124 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



thing in it so inexpressibly affable and kind, that it set 

 you immediately at your ease. He came close up to the 

 hammock, and taking hold of my wrist to feel the pulse, 

 " I am sorry, sir," said he, " to see that the fever has taken 

 such hold of you. You shall go directly with me," con- 

 tinued he, " to the fort ; and though we have no doctor 

 there, I trust," added he, " we shall soon bring you about 

 again. The orders I have received forbidding the ad- 

 mission of strangers were never intended to be put in 

 force against a sick English gentleman." 



As the canoe was proceeding slowly down the river 

 towards the fort, the commander asked, with much more 

 interest than a question in ordinary conversation is asked, 

 where was I on the night of the first of May ? On telling 

 him that I was at an Indian settlement a little below the 

 great fall in the Demerara, and that a strange and sudden 

 noise had alarmed all the Indians, he said the same 

 astonishing noise had roused every man in Fort St. 

 Joachim, and that they remained under arms till morning. 

 He observed, that he had been quite at a loss to form any 

 idea what could have caused the noise ; but now learning 

 that the same noise had been heard at the same time far 

 away from the Rio Branco, it struck him there must have 

 been an earthquake somewhere or other. 



Good nourishment and rest, and the unwearied attention 

 and kindness of the Portuguese commander, stopped the 

 progress of the fever, and enabled me to walk about in six 

 days. 



Fort St. Jcachim was built about five and forty years 

 ago, under the apprehension, it is said, that the Spaniards 

 were coming from the Rio Negro to settle there. It has 

 been much neglected; the floods of water have carried 

 away the gate, and destroyed the wall on each side of it ; 

 but the present commander is putting it into thorough 



