179 



me in the expression of their sympathy for you in your present 

 severe affliction , and as some slight mark of respect for his me- 

 mory we wish to send a memorial tablet , to be put up in the 

 church or burial place of his home etc. etc. 



MONTE- VIDEO , 2 2 . February 1876. 

 Madam ! 



I shall endeavour to answer your inquiries about your sons 

 fatal illness. 



When laid up on the main-deck he was much pleased with 

 his quarters and dit not look upon it at all as alarming. 

 Settling himself in his bed lie said to me, he had had no idea, that 

 such comfortable arrangements could have been made on board a 

 ship. 



It is difficult to say whether he was sensible of his danger, 

 partly because , while he Avas able he spoke very little about it, 

 bearing his terrible sufferings with the greatest courage, and partly 

 because delirium set in so soon. During the whole of 



his illness and till within a few hours of his death his bodily strength 

 had remained almost unimpaired, and his appetite was good, which 

 rendered us all hopeful of his entire recovery. At first the name 

 Erysipelas was unfamiliar to him, and it was only on the day he 

 was laid up, that while talking together he said to me : Now I know 

 what it is, that they call Erysipelas, it means: Gesichtsrose, which 

 at least is less dangerous than: Kopfro.se. At this time it was 

 still confined to his face, but before the next day it had spread to 

 his head, and he never again referred to the subject. He gave me 

 no commissions or messages, nor dit he do so to any one else, and 

 the only reference he ever made to his state was the above mentio- 

 ned. 



In the last seven or eight hours of his life his language, although 

 apparently plain and distinct , was to me quite unintelligible , and 

 during the last hours he never spoke at all. 



In him I lost my best friend on board the ship and even after 

 so many months the whole extent of the loss, which the expedition 

 has sustained by his untimely death, has not been realised. Had 



12* 



u.: 



