Blantyre, Nyasaland by Joel C. Rogers

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 21, 1914

Blantyre, Nyasaland

By Joel C. Rogers

It is now a month since the first rains began here. The country is changing from its brown and blackened hills—blackened by sun and fire and drought—to the delightful green and red of the tropics,—red because most of the early leaves of the trees are of that color, but turn to green after a month or two. Natives are planting their food crops, and Europeans their profit crops of cotton and tobacco. Soon the grass on the plains and near the streams will be tall and wet, making travel difficult and dangerous from malaria. The mosquito will not take possession of the land for six months. The tsetse fly, spreading death abroad to man and beast, is always present. Four new districts within the last month have been "declared" infected by sleeping sickness. Nearly half of Nyasaland is now infected. Both natives and Europeans are affected by it. No European who contracts it ever has escaped a rather sudden demise, so far as I have heard. So it behooves us to work while the day lasts. It will be a dark day when this disease covers the land. JOEL C. ROGERS.