destroyed them just as a hurricane or a conflagration might have destroyed them, only more gradually, and at the same time more thoroughly. In replanting the same or similar trees as those which inhabited Europe before the Glacial period, we may be said to be only bringing back our own, and again clothing our land with those forest denizens which at no very distant epoch it actually possessed. YOF ENERAL VIRGIN CHAPTER V WHITE MEN IN THE TROPICS LIBRARY CAN the tropics be permanently colonized by Europeans, and particularly by men of the Anglo-Saxon race? This is the question that now occupies much attention in view of the mad struggle among the chief European Governments for a share of all those parts of tropical Africa and Asia still held by inferior races. And the general opinion seems to be that there is something in the tropical climate inimical to Europeans, who cannot live and work there as the natives can, and who must, therefore, be content with a few years' residence, occupying the country solely as rulers, and as exploiters of native labour. Again and again the statement is made in the public press, and by writers of some authority, that "white men cannot live and work in the tropics;" and this dogma is made the foundation of theories as to our conduct toward the natives, and is often held to justify us in inducing or compelling them to work for us by methods which do not very much differ in their results from modified slavery. It therefore becomes important to ascertain whether this dogma is true or false; and on this question, having myself lived and worked for twelve years within ten degrees of the equator, in the Amazon valley and in the Malay Archipelago, I have formed a very definite opinion. A few preliminary remarks are needed to avoid misconception. In the first place, we must clearly distinguish H2 between the climate and the diseases of the tropics. Most people form their opinions from the effects of those tropical diseases which prevail in the cities and towns where Europeans most congregate, or of the climate in the very worst portions of the tropical regions. The great trading centres of tropical America, from Havana and Vera Cruz to Rio de Janeiro, owe their extreme unhealthiness to two main causes the absence of all effective sanitary arrangements among the native population, and the fact that they were for several centuries emporiums of the slave trade. It is to this latter cause that Dr. C. Creighton, one of the greatest authorities on the history of epidemic diseases, traces the origin and persistence of the fatal yellow fever, which is only endemic in the slave trade area on the two sides of the Atlantic. The slave ships reached their destination in a state of indescribable filth, which year after year was poured out into the shallow water of the harbours, and soon formed a permanent constituent of the-soil between high and low water marks. In the East there were no such slave ships and there is no yellow fever; but the overcrowding in all centres of population, and the neglect of sanitation, both by the natives and by their English rulers in India, who, knowing better, are most to blame, produces and propagates plague and other zymotic diseases. But these are in no way due to the tropical climate, since three centuries ago plague was as prevalent in the cities of England as it is now in those of India. Still more commonly associated with the tropics are the various forms of malarial fevers, but these also are in no sense due to the climate, but simply to ignorant dealing with the soil. My own experience has shown me that swamps and marshes near the equator are perfectly healthy so long as they are left nearly in a state of nature -that is, covered with a dense forest or other vegetation. It is when extensive marshy areas are cleared for cultivation, and for half the year are dried up by the tropical sun, that they become deadly. I have lived for months together in or close to tropical swamps, both in the Amazon valley, in Borneo and in the Moluccas, without a day's illness; but when living in open cultivated marshy districts I almost invariably had malarial fever, though I believe the worst types of these fevers are due to unwholesome food. But here again, malaria was equally prevalent in England less than two centuries ago. If we take the great belt, about two thousand miles wide, extending from twelve to fifteen degrees north and south of the equator, we have an enormous area, by far the larger part of which is not only well adapted for European colonization in the true sense, that is, for permanent occupation by white men, but is also with proper sanitary precautions the most healthy and enjoyable part of the world, and that in which the labourer can obtain the maximum return with the minimum of toil. I formed this opinion in 1851 when returning down the Rio Negro and Amazon after four years' residence there, and my subsequent eight years' experience in the East has only confirmed it. I then wrote as follows: "It is a vulgar error, copied and repeated from one book to another, that in the tropics the luxuriance of the vegetation overpowers the efforts of man. Just the reverse is the case: Nature and climate are nowhere so favourable to the labourer, and I fearlessly assert that here (on the Rio Negro) the primeval forest can be converted into rich pasture or into cultivated fields, gardens and orchards, containing every variety of produce, with half the labour, and, what is of more importance, in less than half the time that would be required at home." Then, after giving some details as to the various crops that may be grown and the varieties of fruits, vegetables and animal food that can be easily had, I conclude thus: "Now I unhesitatingly affirm that two or three families, each containing half a dozen working and industrious men and boys, and being able to bring a capital in goods of £50 ($250), might in three years find themselves in possession of all I have mentioned. Supposing them to become used to the mandiocca and maize bread, they would, with the exception of clothing, have no one necessary or luxury to purchase; they would be abundantly supplied with pork, beef and mutton, poultry, eggs, butter, milk and cheese, coffee and cocoa, molasses and sugar. Delicious fish, turtles and turtles' eggs, and a great variety of game would furnish their table with constant variety, while vegetables would not be wanting, with fruits, both cultivated and wild, in superfluous abundance and of a quality that we at home rarely obtain. Oranges and lemons, figs and grapes, melons and watermelons, jack-fruit, custard-apples, cashews, pineapples, etc., are among the commonest, while numerous palm and other forest fruits furnish delicious drinks and delicacies which every one soon gets very fond of. Both animal and vegetable oils can be procured for light and cooking. And then, having provided for the body, what lovely gardens and shady walks might be made! How easy to form natural orchid bowers and ferneries! What elegant avenues of palms might be planted! What lovely climbers abound to train over arbours or up the walls of the house!" But, it is objected, this cannot be done without hard work, and we know that “white men cannot live and work in the tropics." But I maintain that we know nothing of the kind. It is not the fact that white men cannot permanently live and work in the tropics. Work of some sort, there as here, is a condition of healthy life. But with a reasonable amount of work--and such is the beneficence of nature that little is needed-man can not only live permanently but most healthily and enjoyably in those portions of the tropics I am referring to, and probably, with special precautions, in every part. I will now give some of the facts bearing upon this question. My own experience assures me that I owe my long life and comparatively good health to my twelve years' residence in the uniform climate and pure air of the equatorial forests, although I suffered frequently from fevers, and on one occasion was brought to the very point of death. I was a very delicate child, with weak lungs, and at the age of sixteen or seventeen suffered from serious ulceration of the lungs, and was only saved by the application of Dr. Ramage's common-sense air-treatment, somewhat analogous to that now being introduced for consumption. When I came home in 1862, although much weakened by other illnesses, my lungs were quite sound; and I distinctly trace my recovery to an open-air life in an equable, warm, pure atmosphere. My work as a collector of natural history specimens led to my being out |