white man's grave

Definitions

Africa, or more specifically, western Africa or Sierra Leone.

archaic

Examples

“[...]for, until some great revolution in nature or some great and gradual human exertion takes place⟳, it must ever prove⟳ the "white man's grave," of which we have⟳ many lamentable proofs in the deaths of so many worthy and adventurous spirits who have⟳ fallen victims to research⟳ and humanity—Park⟳, Peddie, Buchardt, Lander, Lang, Clapperton, Denham, Cooper, Thompson, &c. &c. &c.—all fallen through ferocity, treachery, or climate[...]”

“I was informed that, sometime since, a young man—I think⟳ his name⟳ was John Hooke, Brazilian consul—had retired thither, in hopes of avoiding the baleful influence⟳ of disease; but, alas! how futile are all human hopes and purposes—he, too, became a victim, and now lies in the white man's grave.”

“Not only this, but it is also much higher than the death-rate of such insanitary places as Borne, Venice, Hamburg, and Munich, and actually falls not far short of the rate recorded in that white man's grave Calcutta.”

CEFR level