IX.] FEVER PROSTEATION. 119 



Murpliy I was sorry I could not get away sooner to call on September, 

 him ; but I had the King of Uganda stopping with me, and I ^^'^^' 

 must be civil to him, as we should shortly be in his country. 

 Murphy pretty well dozed his fever off, but I never went to 

 sleep from beginning to end. We all got well on the same 

 day, about, I suppose, the fifth (of the fever), and laughed heart- 

 ily at each other's confidences. The Arabs sent every day to 

 know how we were, or called themselves, bringing sweet limes, 

 pomegranates, or custard apples 



" September Sth. — We have had a second dose of the beastly 

 (excuse the word) fever. On the morning of the third day of 

 our attack (about the seventh of Cameron's), I saw Murphy get 

 up and steer for the open end of the room, staggering as he 

 went, and endeavoring to get clear of a lot of ammunition 

 which had been emptied from the panniers, but he failed to 

 keep in the right line. Apparently seeing that he must go on 

 to the ' rocks ahead,' he staggered slower and slower, taking 

 very short steps, till, coming in contact with the edge of a heap 

 of empty cartridges, he gradually subsided on the top of them, 

 with a groan, on his hands and knees. The sight appeared to 

 me to be so ludicrous — a big, powerful fellow not being able 

 to get out of a room without a door or fourth wall — that I 

 laughed as loud as my prostrate condition would admit of. 

 This had the effect of bringing him to his senses, and he strug- 

 gled to his feet, and balanced himself out. The whole thing 

 must have been seen to have been appreciated, and by one in a 

 similar state of helplessness as the victim. You can't imagine 

 how this fever prostrates one. A slight headache is felt ; one 

 feels that one must lie down, though one does not feel ill. The 

 next morning one walks, or tries to walk, across the room ; one 

 finds one must allow one's body to go wherever one's foot 

 chooses to place itself, and a very eccentric course the poor 

 body has to take sometimes in consequence. Drink ! drink ! 

 drink! cold water, milk, tea — any thing. Bail it out of a 

 bucket, or drink it out of the spout of the tea-pot." 



Writing, myself, on the 20th of September, with my troubles 

 uppermost in my mind, I said : 



" I am very savage just at this moment, as I have been try- 

 ing for two days to get enough men together to form a camp 



