32S 
FARE AT TIME. 
old negress dressed my foot morning aud evenings and 
she often consoled me with the hope of a speedy cure. In 
gratitude for her attention I made her a present of a piece 
of coloured cloth, which pleased her exceedingly. She had 
probably never before possessed any thing so beautiful ; her 
son presently came to thank me, and very seriously asked 
me who had made the flowers on the cloth. I smiled at his 
simplicity, and told him that it had been made by the whites. 
He answered, still preserving his gravity, that he thought 
none but God could have made any thing so beautiful. 
I remained a month in ni}^ hut, constantly lying on the 
damp ground, for I was unable to walk, though I did not 
suffer very great pain. The month of September seemed 
to promise a return of fine weather ; but appearances were 
delusive. The rains, to be sure, were not so incessant, but 
we regularly had rain every day, until October, when it 
became less frequent. The rain, which poured in torrents, 
always set in with hurricanes, blowing from the east and 
south-east. In proportion as the rain diminished the heat 
increased, and the air became more salubrious. My foot 
got better, and I hoped to set off about the end of the 
month. It may well be imagined that I looked forward to 
the period of my departure with no little anxiety, and not- 
withstanding all the kindness that I experienced from my 
old nurse, I was impatient for the moment when I might 
have the pleasure of bidding her farewell. On market-days 
I gave her glass trinkets to purchase my weekly supply of 
rice and foigne, which she made her son's wives cook for 
me. She herself brought me twice a day a portion of tau 
and rice in a wooden platter, and in a little earthen vessel 
soup made of herbs or pistachio-nuts, to which I added a 
little salt and vegetable butter, without which these messes 
would have been scarcely eatable. For a few glass beads, 
I readily procured vegetable butter, called in the country c^- 
toulou, which, though collected in abundance, is not much eaten 
