SPILSBUHy's voyage to AFRICA. 
at Sierra Leone^ declare thkt the moon '11 turn meat putrid, 
and produce fevers. 1 have already alluded to the ixtreme. 
modesty of the African women ; I must here again observe, 
that althoisgh an European lady may turn up her nose at the 
horrid naked creatures/' delicacy will not permit me to enter 
into particular explanations, but I must declare that they are 
at certain times much moie nsode^t as to their actions and 
behaviour than many of our fantastical women of fashion. 
Their attention and submission to their husbands, and their 
affection for their children, are worthy of the hiehest enco- 
miums — —Blush! ye fair faced females! this — this is Na- 
ture ! Here the name of wet îiurse is unknown ! here the true 
enjoyment of an offspring is felt as it should be! 
On the 1st of December we read the Articles of War to the 
sliip's company ; a custom which, by act of parliament, is 
obliged to be repeated every two months. We mistook the 
island of Matacovy for Temara. It appears a beautiful spot 
covered with trees and verdure, but has shoal water all round 
it : it is in the possession of the Mandingoes. On the 2iid 
of December having missed the islands, either from the in- 
correctness of the charts or uncertainty of the tides, and hav- 
ing now a fair wind for Sierra Leone, we returned andVsn- 
chored again off Free Town. On the lOth we again got der 
weigh for those islands; the î2th we anchored about sev^^i 
o'clock, four miles from Factory Island ; vv'ent on shore wiV^i 
the captain and purser to the factory, where we fouEd Mr. 
Frisk, an American gentleman, extremely ill with an ulcerated 
leg. It appeared to be an exfoliation of a part of the tibia, 
which he supposed was a disease called by them craw-crtccs; 
but this is a species of the itch, prodiicing small white blotches 
on the skin, in the joints, between the fingers, and sometimes 
all over the body, and which easily gives way to preparations 
of sulphur and lime-juice. He said he would not submit it 
to the native mode of cure, as it would give him excruciating 
pain; this method is to bind a roasted lime on the diseased 
part. I gave him every medical assistance tliat lay in power, 
m return for which he made me a present of two kids and a 
biliender of oranges : he also made the captain a present of a 
very fine ox and some goats. On our first landiiig here, the 
people belonging to this gentleman^ thinking us French, ran 
into the woods, as did also his head woman, pulling off her 
clotfî, and scampered away with great expedition. This fac- 
tory consists merely of a few huts, and the island was purchased 
by another American of Rio Pongos, of the prince who owned 
it. 
We next went to Crawford's Island, and called at Mr. Wi\~ 
