334 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



his whole body passed through. His struggles were 

 dreadful. Suddenly the mass of bodies on the floor 

 rolled against Captain D'Yriarte's bed, which broke 

 down with a crash, and with a fever upon him, he was 

 obliged to scramble out of the way. In the interval of 

 one of the most violent struggles we heard a strange id- 

 iotic noise, which seemed like an attempt to crow. The 

 Indians who crowded the hut laughed, and Dr. Drivin 

 was so indignant at their heartlessness that he seized a 

 club and drove them all out of doors. An old naked 

 African, who had been a slave at Balize, and had lost 

 his language without acquiring much of any other, re- 

 turned with a bunch of feathers, which he wished to 

 stick in the captain's nose and set fire to, saying it was 

 the remedy of his country ; but the doctor showed him 

 his stick, and he retreated. 



The convulsions continued for three hours, during 

 which time the doctor considered the captain's situation 

 very critical. The old woman persisted that the devil 

 was in him, and would not give him up, and that he 

 must die ; and I could not but think of his young wife, 

 who was sleeping a few miles off, unconscious of the 

 calamity that threatened her. The fit was brought on^ 

 as the doctor said, by anxiety and distress of mind oc- 

 casioned by his unfortunate voyage, and particularly by 

 the mutiny of his crew. At eleven o'clock he fell 

 asleep, and now we learned the cause of the strange 

 noise which had affected us so unpleasantly. Tom was 

 just preparing to go on board the vessel, when the Af- 

 rican ran down to the shore and told him that the cap- 

 tain was at the hut drunk. Tom, being himself in that 

 state, felt that it was his duty to look after the captain ; 

 but he had just bought a parrot, for which he had paid 

 a dollar, and, afraid to trust him in other hands, hauled 



