SUDDEN ILLNESS IN THE PARTY. 309 
could understand him, but I found he could not. 
There were one or two words common to both, but 
the general character, meaning, and sound of the 
two languages were so very different upon com- 
parison, that I could myself understand the old man 
much better than Wylie could. 
Whilst remaining in depot, the whole party 
were one day suddenly seized with a severe attack 
of illness, accompanied with vomiting and violent 
pain in the stomach, and I began to fear that we 
had unknowingly taken some deleterious ingredient 
in our food, as all were seized in the same way ; 
this attack continued for several days, without our 
being able to discover the cause of it, but at last 
by changing the sugar we were using, we again 
got well. It appeared that a new bag of sugar 
had been broached about the time we were first 
attacked, and upon inspecting it, we found the bag 
quite wet — something or other of a deleterious 
character having been spilled over it, and which 
had doubtless caused us the inconvenience we 
experienced. Fortunately we had other sugar 
that had not been so injured, and the loss of the 
damaged bag was not of great consequence to us. 
By the 23rd of February our preparations for 
entering upon our journey were nearly all com- 
pleted, the horses had eaten up all their bran and 
corn, and were now in good condition ; all our 
pack-saddles, saddles, and harness were ready, our 
provisions were all packed, and every thing in order 
