694 



well as the dip of the magnetic needle, These 

 labours were soon interrupted. We were both 

 attacked almost on the same day by a disorder, 

 which with my fellow-traveller took the charac- 

 ter of an ataxic fever. At this period the air 

 was in a state of the greatest salubrity at An- 

 gostura; and as the only mulatto servant we 

 had brought from Cumana felt the symptoms of 

 the same disorder, the persons who took un- 

 wearied care of us had little doubt, that we had 

 imbibed the germe of the typhus in the damp 

 forests of Cassiquiare. It is common enough for 

 travellers, to feel no effects from miasmata till 

 the moment when, having reached a purer at- 

 mosphere, they begin to enjoy some repose. A 

 certain excitement of the mental powers may 

 suspend for some time the action of pathogenic 

 causes. Our mulatto servant having been much 

 more exposed to the rains than we were our- 

 selves, his disorder increased with frightful ra- 

 pidity. His prostration of strength was so 

 great, that on the ninth day his death was an- 

 nounced to us. He was however only in a state 

 of swooning, which lasted several hours, and 

 was followed by a salutary crisis. I was attacked 

 at the same time with a very violent fever, and 

 in the middle of the fit was made to take a mix- 

 ture of honey and of the extract of the bark of 

 Carony*. This is a remedy much boasted of in 



* Extract of the cortex Angostura, 



