One was fever, but the fiercest fever took to its heels when charged by General Quinine and General Calomel.
The other and more common complaint rose from abrasions and cuts.

There was always a string of porters lined up for treatment and each went away happy with large pieces of adhesive plaster decorating his ebony skin.

A simple piece of this plaster cured the worst and most inflamed cut, and it was seldom that a man came back for a second treatment.

The plaster remained on until, weeks afterward, it fell off from sheer weariness.
And once in a while there would be knife wounds, for whenever we killed a zebra as meat for the porters there would be a frenzied fight over the body.

Each man, with knife out, was fighting for the choice pieces.