DREADFUL CONDITION OF THE AUTHOR. 273 
dysentery, fever, violent tooth-aclie, wounds occasioned by 
the stings of the sand-flea, [pulex penetrans) allowed me not 
a moment s rest. The crowds of troublesome people which 
succeeded each other in my hut, to see me breathe my last, 
rendered my sufferings almost insupportable. To no purpose 
did Boubou bring me a gris-gris on a little board, entreating 
me to wash away the writing, and drink the water which had 
effaced it. As I doubted the power of this talisman, I refused 
to comply ; Boukari had more faith, and swallowed the water, 
the salutary effects of which he hoped to experience. 
Despairing of my escape from a death which appeared 
inevitable, I took some of the remedies which the Negroes 
proposed, but which did not, however, abate my pains. One 
of them brought me an enormous rice-loaf baked in the sun, 
which would rather have choaked me than effected my cure. 
I then recollected the remonstrances of Boukari, and as 
I retained all my senses, I thought the best thing I could do 
would be to co-operate with the will of fate, by attention 
to the means of mitigating my sufferings ; I began there- 
fore by having the thatched roof of my hut repaired to 
shelter me from the rains. 
But at the moment when I thought I had surmounted 
all my afflictions, I incurred the greatest of all dangers. 
Boubou, who had received me so hospitably, who loaded me 
with such proofs of kindness, who seemed to think of nothing 
but the means of affording me relief, sought to destroy me. 
N N 
