Cuap. VII. YELLOW FEVER AT PARA. 179 
the plague”); and it was useless to attempt to reason them out of the 
belief that this was the forerunner of the pestilence. The progress of 
the disease was very rapid. It commenced in April, in the middle of 
the wet season. Ina few days, thousands of persons lay sick, dying, or 
dead. The state of the city during the time the fever lasted may 
be easily imagined. ‘Towards the end of June it abated, and very few 
cases occurred during the dry season from July to December. 
As I said before, the yellow fever still lingered in the place when I 
arrived from the interior in April. I was in hopes I should escape it, 
but was not so fortunate ; it seemed to spare no new-comer. At the 
time I fell ill, every medical man in the place was worked to the utmost 
in attending the victims of the other epidemic ; it was quite useless to 
think of obtaining their aid, so I was obliged to be my own doctor, as I 
had been in many former smart attacks of fever. I was seized with 
shivering and vomit at nine o’clock in the morning. Whilst the people 
of the house went down to the town for the medicines I ordered, I 
wrapped myself in a blanket and walked sharply to and fro along the 
verandah, drinking at intervals a cup of warm tea, made of a bitter herb 
in use amongst the natives, called Pajémaridba, a leguminous plant grow- 
in all waste places. About an hour afterwards I took a good draught of 
a decoction of elder blossoms as a sudorific, and soon after fell insensible 
into my hammock. Mr. Philipps, an English resident with whom I was 
then lodging, came home in the afternoon and found me sound asleep 
and perspiring famously. I did not wake till towards midnight, when I 
felt very weak and aching in every bone of my body. I then took as a 
purgative a small dose of Epsom salts and manna. In forty-eight hours 
the fever left me, and in eight days from the first attack I was able to 
get about my work. Little else happened during my stay which need 
be recorded here. I shipped off all my collections to England, and 
received thence a fresh supply of funds. It took me several weeks to 
prepare for my second and longest journey into the interior. My plan 
now was first to make Santarem headquarters for some time, and ascend 
from that place the river Tapajos, as far as practicable. Afterwards I 
intended to revisit the marvellous country of the Upper Amazons, and 
work well its natural history at various stations I had fixed upon, from 
Ega to the foot of the Andes. 
