nly in moderation. The morning
"peg" and the lunch-time cocktail have undermined more health in the
tropics than all the flies and mosquitoes combined.

The Duke of Wellington recommended a formula for India which may well be
applied to the Congo. The doughty old warrior once said:

I know but one recipe for good health in this country, and that is
to live moderately, to drink little or no wine, to use exercise, to
keep the mind employed, and, if possible, to keep in good humour
with the world. The last is the most difficult, for as you have
often observed, there is scarcely a good-tempered man in India.

If a man will practice moderation in all things, take five grains of
quinine every day, exercise whenever it is possible, and keep his body
clean, he has little to fear from the ordinary diseases of a country
like the Congo. It is one of the ironies of civilization that after
passing unscathed through all the fever country, I caught a cold the
moment I got back to steam-heat and all the comforts of home.

No one would think of using ordinary luggage in the Congo. Everything
must be packed and conveyed in metal boxes similar to the uniform cases
used by British officers in Egypt and India. This is because the white
ant is the prize destroyer of property throughout Africa. He cuts
through leather and wood with the same ease that a Southern Negro's
teeth lacerate watermelon. Leave a pair of shoes on the ground over
night and you will find them riddled in the morning. These ants eat away
floors and sometimes cause the collapse of houses by wearing away the
wooden supports. Another frequent guest is the driver ant, which travels
in armies and frequently takes complete possession of a house. It
destroys all the vermin but the human inmates must beat a retreat while
the process goes on.

Since my return many people have asked me what books I read in the
Congo. The necessity for them was apparent. I had more than three months
of constant travelling, often alone, and for the most part on small
river boats where there is no deck space for exercise. Mail arrives
irregularly and there were no newspapers. After one or two days the
unceasing panorama of tropical forests, native villages, and naked
savages becomes monotonous. Even the hippopotami which you see in large
numbers, the omnipresent crocodile, and the occasional wild elephant,
cease to amuse. You are forced to fall back on that unfailing friend and