419 ON CORAL REEFS AS A CAUSE OF FEVER. 
is about a quarter of a mile in diameter and covered with 
trees and bushes, but I never saw a swamp on it, it ap¬ 
pearing to me to be dry. The soil is nothing but a mixture 
of coral, stones and coral sand. I have been on it twice but 
never found any disagreeable smell on the island more than 
on any other coral island, but I have known boats crews 
often taken sick after returning to the ship. Some of the 
Javanese sailors have a superstition that there is a tree on 
the island that occasions the sickness. I will tell you of a 
most singular occurrence which happened to a native vessel 
in the year 1838-39, The vessel’s name was the “Atiet 
Rachman.” I was living at Pamanukan at the time. After 
leaving Batavia roads the vessel ran down to Edam to take 
in ballast, arrived at the island in the morning and left with 
the land wind the same night. The next day several of the 
crew that were in the boat taking off the coral ballast were 
attacked with fever. The vessel was about 6 days on her 
passage to Pamanukan, and as soon as she arrived the captain 
came on shore delivered his orders and informed me that he 
required 10 coolies as his crew were very sick with fever- 
next day I boarded the vessel, and found all the crews laid 
up with fever except the tindal and topaz. Alter discharging 
the boats of sugar and looking after the necessary work, I 
went on shore and prepared medicine for the sick. Next 
morning I went on board and found two of the crew dead. 
1 called my coolies to help me to get them on deck but they 
would not, being afraid of fever, so I had to drag them 
to the hatchway, put a rope round them, haul them up on 
deck myself, and take them on shore to bury them. I gave 
each of the survivors a dose of medicine, and told the cassab 
to boil plenty of rice and give them as much of the water as 
they thought proper to drink. Next morning I found three 
more dead, and several in the last stage of life, while the 
Captain was on shore very ill. The vessel was soon loaded 
with a valuable cargo, and there being no other alternative I 
arranged to take the ship back to Batavia, with the assistance 
of coolies and my boy. When I arrived on board next 
morning to get under weigh, I found four more men dead, 
and three gasping their last. Having got underweigh as well 
as we could, 1 sewed the dead up in canvas with shot to their 
feet, and committed them to the deep I was two days in 
my passage to Batavia, my boy and I steering by turns. 
When off Edam island we touched during a calm, and the 
current kept us on until high water; while on the reef one of 
the sick men in a delirious fit ran up the rigging, shook his fist 
at the island, and threatened to throw himself overboard, but 
