A great deal of fever comes in with March and April; in March, if considerable intervals take place between the rainy days, and in April always, for then large surfaces of mud and decaying vegetation are exposed to the hot sun.In general an attack does not continue long, but it pulls one down quickly; though when the fever is checked the strength is as quickly restored.It had long been observed that those who were stationed for any length of time in one spot, and lived sedentary lives, suffered more from fever than others who moved about and had both mind and body occupied; but we could not all go in the small vessel when she made her trips, during which the change of place and scenery proved so conducive to health; and some of us were obliged to remain in charge of the expedition's property, making occasional branch trips to examine objects of interest in the vicinity.Whatever may be the cause of the fever, we observed that all were often affected at the same time, as if from malaria.This was particularly the case during a north wind:it was at first commonly believed that a daily dose of quinine would prevent the attack.For a number of months all our men, except two, took quinine regularly every morning.The fever some times attacked the believers in quinine, while the unbelievers in its prophylactic powers escaped.
Whether we took it daily, or omitted it altogether for months, made no difference; the fever was impartial, and seized us on the days of quinine as regularly and as severely as when it remained undisturbed in the medicine chest, and we finally abandoned the use of it as a prophylactic altogether.The best preventive against fever is plenty of interesting work to do, and abundance of wholesome food to eat.
To a man well housed and clothed, who enjoys these advantages, the fever at Tette will not prove a more formidable enemy than a common cold; but let one of these be wanting--let him be indolent, or guilty of excesses in eating or drinking, or have poor, scanty fare,--and the fever will probably become a more serious matter.It is of a milder type at Tette than at Quillimane or on the low sea-coast; and, as in this part of Africa one is as liable to fever as to colds in England, it would be advisable for strangers always to hasten from the coast to the high lands, in order that when the seizure does take place, it may be of the mildest type.Although quinine was not found to be a preventive, except possibly in the way of acting as a tonic, and rendering the system more able to resist the influence of malaria, it was found invaluable in the cure of the complaint, as soon as pains in the back, sore bones, headache, yawning, quick and sometimes intermittent pulse, noticeable pulsations of the jugulars, with suffused eyes, hot skin, and foul tongue, began. {1}very curious are the effects of African fever on certain minds.
Cheerfulness vanishes, and the whole mental horizon is overcast with black clouds of gloom and sadness.The liveliest joke cannot provoke even the semblance of a smile.The countenance is grave, the eyes suffused, and the few utterances are made in the piping voice of a wailing infant.An irritable temper is often the first symptom of approaching fever.At such times a man feels very much like a fool, if he does not act like one.Nothing is right, nothing pleases the fever-stricken victim.He is peevish, prone to find fault and to contradict, and think himself insulted, and is exactly what an Irish naval surgeon before a court-martial defined a drunken man to be:"a man unfit for society."
Finding that it was impossible to take our steamer of only ten-horse power through Kebrabasa, and convinced that, in order to force a passage when the river was in flood, much greater power was required, due information was forwarded to Her Majesty's Government, and application made for a more suitable vessel.Our attention was in the mean time turned to the exploration of the river Shire, a northern tributary of the Zambesi, which joins it about a hundred miles from the sea.We could learn nothing satisfactory from the Portuguese regarding this affluent; no one, they said, had ever been up it, nor could they tell whence it came.Years ago a Portuguese expedition is said, however, to have attempted the ascent, but to have abandoned it on account of the impenetrable duckweed (Pistia stratiotes.)We could not learn from any record that the Shire had ever been ascended by Europeans.As far, therefore, as we were concerned, the exploration was absolutely new.All the Portuguese believed the Manganja to be brave but bloodthirsty savages; and on our return we found that soon after our departure a report was widely spread that our temerity had been followed by fatal results, Dr.
Livingstone having been shot, and Dr. Kirk mortally wounded by poisoned arrows.
Our first trip to the Shire was in January, 1859.A considerable quantity of weed floated down the river for the first twenty-five miles, but not sufficient to interrupt navigation with canoes or with any other craft.Nearly the whole of this aquatic plant proceeds from a marsh on the west, and comes into the river a little beyond a lofty hill called Mount Morambala.Above that there is hardly any.
