178 
put the antidote In the fame place 
where grows the poifon. 
’  « Some weeks before I left Gon- 
dar I had been very much torment- 
ed with this difeafe, and I had tried 
both ways of treating it, the one by 
hot medicines and aftringents, the 
other by the-contrary method of 
diluting. Smal! dofes of ipecacu- 
anhaunder the bark had for feveral 
times procured me temporary re- 
lief, but relapfes always followed, 
My ftrength began to fail, and, 
after a fevere return of this difeafe, 
1 had, at my ominous manfion, Hor- 
cacamoot, the valley of the fhadow 
of death, a very unpromifing pro- 
fpe&t, for I was now going: to pafs 
through the kingdom of Sennaar in 
the time of year when that difeafe 
moft rages, 
« Sheba, chief of the Shangalla, 
called Genjar, on the frontiers of 
Kuara, had at*this time a kind of 
embafly or mieflage to Ras el Feel. 
He wanted to burn fome villages in 
Atbara belonging to ‘the \ Arabs 
* Jeheina, and withed Yafine might 
not protect them: they often came 
and fat with me, and one of them 
hearing of my complaint, nd the 
apprehenfions I annexed to it, feem- 
ed to make very light of both, and 
the reafon was, he found at the very 
door this fhrub, the ftrong and lig- 
neous root of which, nearly as 
thick as a parfnip, was covered 
with a clean, clear, wrinkled bark, 
of a light-brown cdfour, and which 
eeled eafily off the‘root. The 
nes was without fibres to tle very 
end, where it {plit like a fork into 
two thin divifions. After having 
cleared the infide of it of a whitith 
membrane, he laid it to dry in the 
fun, and then would have bruifed 
it between two ftones, had we not 
fhewn him the eafier and more ex- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 179. 
‘camel’s milk; I took two of thee 
peditious way of powdering it in 4 
mortar. 
« The firft dofe I took was about 
a heaped tea-fpoonful in a cup of 
in a day, and then in the morning a 
tea-cup of the infufion in camel’s 
milk warm. It was attended the 
firft day with a violent drought, 
but I was prohibited from drinking 
either water or bouza. I made 
privately a drink of my own; I 
took a little boiled water which 
had ftood to cool, and in it a fmall 
quantity of fpirits. I after ufed 
fome ripetamarinds in water, which 
I thought did me harm, I cannot 
fay I found any alteration for the. 
firft day, unlefs a kind of hope that 
I was growing better, but the fe- 
cond day I found myfelf fenfibly 
recovered. I left off laudanum and 
ipecacuanha, and refolved to truft 
only to my medicine. In looking 
at my journal, I think it was the 
6th or 7th day that I pronounced 
myfelf well, and, though I had re- 
turns afterwards, I‘never was re- 
duced to the neceflity of taking one 
drop of laudanum, although before 
I Had been very free with it. 1 did 
not perceive it occafioned any ex- 
traordinary evacuation, nor any re- 
markable fymptom but that con- 9 
tinued thirft, which abated after it 
had been taken fome time. 
«“ In the courfe of my journey — 
through Sennaar, I faw that ‘all the 
inhabitants were well acquainted — 
with the virtues of this plant. I | 
had prepared a quantity pounded 
into powder, and ufed it fuccefs-, 
fully everywhere. I thought that 
the mixing of a third of bark with” 
it produced the effe€t more {peedi- 
ly, and, as we had now little op- | 
portunity of getting milk, we made 
an infation in water. I tried a ff 
fpirituous 
