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Zanzibar and its Unhealthiness.
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lost only two or three. Ill-health is common, but death is very rare. One Frenchman, who had been settled here more than twenty years, died lately, but except this the deaths have all been among British subjects; in fact no German, American, or French merchant has died within memory. And yet the merchants are more exposed to the sun than we are, and are less temperate livers. The only mortality to be compared with that of the Mission has been among the persons employed by the firm of H. A. Fraser and Co., and nearly all those deaths are directly attributable to accident or to intemperance. The only obvious difference between the Mission and the mercantile houses is that the merchants seldom remain more than three years in Zanzibar without a change. Only one of those Missionaries, however, who have died had lived in Zanzibar nearly as much as three years. It seems to follow that there must have been special causes at work, and it remains to discover, and, if possible, to prevent them. In Mr. Pennell's case, the disease of which he died must have been of long standing, though unsuspected. Mr. Fraser died at a time when the cholera was carrying off thousands; and it was remarkable that the disease generally attacked those who moved from one place to another, and not those who remained in their old quarters. Ships were in several instances healthy while in harbour, and full of cholera cases as soon as they got out to sea. Mr. Handcock's death may