116 DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 
removal, he would infallibly have been eaten up ^ 
and that cows were often found in the morning 
with nothing left but the bones, all the rest hav- 
ing been consumed by those insects. God be 
" praised,'* says he, therefore, " that my body was 
" not devoured by them alive." * 
Sickness, and these annoyances, at length over- 
came the long-suffering of Carli ; and he deter- 
mined to return to Europe. The journey to the 
coast was effected with much dif!iculty, as the ne- 
groes furnished by the Grand Duke conveyed him 
very carelessly, and at length entirely deserted 
him, so that it was only by high bribes, that he 
could induce the country people to carry him for- 
ward to the Portuguese settlement. After having 
recovered of his illness, he went on board a vessel 
bound for Brazil. But his sufferings were not 
destined to end here. The vessel was soon over- 
taken by a calm, the effects of which were on 
many accounts to be dreaded. The sailors there- 
fore took the image of St Antony, and fixing it 
* The ajits by which our traveller was so grievously annoy- 
ed, are undoubtedly the insect properly called Termites, which 
abound prodigiously over all Western Africa. Golberry says, 
they might be called its scourge, if their extraordinary power 
of devastation were not employed in consuming substances 
that would otherwise prove noxious. He confirms the fact, 
that large animals, even elephants, if wonnded, and unable to 
move, are often entirely esLten up in a very short time? 
