28 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



midnight, but was roused by another shock about five o'clock in the 

 morning. It gave the bed a motion which made me fancy that it 

 moved under me from side to side. I sprang up, and having put on 

 my unmentionables (we wore no trousers in those days), I ran out, 

 in all haste, to the Alameda. There the scene was most distressing : 

 multitudes of both sexes, some nearly in a state of nudity, and others 

 sick at stomach, were huddled together, not knowing which way to 

 turn or what to do. 



'Omnes eodem cogimur.' 



However, it pleased Heaven, in its mercy, to spare us. The suc- 

 ceeding shocks became weaker and weaker, till at last we felt no 

 more of them. 



" I now began to think it high time to fly. I was acquainted with 

 a Swedish captain, by name Bolin ; a most excellent man, and of 

 surprising intrepidity and coolness. His brig having been long 

 laden with fruit from London, he was anxious to depart; and he 

 formed a plan to escape from the harbour. There was no getting a 

 regular clearance at the custom-house; neither would the Swedish 

 Consul afford any assistance ; so I went to our own Consul, Mr 

 Laird, with whom I was very intimate, requesting him to give me a 

 certificate to signify that there had not been any sickness in the city 

 for a long time : indeed, it was now in a remarkably healthy state. 

 The Consul complied with my request. As he put the certificate into 

 rny hand, ' My young friend/ said he, in a very feeling tone, ' I 

 shall either have to see you sunk by the cannon of the fort, or hear 

 of your being sent prisoner for life to the fortress of Ceuta, on the 

 coast of Africa.' 



" I now endeavoured to persuade my remaining uncle to try his 

 fortune with me ; but my entreaties were of no avail. He fell an 

 early victim to the fever, which returned with increased virulence 

 the following spring. A letter which I received from my worthy 

 friend Mr Dillon of Alhaurin, some twenty miles from Malaga, 

 informed me that it swept away 36,000 souls. 



" Our captain had taken the precaution to make out false papers, 

 in case of need, on account of the war betwixt Great Britain and 

 France. My brother was entered as a passenger, myself as a 



