374 BATAVIA CHAP, xvi 



morning he was something better, and from that time re- 

 covered, though by extremely slow degrees, till his second 

 attack. I myself, either by the influence of the bark of 

 which I had all along taken quantities, or by the anxiety I 

 suffered on Dr. Solander's account, missed my fever, nor 

 did it return for several days, until he became better. 



I4:th. We had the agreeable news of the repairs of the 

 ship being completely finished, and that she had returned 

 to Cooper's Island, where she proved to be no longer leaky. 

 When examined she had proved much worse than anybody 

 expected ; her main plank being in many places so cut by 

 the rocks that not more than one-eighth of an inch in 

 thickness remained ; and here the worm had got in and 

 made terrible havoc. Her false keel was entirely gone, and 

 her main keel much wounded. The damages were now, 

 however, entirely repaired, and very well too in the opinion 

 of everybody who saw the Dutch artificers do their work. 



Dr. Solander grew better, though by very slow degrees. 

 I soon had a return of my ague, which now became quotidian ; 

 the captain also was taken ill on board, and of course we 

 sent his servant to him. Soon after both Mr. Sporing and 

 our seaman were seized with intermittents, so that we were 

 again reduced to the melancholy necessity of depending 

 entirely upon the Malays for nursing us, all of whom were 

 often sick together. 



24:th. We had for some nights now had the wind on the 

 western board, generally attended with some rain, thunder 

 and lightning; this night it blew strong at S.W. and rained 

 harder than ever I saw it before for three or four hours. 

 Our house rained in every part, and through the lower part 

 of it ran a stream almost capable of turning a mill. In the 

 morning I went to Batavia, where the quantities of bedding 

 that I everywhere saw hung up to dry, made a very 

 uncommon sight, for I was told almost every house in 

 the town and neighbourhood suffered more or less. This 

 was certainly the shifting of the monsoon ; for the winds, 

 which had before been constantly to the eastward, remained 

 constantly on the western board. The people here, however, 



