NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



255 



St. Bento to the point of Armazem, has been ah-eady slightly described. 

 The middle section, ex^^rjfling to the Ilha do Governador, comprehends 

 a large expanse of water, studded with many charming islands. Ilha 

 dos' Enchados, a rock covered with §, thin and poor soil, presents a 

 pleasing object to the city and various parts of the bay. On it stands 

 one of the public wharfs, and a large neat building, formerly appropri- 

 ated to persons afflicted with the Elephantiasis, a disease which once 

 greatly prevailed in this country. Lately this edifice has been assigned 

 to the use of the British fleet for an hospital, and nothing certainly could 

 be better adapted to the purpose. 



Here I saw an instance of that singular malady, the Guinea- worm. 

 The patient was a negro-boy, about fourteen years of age, among whose 

 countrymen the disease chiefly prevails. The animal, if so it may be 

 called, appeared coiled up beneath the skin ; after some time, what was 

 said to be the head protruded itself, this was seized with a small forceps, 

 and the worm drawn out to the length of two inches ; the extracted 

 part was then wound about a small stick, to prevent its return. In a few 

 hours after another portion was drawn out, and secured in the same way ; 

 by a similar process, the greatest care being always used not to break it, 

 the whole was extracted, and then appeared like a thin dry thread of 

 catgut, and was several feet in length. The boy had these worms in 

 every part of his body, had been treated for them in his own country, 

 and was deemed incurable, and, on that account, had been sold by his 

 parents for two yards of checked linen. He remained in the hospital 

 about three weeks, was placed, I believe, in a state of complete saliva- 

 tion, and then discharged cured. For five years afterward, during alm.ost 

 every day of which I saw him, he remained free from tlie complaint, 

 and proved an excellent servant, often expressing his gratitude to his 

 master in warm and simple terms. " My father in Africa," he v/ould 

 say, " sold me ; you are my father, I love you best." I have pleasure in 

 adding, that I met with the lad in Paris, in October, 1819, and that he 

 continued perfectly well. I believe he is now, June 21st, 1820, at Buxton, 



A cluster of bold rocks appears about a mile farther Westward, 



