156 



WANDERINGS IN 



Third 

 Journey. 



Severe 

 attack of 

 fever. 



the dews of night, to the pelting shower, and unwhole- 

 some food. 



Perhaps it will be as well, here, to mention a fever 

 which came on, and the treatment of it ; it may possibly 

 be of use to thee, shouldst thou turn wanderer in the 

 tropics : a word or two also of a wound I got in the 

 forest, and then we will say no more of the little acci- 

 dents which sometimes occur, and attend solely to 

 natural history. We shall have an opportunity of seeing 

 the wild animals in their native haunts, undisturbed and 

 unbroken in upon by man. We shall have time and 

 leisure to look more closely at them, and probably rectify 

 some errors which, for want of proper information, or 

 a near observance, have crept into their several histories. 



It was in the month of June, when the sun was withii. 

 a few days of Cancer, that I had a severe attack of fever. 

 There had been a deluge of rain, accompanied with 

 tremendous thunder and lightning, and very little sun. 

 Nothing could exceed the dampness of the atmosphere. 

 For two or three days I had been in a kind of twilight 

 state of health, neither ill nor what you may call well ; 

 I yawned and felt weary without exercise, and my sleep 

 was merely slumber. This was the time to have taken 

 medicine ; but I neglected to do so, though I had just 

 been reading, " O navis referent in mare te novi fluctus, 

 O quid agis ? fortiter occupa portum." I awoke at mid- 

 night ; a cruel head-ach, thirst, and pain in the small of 



