AGUE PKOMPT BURIAL IN THE SWAMPS. 1G7 



morning I was eo much worse, that I thought my hist 

 hour was approaching. I took one of the emetics I 

 had brought with me from Cincinnati, but without effect ; 

 the fever changed from cold to hot, and increased 

 every hour. On the nights of the IGth and 17th of 

 September, I was deHrious ; what I may have said I 

 know not, as they tokl me that I spoke German. 



Saint could not procure a doctor. The nearest lived 

 twenty miles off, and was seldom at home : this prob- 

 ably saved my life, for had I fallen into the hands of 

 one of these American quacks, I might have prepared 

 for my last journey. Saint happened to have some pills 

 in the house, made by J. Sappington, and gave me one. 

 Whether it was from the pill, or my own good constitu- 

 tion, I was better on the 18th, and could move about 

 the house, and enjoy a little food, after my four days' 

 fast ; I was very weak for a long time. I must ever 

 remember with gratitude the kind interest with which 

 these worthy Americans attended and nursed the poor 

 stranger. 



It was by no means agreeable to remain ill in the 

 swamps, having shortly before heard accounts of burials, 

 which left it out of all doubt that some of the poor 

 creatures supposed to be dead had been buried alive. 

 Mrs. S. spoke of one case in particular, on the St. Fran- 

 cis river, where the ground was so wet and swampy, 

 that the man's comrades, for they were out on a shoot- 

 ing excursion, put the body into a canoe, and brought it 

 down to the place where the Saints then lived, and 

 where the land was dry. On account of the greater 

 heat in the southern States, they do not stand on so 

 much ceremony with a dead body, as is the case in the 



