains, the fact of 
 an awful chain of English graves stretching across Africa. 
 This is not spoken nevertheless to discourage missionary 
 enterprise, it is only said to regulate it.' 
 
 It is possibly the case that there are more missionaries, 
 including under that designation all who have gone to 
 central Africa at their own instigation or prompting, and 
 it may have been at their own expense, and those who 
 have literally been sent thither, together with their wives, 
 who were not less missionaries than were they, inclusive 
 of teachers, handicraftsmen and merchants, and their 
 children, who have perished under the deadly influence of 
 Malaria, than others emigrating thither from Europe; 
 nor is a reason for this far to seek, when there is con- 
 sidered together with the proportional numbers in which 
 they have gone forth there to settle for life, and their risk 
 of life when once settled and engaged in their special 
 
34 
 
 work. It has been alleged that sometimes they have 
 been imprudent in making choice of a site for their home. 
 Whatever ground may exist, or be supposed to exist, for 
 this opinion, it should be known that in some cases they 
 had no choice. As stated by I'rofessor Drummond in 
 the passage just cited, there have besn cases in which 
 there was no test which could be applied but the test of 
 experience, and this involves the alternative of life or 
 death. In regard to Livingstonia, the case first cited 
 above, he writes : — ' I spent a day or two in the solemn 
 shadow of forty-one of that deserted manza. It is one of 
 the loveliest spots in the world ; and it was hard to believe, 
 sitting under the Tamarind trees by the quiet lake shore, 
 that the pestilence which wasteth at midnight had made 
 this beautiful spot its home. A hundred and fifty miles 
 north on the same lake coast, the remnant of the mission- 
 aries have begun their task again, and there, slowly against 
 fearful odds, they are carrying on their work. Travellers 
 have been pleased to say unkind things of missionaries ; 
 that they are sometimes right, I will not question, but I 
 will say of the Livingstonian missionaries and of the 
 Blantyre missionaries, and count it an honour to say it, 
 that they are brave, efficient, single-hearted men, who 
 need our sympathy more than we know, and are equally 
 above our criticism and our praise.' 
 
 I cannot bear testimony from personal observation, 
 but it is my belief that the same thing might be said with 
 truth of the other missionaries in the field, and of many, 
 besides the missionaries, who are there ; and this I write 
 lest it should be imagined that they unnecessarily expose 
 themselves, either in a reckless or a Quixotic spirit, to 
 unnecessary perils. 
 
 With what I know of the matter, I can affirm, that 
 apart from every higher consideration, the pecuniary loss to 
 an ecclesiastical or other organisation sustained through 
 the death of an agent of ordinary attainments sent out 
 from Europe or America to Africa to labour must be 
 inuch greater than need have been the expense of sur- 
 
35 
 
 rounding the station with a broad belt of Bkie gum-trees; 
 and again, apart from the question of pecuniary profit or 
 loss, justice requires that those who are sent forth to a 
 malarious region to carry out the purpose of those sending 
 them, whether it be to enable them to increase their gains 
 and comforts, amenities and luxuries, while they and their 
 families reside in a salubrious home, or it be to carry the 
 gospel of salvation to the heathen, towards the expenses 
 of which they are contributing of their abundance, should 
 have every reasonable provision being made against un- 
 necessary suffering or death in carrying out the enterprise; 
 nor do I question that this would be done extensively if 
 it were generally known how it might be done. It is 
 under this impression that this Tractate has been published, 
 and the more comprehensive volume mentioned in the 
 foregoing circular has been prepared. In that there is 
 given more detailed information in reo-ard to the culture 
 of the tree in Africa, Italy and in other countries of 
 Europe, in Asia, in Australia, in America ; information in 
 regard to the natural history of the tree ; information 
 in regard to the natural history of the microbe, 
 supposed to be the cause or occasion of the disease ; 
 and, information in regard to the disease itself. As 
 stated in that circular, the compiler is ready to give the 
 manuscript to any one who will meet the expense of 
 printing it for extensive distribution in lands in which 
 such fevers prevail, on the sole condition that fifty or a 
 hundred copies be placed at his disposal. 
 
 III. Report hy M. Augvste Vallee on the culture of the 
 Eucabyjptus at the Monastry of St. Paul, Tre- 
 Fontanes, near Rome. 
 
 M. Auguste Yallee, Agricultural Engineer, Member of 
 La Societe des Agriculteurs de France, of La Societe 
 D' Agriculture D'Indre - et- Loire, &c., purposing to 
 study agriculture in Upper Italy, while previously so- 
 journeying for a time in Rome, visited the Monastry of 
 Tre-Fontanes. 
 
36 
 
 In regard to the name of the Monastry, he states that, 
 according to ti-adition, Paul suffered martyrdom on the 
 spot on which one of the Churches of the Monastry 
 stands, and tradition tells that when the head of the 
 Apostle was dissevered from the body, it rebounded three 
 times, and eveiy time it touched the ground there sprung 
 up a fountain of water; hence was given the name Trc- 
 Fontanes. 
 
 There are three Churches within the Abbey, the 
 largest, that of S. Vincent and S. Anastase, is a Roman 
 basilique, built by Honorius I. in the Ninth Century. It 
 was restored in 1221, and is still in the state of its 
 restoration. On the right of this, the second Church, 
 octagonal in form, owes its name of Sante- Marie Scala- 
 Coeli to a vision of S. Bernard, to whom Innocent III. 
 had entrusted the chirge of the Convent. It dates from 
 the Sixteenth Century. And the third Church, S. Paul 
 Aux Tre-Fontanes, encloses the fountains. It was built 
 in 1599. 
 
 Of the Trappists it may be told that they are a very 
 self-denying order of monks, originally founded in the 
 valley of La Trappe, from which their name is derived. 
 
 ' Leaving Rome by the gate of S. Paul,' says M. Vallee, 
 'it is a journey of about five kilometers to the Abbey. 
 It appears tranquil, fresh and smiling in the open Roman 
 Campagna. On the left hand, before entering the 
 Monastry, the eye finds delight in the verdure of the 
 meadows, well managed and producing herbage of ex- 
 cellent quality. Beyond these meadows, forming the 
 basins of lovely little valleys, arise small hills covered 
 with fertile vineyards, and little woods of the blue gum- 
 tree. On the right hand, the view is in the distance 
 bounded by an unsightly uninterrupted succession of 
 narrow valleys and mounds, the bowels of which have 
 been deeply furrowed by the miners of Pouzzolane. 
 
 'Before 16 68, the time at which the Trappists took 
 possession, this Monastry of ancient foundation had been 
 long abandoned. Nor is it difficult to discover a cause 
 
37 
 
 for the abandonment. Situated in the centre of a country 
 where the terrible Malaria brings sore suffering and 
 sowes the seeds of death, the Romans had given to it 
 the designation, The Tomb, a name only too well merited. 
 Here the Trappists came at length to pitch their 
 tent. They were not ignorant of the blanks unceasingly 
 made by the Malaria in the population of the Agro 
 Romana, and they came to expose themselves to it, not as 
 men daring in stupidity, or unconscious through ignorance, 
 but with a brave heart and a strong will, which had a 
 noble end to accomplish. A noble end, indeed ! and who 
 better fitted for its accomplishment than these men who 
 had no tie in life, who had abandoned country and home, 
 who once for all sacrificed their all, men strong and 
 energetic, who advanced to the duty calling them without 
 thought of returning ! A noble end ! it aimed at nothing 
 short of making this desolated region healthful, to make 
 this pestiferous land a nursing mother, and this by works 
 of improvement through the culture of a plant providenti- 
 ally brought just then to the country. During the first 
 years of the enterprise the fever spared not the useful 
 unostentatious lives. She found them in the midst of 
 their labours, and slew many victims. But this had no dis- 
 couraoincr effects. The fever ra^ed, struck, and slew 
 pitilessly. The more the Trappists saw it face to face, 
 the more did they long to overcome it, and the more 
 resolutely did they hurl themselves determinately against 
 it. An enemy unknown occasions more fear than an evil 
 looked in the face. Their efforts, their energy, their 
 works, have already been largely recompensed, though the 
 last word has not yet been spoken. The fever has con- 
 tinuously lurked within the abode of the labourers, but 
 if sometimes it still puts in a furtive appearance, they 
 have arms with which to hunt it, and as it does not feel 
 itself the stronger, it must yield.' 
 
 There are detailed in the report the generic character- 
 istics of the Eucalyptus, and the author goes on to say : 
 
 ' They have tried the culture of a great many species 
 of Eucalyptus at Tre-Fontanes, but they have only had 
 
38 
 
 satisfactory success with the following : E. Globulus, E. 
 Resinigera, E. Rostrata, E. Urnigera, E. Tereticornis, E. 
 Cocceifera, E. Viminalis, E. Melliodora, Gunii, Stuartina 
 and Red Gum. 
 
 'These Eculypti, moreover, do not all grow equally 
 well on the same kind of ground. Thus, on moist ground 
 it was found very preferable to raise only the following 
 varieties : E. Viminalis, E. Urnigera, E. Rostrata, E. 
 Tereticornis. On dry lands, on the contrary, they 
 planted only these : E. Resinifera, E. Melliodora, E. 
 Sideroxylon. The E. Globulus, or blue gum, grew well 
 on almost all kinds of soil. 
 
 'At Tre Fontanes, as in almost all high land 
 of the Agro Romana, the soil is of volcanic origin. 
 The thickness of the layer of arable land is very 
 variable, rano-ino- between 20 and 40 centimeters. The 
 composition of this layer varies with the different 
 positions which it occupies. Thus, the ground on the 
 summits of rising grounds has much less humus than 
 that on the slope, and of course much less than that in 
 the hollows. 
 
 ' The predominating kinds of earth at the Fontane 
 are these : clay land, sandy clay, alluvial land containing 
 clay and sand, and embodying much more organic matter 
 than the others, 
 
 'The soil certainly possesses sufficient fertility to 
 warrant cultivation, but unhappily the subsoil does not 
 admit of the culture of shrubs or other plants having a 
 long tap-root. The subsoil is quite impermeable ; it is a 
 kind of lithoid tufFa, called by the people of the country 
 cappellaccio, or the puzzolana cap.' Another w^riter on the 
 subject, M. Meaume, states in illustration of the use made 
 of the name, ' The Italian ianojuaofe is rich in diminutives 
 augmentatives, thus: an ordinary hat is a cappello; and a 
 small hat, cappellino ; a large hat, cappellone ; an old and 
 useless bad hat, cappellaccio.' From this use made of the 
 last term has it been applied to the volcanic product in 
 question, the material is of no use but has to be broken 
 
39 
 
 up. Hard as ifc is it cannot be made use of in building 
 nor in road-making. The puzzolana mixed with a fifth 
 part of chalk makes the so called Roman cement, of 
 excellent quality. 
 
 This layer is very variable in thickness : M. Yallee 
 found it in different quarries, at the gate of the monastry, 
 from 50 centimeters to 2 and 3 metres. 
 
 ' Then comes the puzzolana proper, or volcanic sand, 
 varying in colour with the position which it occupies. 
 Grey immediately under the cappellaccio, with a 
 thickness of from 50 centimeters to 1 and 2 metres, then 
 red sand to a very great depth. It is this which is made 
 use of in the manufacture of Roman cement, and no 
 other sand is made use of in the buildinors of Rome and 
 in the Roman Campagna. 
 
 ' The subsoil was the great hindrance to be overcome 
 in the cultivation of the ground. The ao^ricultural 
 implements in use could do nothing with the subsoil. 
 What then was to be done? It was impossible to 
 establish a plantation of trees on a soil 30 centimeters 
 thick, in these circumstances it occurred to the Trappists 
 that the new force dynamite might be made use of. It 
 was a happy thought, and led to important results ! 
 
 ' At first, to make the small mines necessary, the 
 brethren made use of an iron bar with a steel bit, the 
 only implement then known, which was struck with a 
 mallet and slightly moved about by hand. But they soon 
 found it necessary to devise some more expeditious and 
 less toilsome means, and they contrived a hand borer 
 which the Brothers Conscience, Mechanicians in Rome 
 were employed to make. 
 
 ' The disintegration of the tuffa is effected by a borer 
 or auger of a particular form, to which is given a rotatory 
 movement of from 3 to 4 turns in the second. This borer 
 is fixed in a Tnanchoii or on the lower extremity of an 
 iron axis along which is a groove. Two driving gears of 
 conical form placed vertically and receiving movement by 
 two cranks, transmit this to a third horizontal driving gear 
 carrying in its axis a fixed key. This last gear receives 
 
40 
 
 in its central hole the borer-bearing axis which is fixed 
 by the key. In this way the borer receives a rotatory 
 movement, but is free to mount or fall as may be 
 necessary. To effect the double movement there are two 
 racks connected with the two extremities by two pins 
 opposite to and commanded by two gears, which are 
 supported by a horizontal beam bearing a fly wheel and 
 crank. The whole is protected by an iron case, and the 
 whole is fixed on two supports fastened on a wooden 
 basis bearing swinging pivots, which mode of adjustment 
 admits of the machine being always in a horizontal 
 position. A solid wooden framework with four feet and 
 transverse beams sustains the whole apparatus. At the 
 extremity of each cross beam is an adjusting screw to 
 meet the inequality of the ground on which may be 
 placed the perforater. ivlovement being imparted to the 
 cog wheels, the point of the borer tears the rock, and 
 through the weight of its axis and racks, buries itself 
 automatically in the ground. As soon as the resistance 
 under the crank is felt to be increased, it is necessary to 
 bring into pi ay the two pinions which act on the racks. 
 Then the borer retires quickly drawing out the debris torn 
 from the rock. The borer is then made again to descend, 
 without the cranks being stopped, until the hole has attained 
 the depth desired, from 0*80 to 1*20 metres. The time 
 occupied with a perforation is on an average from 5 to 6 
 minutes. The machine costs little ; and the saving is great ; 
 what it effects in 6 minutes a skilful miner could not do 
 with hand in less than 20 or 25 minutes. By this machine 
 the subsoil is broken up to a great depth ; and the 
 mixture of soil and. subsoil constitutes an earth of good 
 quality, possessing physical properties very favourable to 
 culture. The operation enables the Trappists to raise 
 also the level of the valleys, by hurling the earth from 
 the summits of the hills. The work has been tedious 
 and costly, but the results have proved most satisfactory. 
 The ground is thus prepared to receive the plants ; but 
 the preparation of these must also receive our attention. 
 
 'The Trappists sow the seed of the Eucalyptus in 
 
41 
 
 boxes or pots filled with earth prepared with some care. 
 This earth is a mixture of the earth of the outlying field 
 with earth from the garden, with a small quantity of well 
 decomposed manure added to it ; the whole well broken 
 up and passed through a sieve is then placed in these 
 receptacles. There is traced on the surface of this earth 
 very shallow lines, distant from each other about six centi- 
 metres, and in the bottoms of these lines are deposited 
 the seeds, w^hich being extremely small are covered with 
 a very thin layer of earth. The sowings may be made in 
 February, and in March, and in Autumn. 
 
 ' To retain the moisture needed, these boxes are then 
 covered with a mat or a deal until the germination of the 
 seed, which generally takes place in a few days, and 
 from this time commences the particular care which has 
 to be bestowed upon the plant for some months. It is 
 necessary to prevent the young plants being chocked by 
 the growth of weeds, to prevent too great desiccation of 
 the earth, to see that the heat does not become too great 
 for the plants, and to protect them from violent winds. 
 
 ' When the plants are about 4 inches in height they 
 are transplanted into flower pots about 8 inches in 
 diameter at top and about the same in depth, and in these 
 they remain till they have to be planted out in the 
 ground ; but they are also sometimes transplanted at first 
 into boxes about 8 inches deep, and 70 centimetres or 
 28 inches long, which may receive 40 plants. It is 
 requisite that these boxes be such as can be carried after 
 the planters. Two men can easily carry them. This 
 is preferable, especially in extensive plantations, in 
 the open country. They are followed by a cask of 
 water that each plant may be watered when put in 
 the ground ; and it is necessary to repeat the water- 
 ing once-a-week during the first year of their growth. 
 ' This planting out is done in spring. This season is 
 preferred for the work at Tre-Fontanes because the young 
 plant has thus the longer time to strengthen itself against 
 the rigours of winter ; but it may be done in September 
 and October, in which case, in general, the autumnal 
 
42 
 
 rains render unnecessary the hand watering. When the 
 plants are to be planted out in Spring, the sowing should 
 take place in the preceding Autumn, so that the plants 
 may be six or eight months old when planted out. The 
 work of planting is a very simple one, there are 
 first made long trenches 80 centimetres or 32 inches in 
 depth and of similar breadth, and therafter the earth 
 taken out is returned into the ditch. In this soft earth 
 there are dug holes 25 centimetres or 10 inches in depth 
 and of similar diameter ; in this the plant is deposited, a 
 plant taken from the flower pot or box, with as much 
 earth around the root as possible, care being taken to 
 place the plant a little lower than the level of the soil so 
 as to leave a little cup or depression in the ground to 
 retain the water when the plant is watered or when it 
 rains. In the following year this is filled up to the level 
 of the soil. At Tre-Fontanes at first they planted the 
 trees at a distance of a metre or 40 inches from each 
 other in all directions ; but after a years growth they 
 had to root out nearly one-half of them, because after a 
 year's vegitation they pressed upon and injured one 
 another. Now they plant the saplings two centimetres 
 or well nigh 7 feet distant from each other. 
 
 ' The tree is planted, but man has not yet finished his 
 work ; he cannot leave the young and frail sapling to the 
 care of nature yet ; it is needful to protect it against 
 invasion by weeds. There must be frequent weedings 
 executed during the first two years at the foot of the 
 tree, and to a distance of from 20 to 24 inches ; the air 
 and moisture are thus enabled more easily to reach the 
 rootlets, and vegitation goes on successfully. 
 
 ' At the Monastry of Tre-Fontanes it cannot be said 
 that there are no winds nor violent winds ; for such is 
 not the case ; still it is very rarely that props are sup- 
 plied to the young trees. At the end of a very short 
 time, and from the second year of growth, the plant has 
 become sufficiently vigorous not to sufier from the wind ; 
 if this be an enemy to the Eucalyptus it is an enemy 
 which it can withstand ; and it generally does so suc- 
 cessfully. 
 
43 
 
 'Another enemy of this plant is water when it is 
 excessive in quantity, and in a state of complete stag- 
 nation. With this also it has to contend at Tre-Fontanes. 
 There, there is water in abundance, and such water ! 
 Water stag^nant and exhaling over the whole region 
 deadly miasmata. By means of covered or open drains 
 with sufficient slopes the}^ have drained these off in such 
 a way and direction that the ground as well as the at- 
 mosphere has been rendered healthy. Thus has another 
 enemy been overcome. 
 
 * A last obstacle to the culture of the Eucalyptus there, 
 and it the most formidable of all, is the cold. It is said 
 that the Eucalyptus cannot live, in other words that it 
 must die when the temperature falls to 6° or 8° centigrade 
 below zero. It is true that this plant, the product of 
 warm countries, has considerable dread of low tempera- 
 tures, and although it can be shown that it has withstood 
 temperature of 9° below zero, it must not be exposed to 
 the open air in a country in which the temperature sinks 
 repeatedly in succession to 5° or 6° below zero. In 1879 
 the winter here was very severe, but still all the plants 
 above 2 years old withstood the cold, which was intense. 
 The thermometer remained a long time at 9° below zero. 
 
 ' But let us see to what extent, if any, the cold has 
 interfered with the culture of the Eucalyptus in the 
 Agro Romana. The Observatory of the Roman College 
 gives 0.89 cent, as the mean m/ inter temperature during a 
 period of 24 years, from 1782 to 1861. The following 
 are the minima observed during a period of 12 years 
 from 1863 to 1874. 
 
 Years. 
 
 1863 
 1864 
 
 Minima. 
 
 4.64 centigrade 
 
 4.44 
 
 Dates. 
 19th January. 
 1st January. 
 
 1865 
 
 3.72 
 
 10th December. 
 
 1866 
 1867 
 1868 
 
 4.51 
 6.06 
 3.79 
 
 28th February. 
 27th February. 
 17th February. 
 
 3 869 
 1870 
 
 4.82 
 6.70 
 
 18th February. 
 6th February. 
 
Years. 
 
 M inima. 
 
 1871 
 
 5.55 
 
 1872 
 
 3.71 
 
 1873 
 
 4.31 
 
 1874 
 
 4.91 
 
 44 
 
 Date. 
 
 19tli January. 
 
 2nd December, 
 
 11 til January. 
 
 1st February. 
 
 ' We have for the mean minimum of these twelve years 
 4.77 ; and never once has the temperature fallen below 
 6.70 ; and it is notew^orthy that none of the other minima 
 have occurred oftener than once. In 1875 the temperature 
 fell to 9 centigrade at Tre-Fontanes. Happily this un- 
 usual and extraordinary cold was only experienced once, 
 for in that one day almost the half of the plantation of 
 the year perished. It is manifest that the Eucalyptus 
 cannot sustain such a temperature. But this is an 
 occurrence which has only happened once in a hundred 
 years, and consequently should not be made a pretext for 
 shackling this beneficial culture. 
 
 ' It must in fine be told how, in despite of wind and of 
 cold, the Eucah^ptus have gone on growling, and what their 
 wonderful increase has been, figures will speak more 
 efiicientl}^ than any fine words, and they possess the 
 advantage of expressing an indisputable fact. All the 
 measurements which follow were made on the 8th April, 
 1879. In a plantation of Eucalyptus Globulus, formed in 
 1875, I have ascertained the following to be the measure- 
 ments of a certain number of trees taken at random. 
 ' Circumference taken at 1.50 metre from the ground 
 in centimetres, 30, 20, 31, 28, 26, 30, 30, 30, 50, 20, 49, 28 
 23, 22, 28, 14, 15, 21, 27, 20, giving a mean of 27 centi- 
 metres. 
 
 'Heights in metres, 8.50, 7, 8, 6, 7, 11, 7, 10, 7, 6, 11 
 mean 8 metres. 
 
 ' Measurements of E. Globulus planted in 1872. 
 Circumference, 0.76 m. Height, 13.50 metres. 
 0.67 11.50 
 
 0.62 11.50 
 
 0.86 15 
 
 0.87 17 
 
 Mean 0.75 13.50 metres. 
 
45 
 
 ' E, Globulus planted in 1870, circumference, 0.90 m. 
 Height, 15.50. E. Globulus, planted in 1870-1871. cir- 
 cumference, .78, height, 15 m. 
 
 'At the end of 1881 the trees planted in 1870, 1871, 
 1872, had a mean circumference of 1.15 metre. 
 
 ' The following measurements were taken with great 
 care at different times. 
 
 
 Year 
 
 Height 
 
 Circumference. 
 
 Species, 
 
 of 
 Plantation. 
 
 in 
 
 1877, 
 
 Near the 
 Ground. 
 
 1 Metre. 
 
 2 Metres. 
 
 Globulus 
 
 1870 
 
 1 6 metres 
 
 0, m 95 
 
 0, m 81 
 
 O5 
 
 m75 
 
 5) 
 )5 
 
 35 
 33 
 35 
 
 16 „ 
 
 15 „ 
 
 16 „ 
 
 0, 69 
 0, 79 
 
 0, 72 
 
 0, 62 
 0, 70 
 0, 60 
 
 0, 
 0, 
 0, 
 
 56 
 61 
 55 
 
 )J 
 
 53 
 
 17 3, 
 
 0, 90 
 
 0, 67 
 
 O3 
 
 62 
 
 5) 
 
 1.S71 
 
 16 „ 
 
 0, 76 
 
 0, 61 
 
 0, 
 
 55 
 
 33 
 
 1872 
 
 14,50 
 
 0, 92 
 
 0, 75 
 
 0, 
 
 67 
 
 33 
 
 33 
 
 14 ,3 
 
 0, 90 
 
 0, 76 
 
 O3 
 
 66 
 
 33 
 
 33 
 
 16 „ 
 
 0, 68 
 
 0, 58 
 
 0, 
 
 50 
 
 33 
 
 1873 
 
 15 „ 
 
 0, 71 
 
 0, 50 
 
 O3 
 
 45 
 
 33 
 
 1872 
 
 15, 50 
 
 0, 85 
 
 0, 60 
 
 0, 
 
 49 
 
 33 
 
 1871 
 
 16 „ 
 
 0, 86 
 
 0, 66 
 
 0, 
 
 60 
 
 35 
 
 1872 
 
 16 „ 
 
 0, 90 
 
 0, 73 
 
 0, 
 
 70 
 
 33 
 
 1874 
 
 12, 50 
 
 0, 45 
 
 0, 42 
 
 O3 
 
 37 
 
 Viminalis 
 
 33 
 
 10 „ 
 
 0, 45 
 
 0, 30 
 
 0, 
 
 27 
 
 Globulus 
 
 35 
 
 9 „ 
 
 0, 35 
 
 0, 28 
 
 O3 
 
 24 
 
 33 
 
 35 
 
 8 5, 
 
 0, 56 
 
 0, 42 
 
 O3 
 
 36 
 
 3J 
 
 3, aug. 
 
 7 35 
 
 0, 47 
 
 0, 39 
 
 0, 
 
 31 
 
 'All the trees planted out in 1870 had at that time a 
 height of from 15 to 20 m. One portion had been in 
 pots ; another in boxes. One of these plants having been 
 measured near the ground after the first year, measured 
 on the 6th March, 1874, 50 m. in circumference near the 
 ground ; and 35 at the height of 1 metre. On the 7th 
 January following, that is after 10 months growth, it 
 measured .62 near the ground, and .45 m. at the height of 
 1 metre, and it had a height of about ] metres. 
 
 ' With a statement of some other results which I have 
 
46 
 
 observed in more recent plantations I shall close by state- 
 ments in fiorures. 
 
 
 Year 
 
 Height 
 
 Circumference. 
 
 
 
 Species. 
 
 of 
 Plantation 
 
 m 
 
 1877 
 
 
 
 
 
 Obsrvtns. 
 
 Near the 
 ground. 
 
 1 metre. 
 
 2 metres. 
 
 Globulus 
 
 Aug. 1874 
 
 9 metres 
 
 0, m 56 
 
 0,m42 
 
 0, 
 
 m37 
 
 §1 I R 
 
 5J 
 
 
 8 „ 
 
 0, 51 
 
 0, 38 
 
 0, 
 
 32 
 
 » g fe ^ 
 
 5> 
 
 
 7 „ 
 
 0, 49 
 
 0, 38 
 
 0, 
 
 33 
 
 -M -^ i 51 » 
 
 5J 
 
 Mar. 1875 
 
 6 ,, 
 
 0, 88 
 
 0, 295 
 
 0, 
 
 27 
 
 N"l -^-s 
 
 >» 
 
 
 8 ,, 
 
 0, 50 
 
 0, 40 
 
 0, 
 
 33 
 
 
 5J 
 
 
 8 „ 
 
 0, 49 
 
 0, 40 
 
 0, 
 
 35 
 
 S a ° '-S^ 
 
 »J 
 
 
 7 „ 
 
 0, 40 
 
 0, 29 
 
 0, 
 
 23 
 
 «5 c 5 t; *" 
 
 Kesinifera 
 
 Apr. 1876 
 
 4,50 „ 
 
 0, 35 
 
 0, 18 
 
 
 
 "^ g-e . e. => 
 
 jj 
 
 
 4 „ 
 
 0, 28 
 
 0, 15 
 
 
 
 = 1 1ll •? 
 
 >j 
 
 
 4,50,, 
 
 0, 325 
 
 0, 22 
 
 
 
 5: ^ 5 -5 S 
 
 * Where shall we find in our forests a tree presenting a 
 spectacle of vegitation so marvellous ? What other kind 
 of tree can under our climate attain at the end of eight 
 years a circumference of .90 m., and a height of 16 metres, 
 54 feet. 
 
 ' With regard to the physical properties of the leaves 
 and of the wood, it is stated that certain varieties of the 
 Eucalyptus absorb from the ground a quantity of water 
 which is truly surprising. In the case of the Globulus a 
 square metre of foliaceous surface can pass into the at- 
 mosphere at least 2,400 kilogrammes of water. I say at 
 least, for the day on which I made the experiment, and in 
 those following the transpiration was not so active as 
 usual in consequence of the feeble intensity of the heat. 
 
 E. Resinifernb has evaporated 3 kilogrammes of water 
 in 12 hours, from a square metre of foliaceous surface. 
 E. Rostrata from the Isle de la Reunion has evaporated 
 1.450 kg. from the same extent of surface in the same 
 time. 
 
 Now a leaf of E. Globulus having 90 centimetres of 
 square superfices, two faces being comprised in this 
 measurement, as from both evaporation takes place, 
 
47 
 
 weighs 0.0115 kg., so that a square metre of foliaceous 
 
 surface 
 
 forrnula. 
 
 surface weighs 4.276 kg,, according to the following 
 
 10,000 
 
 4 m 2 = 0.0115 kg.x — = 1.276 kg. 
 
 90 
 ' From all which it follows that the weight of water 
 evaporated is about double or treple the weight of the 
 leaves. The evaporation going on in the open air and 
 under the influence of the wind being still more con- 
 siderable, one may say, without fear of being guilty of 
 exaggeration, that the plant evaporates a quantity of 
 water at least four or five times the weight of its leaves. 
 The respiration will also be naturally supposed to be very 
 active if account be taken of the number of respiring 
 organs with which the leaves are everywhere furnished. 
 I have been able to count on a square millemetre of the 
 inner surface of a leaf of the E. Globulus 350 stomates. 
 Is it then astonishing that these plants can produce such 
 an effect upon the air as has been referred to ? 
 
 'From the Euclayptus there are several economic 
 products procurable besides those particular essence 
 which are obtained from the leaves : there is obtainable 
 from this tree a gum-resin, known in commerce as 
 Gomme de Chine. This product, which becomes red in 
 solidifying, is obtained by means of incisions made into 
 the bark. According to weight, a single tree may yield 
 about 60 litres of this gam. Having seen with what 
 rapidity both the growth and increase of this tree goes 
 on, it may be supposed, in view of this, that the lignous 
 tissues of the plant must be gorged with sap, and that 
 the wood must be soft. It is not so ; but very far from it. 
 
 'A completely dry cutting of the wood of the E. 
 Globulus, taken the whole length of the diameter of the 
 trunk, gave me as the specific weight the figure 0.836. 
 This cutting was taken from a tree 8 years of age. Now 
 the heaviest oak, Q. Ilex, weighs 1.083; the Q. Cerris 
 weighs only 0.753, and the mean specific gravity of the 
 
48 
 
 clifFerent oaks growing in Italy is 0.852. Consequently, 
 the wood of the Eucalyptus must be almost as heavy as 
 the greater part of the different kinds of oak wood. 
 Moreover, this wood of the Eucalyptus is considered so hard 
 and solid that it is already employed in naval structures. 
 
 •' I say nothing of the properties more or less marvellous 
 which have been attributed to this tree ; it belongs to 
 chemists and medical men to speak of these. What I 
 wish especiall}^ to give prominence to is the fact that the 
 Eucalyptus is a tree particularly adapted to render 
 .salubrious the air, because of its rapid vegetation and its 
 active respiration. But I would add that this property is 
 not peculiar to the Eucalyptus, and that all vegetables, 
 those with caducous leaves especially, possess also in a 
 high degree the power of purifying the air under the 
 infiuence of lio-ht. One can well understand that this 
 may be one reason why the Trappists at Tre-Fonfcanes 
 cultivate their other vegetables besides the Eucalyptus ; 
 for example, the vine : and from this I may take occasion 
 to make some remarks on their vineyard. On the 32 
 hectares, of which the lands of the Monastry consist, there 
 are lOJ- planted with vines; and of these, 6^ are already 
 in full bearing ; the four others have been planted 1, 2, 
 or 3 years only. 
 
 ' On those lands which are of volcanic origin, and the 
 depth of which has been considerably increased hy 
 tillage, the vine succeeds to a wonder. They cultivate 
 several varieties of vine, which all yield what would be 
 excellent wine if it were only a little richer in alcohol : 
 for its weakness in this respect is an obstacle to its good 
 preservation. The varieties which the Trappists cultivate 
 are : the Grenache, to which they give by preference a 
 south and south-east exposure. It yields 60 hectolitres per 
 hectare. The Carignan, the vegetation of which in 
 spring comes on a little more slowly. It prefers drained 
 land; its yield is also 60 hectolitres per hectare. The 
 Espar, which has a vegetation still more tardy ; but it 
 ripens its fruit at the same time as the others ; it prefers 
 poor soil. The Clairette is also cultivated, but it does 
 
49 
 
 not always give satisfaction at Tre-Fontanes. It yields 
 little; but its wine is very fine. The Aleatico succeeds 
 very well ; it likes very fertile land and a southern 
 exposure. It produces about a litre per vine stock. The 
 Trehiano is cultivated to the same extent ; but it does not 
 accommodate itself to the short cutting which is in use at 
 the Monastry. 
 
 'Looking away from the cjuestion of profit, to look 
 only at that of amelioration cf soil and cHmate, is it not 
 manifest that quite as well as the Eucalyptus the 
 enormous leaf production of the vine must be capable of 
 absorbino: the fatal miasmata of the Aoto Romana ? 
 And, happy coincidence, it is precisely at the moment 
 when the Malaria begins to make itself felt that the vine 
 begins to cover the earth with its thick foliage.' 
 
 The conclusion drawn by M. Yallee in view of these 
 facts is that it is to be wished that other attempts at 
 amelioration should be made in the Agro Romano. He 
 expresses his belief that proprietors of this desolate 
 land would in no way injure their own interests by doing 
 so, while they would be doing a work eminently humane. 
 He says ' I know what the reply will be, it is that the 
 Agro Romano yields to proprietors 5 and 6 per cent, in 
 providing for their flocks an abundant pasturage ; and are 
 they going to sacrifice this high and certain revenue for 
 an enterprise which will require of them an enormous 
 capital, force them to expose to the malaria a great 
 number of workmen, and all for a result which does not 
 seem to them to be by any means certain ? Those who 
 speak thus would have some reason on their side if what 
 was advocated were the general and immediate transfor- 
 mation of the AoTo Romana. But mig-ht not this work 
 of amelioration be done in small portions without as a 
 necessary consequence depriving the proprietary of capital 
 required for their maintenance ? And as for pecuniary 
 returns, it is quite certain that in the places in which 
 the vine could be cultivated, the returns would rapidly 
 rise to more than 6 per cent. Besides, where were planted 
 
50 
 
 the Eucalyptus or any otlier kind of tree, the return 
 though not immediately convertible into money would be 
 not less certain ; in any case one thing in no way doubt- 
 ful is that the property will rise annually in value in 
 proportion to the works executed upon it.' 
 
 In an Appendix to one edition of the Report by M. 
 Vallee, it is stated that in October, 1879, the Italian 
 Government made a further concession to the Trappist 
 brotherhood to enable them to carry out their important 
 enterprise on a greatly extended scale ; and subsequent 
 reports show that while previously the Friars could not 
 sleep without risk of life in the Monastry, but had every 
 evening to betake themselves to a Convent within the 
 Imperial city to sleep, returning in the morning to Tre- 
 Fontanes for the discharge of their ecclesiastical functions, 
 now they sleep there constantly ; and the peasantry who 
 had previousl}^ to betake themselves with their families 
 and all their portable possessions to the mountains in 
 the beginning of summer, whence they returned with 
 their goats and other possessions in the late autumn, now 
 reside on the Campagna 'from June to January,' and 
 from one end of the year to the other. 
 
 And while the Trappist Friars have been thus ameliorat- 
 ing the sanitary condition of the Campagna, statesmen and 
 others have, with similar effect, had the Blue gum-tree 
 planted in many other malarious districts in Italy ; and 
 similar effects have followed the culture of the tree here 
 and there and everywhere throughout the land. Since 
 then, there has been discovered a microbe 'like to 
 others to which have been traced the introduction of 
 many deadly diseases into districts where, at the time, 
 they were non-existent ; the natural history of this 
 microbe has been studied ; and, it has been designated 
 Bacillus Malariae. From this discovery there may 
 result new treatments of the disease ; but to prevent is 
 better than to cure ; and nothing has occurred to shake 
 confidence in inferences which may be legitimately drawn 
 from the sanitary effects of the culture of the Blue gum- 
 tree in Italy. 
 
Lately Published. Price 72s 
 MANAGEMENT OF CEOWN FORESTS 
 
 AT THE 
 
 CAPE OF GOOD HOPE 
 
 UNDER THE OLD REGIME AND UNDER THE NEW. 
 
 Compiled by JOHN CROUMBIE BROWN, LL.D. 
 
 EDINBURGH : OLIVER AND BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT. 
 LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO. 
 
 18 8 7. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM PREFACE. 
 
 Part I. shows a waste of forest produce having gone 
 on at the Cape under the old regime greatly exceeding in 
 money value the amount of the revenue received from the 
 forests, and that the revenue was not great, being in 1862 
 about £250. While Part II. contains statements by the 
 superintendent of the forests to the effect that in the year 
 1882, after two years' management under the new regime, 
 the gross revenue was £7,680 14s ; and that the forests of 
 the Colony, if properly managed, might yield a revenue of 
 at least £235,000. 
 
And this enormous increase of revenue is only one of 
 several co-related benefits obtained under the new regime? 
 some of which are only indicated, not detEiiled, in ibe 
 reports cited. 
 
 Of the extent to which parsimony, apart from all idea 
 of recklessness or imprudence, may account for the 
 management of the same forests under the old regime, 
 illustrations are supplied in Part III. 
 
 The details given are copious. They are so because 
 I design my Treatise to be, in some respects, like to a 
 clinical lecture, teaching from a particular case, supplying 
 at once well defined indications of disease, explicit 
 statements in regard to the remedial measures followed, 
 official statenients in regard to results obtained, and 
 facilities for indicating the cause or occasion of the evil 
 remedied. 
 
 I have prepared a similar account of Sylviculture at 
 the Cape of Good Hope under the old regime and under 
 the new. It is equally with this illustrative of the 
 advantages which have thus been secured, declarative of 
 what has been done there, and suga:estive of what mi;T[ht 
 be done elsewhere. 
 
 I have arranged that should any British Colony, or any 
 American State, or any private individual, desire cO copies 
 for distribution, they may be supplied with these at a 
 reduction of 25 per cent., or one-fourth of the retail price, 
 or 100 copies at a reduction of S'd^ per cent., or one-third 
 of that price. 
 
 JOHN C. BROWN. 
 
 Haddington, 2Srd June, 1«88. 
 
Notice in the Spanish Revista Contemporanea^ 15th 
 August, 1887. — Teanslation. — "The untiring activity of Dr. 
 Brown astonishes us exceedingly. We have scarcely finished 
 reading one of his excellent works, when another appears. We are 
 certain that a Forestal Library of the first order might be 
 formed with the books published, within a few years past, by the 
 learned Professor. Dr. Brown'has described for us the forests 
 of Germany and Spain, those of England from the most remote 
 times, those of Finland, and of Northern Russia. He has dedi- 
 cated a volume to the examination of the celebrated French 
 Ordinance of 1669, and to the Plantations on the Lands of 
 Bordeaux, and another to the Reboisement carried out in 
 France ; there is one devoted to a most exhaustive Treatise on 
 the Hydrology of South Africa, one not less interesting is 
 devoted to the influence exercised by Forests on Humiditv of 
 Climate, and this, besides others which we do not at the present 
 moment remember. And now this illustrious Scottish writer, 
 whose 79 years of age do not weigh him down, surprises us 
 with a conscientiously thought out work entitled Management 
 of Grown Forests at the Cape of Good Hope under the Old Regime 
 and under the New. 
 
 " Everything in regard to the forests owned by the Crown at 
 the Cape is investigated by Dr. Brown with the competency 
 given by his great learning, and his long residence at the 
 Capetown, where he was Professor of Botany, and whence he 
 made numerous lengthened excursions. This last work of his 
 is arranged in three parts, — in the first is given an exposition of 
 the treatment of forests there under the old regime ; in the 
 second is given an explanation of the modifications introduced 
 under the new regime ; and in the third is a comparative study 
 of the differences observable in the forests under the one 
 regime and under the other. 
 
 " The well-known works of Dr. Brown are so estimated 
 amongst all Students of Forestry in Europe, that speaking of 
 our own government we know that they would have had 
 special pleasure in awarding to \\\m one of the highest of our 
 decorations, if the English law had admitted of this being 
 done. As this is impossible, we liope Dr. Brown will accept 
 our most hearty congratulations on the admirable activity with 
 which he is promulgating the principles of Forest Science from 
 his retreat at Haddington." 
 
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