5ti 



PENDULUM EXPERIMENTS. 



I now made a firm resolution to meddle no more 

 with the practice of medicine ; and had just de- 

 clared my regret at having been induced, on any 

 account, to place myself in the way of responsi- 

 bilities, which I could not bear with a safe con- 

 science ; when a man burst into my room, and 

 exclaimed, that I was wanted immediately, as a 

 young woman was dying, a few doors off ! I said 

 I was no doctor — knew nothing of medicine — and 

 could not possibly follow him — but that I would 

 send off to the ship. " No, no," cried the man, 

 " that won't do — no time is to be lost — the girl 

 will die — and her blood will be on your head if 

 you delay a moment ;" and he dragged me along 

 with him to a house, where a girl, about sixteen 

 years of age, was lying in a state of insensibility. 

 I was received with infinite joy by the numerous 

 matrons assembled round the bed, who insisted, 

 with one voice, on my saying what was to be done. 

 They told me she had accidentally fallen backwards 

 down some steps, and had pitched her head against 

 a stone, since which she had lain in the state I 

 saw. " Medecin malgre moi," — I was forced to 

 do something, and, aware of the advantage of 

 bleeding in such cases, I said the girl ought to be 

 bled at once, and told them to send for the person 

 usually employed on such occasions, who it ap- 

 peared was the principal barber. 



A long time elapsed before he made his ap- 

 pearance, and when he did arrive, he showed no 

 disposition to make up for this delay ; but insisted 

 upon telling the company, at great length, how 

 much provoked he was to have been disturbed in 

 the middle of his siesta. I took the liberty of 

 urging him repeatedly to defer the story till after 

 he had bled the girl ; but as this produced no 

 effect, I said, at length, that unless he began im- 

 mediately, we must employ some one else to do it 

 instead. This put him a little on his mettle, and 

 he very pompously called for a ribbon, a towel, a 

 handkerchief, a candle, and a basin. These being 

 brought and ranged before him, he drew forth his 

 case of lancets, examined five or six with most 

 pedantic deliberation, and, after many minutes' 

 delay, selected one ; he then tied up the arm, drew 

 it out at full length, and folded it up again till the 

 fingers touched the shoulder ; this he repeated 

 several times, without seeming at all disposed to 

 go any further ; upon which we insinuated to him, 

 that if the girl died through his preposterous 

 delays, he should be held responsible. This roused 

 him a little ; and having bared the arm, he first 

 wet it, and then, in the rudest manner possible, 

 rubbed it with a coarse towel from the wrist to the 

 elbow, till the skin was much abraded. At last 

 he touched the vein with his lancet, after slowly 

 making the si^n of the cross three times over the 

 place. Owing to the violent manner in which he 

 had bound up the arm, he had stopped the artery, 

 as well as the vein, and no blood flowed until he 

 had loosened the bandage — then he relaxed it too 

 much — in short, the operation was perhaps never 

 less skilfully performed. The effect, however, was 

 in the end most satisfactory, for the girl gradually 

 recovered as the blood flowed, till in the course of 



five minutes she regained her senses completely. 



Next day she was quite well ; and thus, in spite 



of all my endeavours, my reputation as a doctor 

 was as fully established in San Bias, as if I had 



graduated at .Salamanca. 



CHAPTER L. 



SAN BLAS. 

 Result of Experiments with the Pendulum. — Popular 

 Commotion. — Credulous Priest. — Mining Speculator. — 

 Periodical Departure of the Inhabitants from San Bias. 

 Commencement of the rainy Season. — Tropical Thunder 

 Storm. — The Conway leaves the Coast of Mexico. 



As the treasure to be shipped on board the 

 Conway came at intervals of a week or ten days, 

 I took advantage of these leisure moments to 

 erect an observatory ; where my assistant Mr. 

 Foster, and I, repeated the experiments made at 

 the Galapagos. The result gives the length of the 

 seconds pendulum at San Bias, 39.03776 inches, 

 and the ellipticity ^-j-£« ^g. 



The commandant at San Bias, greatly to our 

 comfort and happiness, was a remarkably sensible, 

 unprejudiced, and well-informed Old Spaniard : 

 he not only encouraged us to make these observa- 

 tions, and assisted us as far as his means went, 

 but even allowed us to survey the harbour and 

 the town. Under his sanction, therefore, we com- 

 menced our operations. It being necessary, in 

 the first instance, to erect a mark in a conspicuous 

 situation, in the meridian, on which a light was to 

 be placed at night, we fixed upon the parapet of a 

 friend's house, on the further side of the market- 

 place. No particular directions had been given as 

 to the form of this mark, which was nailed up late 

 on Saturday evening ; nor was it until after it had 

 been exposed for some hours next morning that I 

 discovered it to be in the form of a crucifix. We 

 had learned, by many circumstances, that the in- 

 habitants of San Bias were above all things jealous 

 of any interference with, or any disrespect shown 

 to, their religious customs ; and we had, in con- 

 sequence, taken great care to avoid every con- 

 ceivable cause of offence on such subjects. I was 

 horror-struck, therefore, to see the sacred symbol 

 built up as a part of my profane apparatus, and 

 immediately repaired to my friend the commandant, 

 to consult with him what was best to be done on 

 this alarming occasion. ** It is a great pity," 

 said he, " and I hope it may not produce a popular 

 commotion ; although I think the chances are, the 

 people will take it rather as a compliment than 

 otherwise : at all events, let it stand now ; and, 

 in the mean time, come down to mass along with 

 me." Accordingly, as the third bell was just then 

 ringing, we set off for the church. On reaching 

 the market-place, we observed a great crowd gaping 

 at my cross ; but we walked on boldly, and I must 

 own I was not a little relieved by the good-humour 

 they appeared to be in, and by the unusually civil 

 manner in which they made way for us to pass. 

 They were delighted, in fact, with the circumstance; 

 and I heard no more of the matter, except that 

 the inhabitants were much pleased with the pious 

 regularity with which we lighted up the cross every 

 night, the moment it was dark. Instead of offend- 

 ing them, indeed, it had the effect of inspiring 

 them with hopes of our conversion ; for the ques- 

 tion, as to whether or not we were Catholics, was 

 more frequently put than before. They were 

 never displeased with our replying in the negative ; 

 and always considered our regular attendance at 

 mass, and other attentions to their customs, as 

 mails of civility and good-will. They hoped, they 



