FIRST JOURNEY. 



41 



pelting shower, strength of constitution at last failed, 

 and a severe fever came on. The commander's answer 

 was very polite. He remarked, he regretted much to 

 say, that he had received orders to allow no stranger to 

 enter the frontier, and this being the case, he hoped I 

 would not consider him as uncivil: " However," con- 

 tinued he, "I have ordered the soldier to land you at a 

 certain distance from the fort, where we can consult 

 together/' 



We had now arrived at the place, and the canoe 

 which brought the letter returned to the fort, to tell 

 the commander I had fallen sick. 



The sun had not risen above an hour the morning 

 after, when the Portuguese officer came to the spot 

 where we had landed the preceding evening. He was 

 tall and spare, and appeared to be from fifty to fifty- 

 five years old ; and though thirty years of service 

 under an equatorial sun had burnt and shrivelled up 

 his face, still there was something in it so inexpressibly 

 affable and kind, that it set you immediately at your 

 ease. He came close up to the hammock, and taking 

 hold of my wrist to feel the pulse, " I am sorry, sir," 

 said he, " to see that the fever has taken such hold of 

 you. You shall go directly with me," continued he, 

 " to the fort ; and though we have no doctor there, I 

 trust," added he, " we shall soon bring you about again. 

 The orders I have received forbidding the admission of 

 strangers, were never intended to be put in force against 

 a sick. English, gentleman." 



As the canoe was proceeding slowly down the river 

 towards the fort, the commander asked, with much more 

 interest than a question in ordinary conversation is 

 asked, where was I on the night of the 1st of May? 



