hap. xv.] THE WHISKY DISTILLERY. 433 
narrowly escaped, as a Turk fired at him, but missed 
and killed a native who stood by him. On the return 
of the party, Kamrasi received another present of cattle, 
and again the ivory flowed into the camp. 
In the meantime, I had made myself excessively 
comfortable; we were in a beautiful and highly 
cultivated district, in the midst of immense fields of 
sweet potatoes. The idea struck me that I could 
manufacture spirit from this source, as they were so 
excessively sweet as to be disagreeable as a vegetable. 
Accordingly I collected a great number of large jars 
that .were used by the natives for brewing merissa ; in 
these I boiled several hundredweight of potatoes to a 
pulp. There were jars containing about twenty gallons ; 
these I filled wdth the pulp mashed with water, to 
which I added yeast from a brewing of merissa. While 
this mixture was fermenting I constructed my still, by 
fixing a jar of about twelve gallons on a neat furnace 
of clay, and inserting the mouth of a smaller jar upon 
the top ; the smaller jar thus inverted became the dome 
of the still. In the top of this I bored a hole, in which 
I fitted a long reed of about an inch in diameter, which 
descended to my condenser; the latter was the kettle, 
sunk by a weight in a large pan of cold water. My 
still worked beautifully, and produced four or five 
bottles of good spirit daily;—this I stored in large 
bottle gourds, containing about four gallons each. My 
men were excessively fond of attending to the distillery, 
especially Eicharn, who took a deep interest in the 
operation, but who was frequently found dead asleep 
on his back ; the fire out; and the still at a standstill. 
Of course he could not be suspected of having tried the 
produce of his manufactory ! I found an extraordinary 
change in my health from the time that I commenced 
drinking the potato whisky. Every day I drank hot 
toddy. I became strong, and from that time to the 
present day my fever left me, occurring only once or 
twice during the first six months, and then quitting me 
entirely. Not having tasted either wine or spirits for 
F F 
