I 
114 A VOYAGE TO SENEGAt. 
thirty, and forty years, and were equally fortunate as my- 
self. 
When, however,, a person is attacked, he has no occasion tô 
despair of a cure : for the doctors use several good remedies ; 
but the best specific is an emetic, by the taking of which in pro- 
per time, I have known several persons completely restored to 
health. I admit that such attacks are dangerous: but it is an 
error to suppose them incurable ; as it likewise is to believe that 
the climate is always unhealthy : indeed I do not know a better 
one during two thirds of the year ; and the dangers of the other 
portion have been exaggerated by travellers and historians. The 
latter have never been in Africa; and the former have accus- 
tomed themselves to assert falsehoods. 
There have never been any physicians at Isle St. Louis ; but 
surgeons are established there by government, which has not al- 
ways been fortunate in its choice. To well informed men the 
country would present remedies in its own productions : for the 
natives prevent disease, or cure themselves when afflicted, by 
simples which are unknown to us at present ; and here it is pro- 
bable that by attentive observation very useful discoveries might 
be made. 
When the unheahhy season is past, and the easterly winds 
have been succeeded by the fresh and salutary breezes which 
constantly blow for the remainder of the year, health and hila- 
rity again prevail ; and a cannon-shot is then fired towards the 
sea. This ceremony is a notification that the danger has subsid- 
ed, and it dissipates the fears of the inhabitants. 
There are, however, two inconveniences, against which they 
have much difficulty to guard. The first is the bites of thou- 
sands of musquitos and locusts, which, though more trouble- 
some and numerous in the rainy season, yet remain to injure 
the inhabitants after it has passed. I discovered the means of 
preserving myself from their attacks, at least during the night. 
I caused Spanish curtains to be made for my bed, which are 
formed of Italian gauze, sewed together all over, and closing 
round by means of groves, which prevented these insects from 
getting in ; and thus I slept in peace. 
The other inconvenience, which is doubtlessly far more se- 
rious, is the absolute w ant of water durhig eight months in the 
year : for there is neither spring nor fountain in the island ; and 
the river is saline from December to the end of July. The 
rest of the year being the time when the waters swell, the ra- 
pidity of their course prevents the tide from coming up high 
enough to spoil that part of the river in which the island is situ- 
ated, and the inhabitants then use it, as it is pleasant and potable. 
At other times, expedients must be resorted to : they therefore 
