a4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER - 
days. ‘Fhe earth, notwithftanding the heat of thefe days, 
is yet perpetually cold, fo as to feel difagreeably to the foles 
of the feet; partly owing to the fix months rains, when no 
fun appears, and partly to the perpetual equality of nights 
and days; the thinnefs of the cloathing in the better fort, 
(a muflin fhirt) while the others are naked, and fleep in this 
manner expofed, without covering in the cold nights, after 
the violent perfpiration during the fultry day. Thefe may 
be reckoned imprudences, while the conftant ufe of ftagnant 
putrid water for four months of the year, and the quantity 
of falt with which the foil of thofe countries is impregnated, 
may be circumftances lefs conducive to health; to which, 
however, they have been for ever fubjeCt by nature. 
Ir will be very reafonably expected, that, after this un- 
favourable account of the climate, and the uncertainty of 
remedies for thefe frequent and terrible difeafes, } fhould 
fay fomething of the regimen proper to be obferved there, 
in order to prevent what it feems fo doubtful whether we 
can ever cure. 
My firft general advice toa traveller is this, to remember 
well what was. the ftate of his conftitution before he vifit- 
ed thefe countries, and what his complaints were, if he had 
any ; for fear very frequently feizes us upon the firft 
fight of the many and fudden deaths we fee upon our firft 
arrival, and our fpirits are fo lowered by perpetual per- 
{piration, and our nerves fo relaxed, that we are apt to mif- 
take the ordinary fymptoms of a difeafe, familiar to us in 
our own: country, for the approach of one of thefe terrible 
ditempers that are to hurry us in a few hours into eters 
aity. This has a bad ettect in the very flighteft diforders ; 
Lo: 
