chap, xix.] THE PLAGUE BREAKS OUT! 493 
suddenly went to the side of the vessel and hung his 
head over the river; his nose was bleeding ! 
Another of my men, Yaseen, was ill; his uncle, my 
vakeel, came to me with a report that “ his nose was 
bleeding violently l” Several other men fell ill: they 
lay helplessly about the deck in low muttering delirium, 
their eyes as yellow as orange-peel. In two or three 
days the vessel was so horribly offensive as to be 
unbearable * the 'plague had broken out! We floated 
past the river Sobat junction ; the wind was fair from 
the south, thus fortunately we in the stern were to 
windward of the crew. Yaseen died ; he was one who 
had bled at the nose. We stopped to bury him. The 
funeral hastily arranged, we again set sail. Mahommed 
died; he had bled at the nose. Another burial. Once 
more we set sail and hurried down the Nile. Several 
men were ill, but the dreaded symptom had not 
appeared. I had given each man a strong dose of 
calomel at the commencement of the disease ; I could 
do nothing more, as my medicines were exhausted. 
All night we could hear the sick, muttering and raving 
in delirium, but from years of association with dis¬ 
agreeables we had no fear of the infection. One morn- 
ing the boy Saat came to me with his head bound up, 
and complained of severe pain in the back and limbs, 
with all the usual symptoms of plague : in the after¬ 
noon I saw him leaning over the ship’s side; his nose 
was bleeding violently! At night he was delirious. 
On the following morning he was raving, and on the 
vessel stopping to collect fireAvood he threAV himself 
into the river to cool the burning fever that consumed 
him. His eyes were suffused with blood, which, blended 
with a yellow as deep as the yolk of egg, gave a horrible 
appearance to his face, that was already so drawn and 
changed as to be hardly recognised. Poor Saat! the 
faithful boy that we had adopted, and who had formed 
,so bright an exception to the dark character of his race, 
was now a victim to this horrible disease. He was a 
fine strong lad of nearly fifteen, and he now lay help- 
