214 THE AUTHOR'S MEDICAL PRACTICE. 
though I saw twenty running about in his yard. I gave the 
old man five tobacco leaves, to purchase a fowl, which Ibra- 
him found for that price ; he gave it to one of his women to 
cook, and the schoolmaster speedily recovered. I had given 
Ibrahim some doses of jalap, which he had asked me for, and 
though nothing ailed him, he took a dose of it, with the view 
of having a claim on some of the broth, which he saw 
preparing for my patient. It was rumoured among the 
inhabitants that I possessed medicines for all sorts of dis- 
orders, and I was much importuned and harassed for them. 
Some had ulcers on the arms or legs, others, fever and 
bowel complaint; I was teazed all day long by demands for 
medicine. To cure the ulcers, I washed them with a caustic, 
and then dressed them with lint ; and to those suffering from 
fever I administered a few doses of quinine, and directed a 
regimen, which did not always please my patients. To act 
up to the character of doctor, I sometimes grew angry, arid 
threatened to abandon to their fate those who did not follow 
my directions. The only medicines I had were those few 
with which the English doctors of Sierra-Leone had been 
kind enough to furnish me, and I was anxious to keep 
them for myself, presuming that I might need them ; but 
the Mandingoes imagined that my stock was inexhaustible, 
and that it might be beneficially employed in all kinds of 
distempers. They were continually asking me for physic, 
and though I was obliged to refuse them, yet they continually 
renewed their applications, observing that they were Musul- 
mans as well as I, and that no Musulman ought to withhold 
a service which he can perform. Wearied by their impor- 
tunity, I sometimes left them in an ill humour, and went to 
lie down. They then cried out " He is a christian ! See how 
he behaves to us ! He has medicine, and will not give any to 
us Musulmans." In these dilemnas, I was always much; / 
indebted to Ibrahim, who told his countrymen that I had 
