SOUTH AMERICA. 
45 
me/’ continued lie, u to the fort; and though we 
have no doctor there, I trust,” added he, u we shall 
soon bring you about again. The orders I have re¬ 
ceived forbidding the admission of strangers, were 
never intended to be put in force against a sick 
English gentleman.” 
As the canoe was proceeding slowly down the 
river towards the fort, the commander asked, with 
much more interest than a question in ordinary con¬ 
versation is asked, where was I on the night of the 
first of May? On telling him that I w r as at an 
Indian settlement a little below the great fall in the 
Demerara, and that a strange and sudden noise had 
alarmed all the Indians, he said the same astonishing 
noise had roused every man in Fort St. Joachim, 
and that they remained under arms till morning;. 
He observed, that he had been quite at a loss to 
form any idea what could have caused the noise; 
but now learning that the same noise had been heard 
at the same time far away from the Rio Branco, it 
struck him there must have been an earthquake 
somewhere or other. 
Good nourishment and rest, and the unwearied 
attention and kindness of the Portuguese com¬ 
mander, stopped the progress of the fever, and 
enabled me to walk about in six days. 
Fort St. Joachim was built about five and forty 
years ago, under the apprehension, it is said, that 
the Spaniards were coming from the Rio Negro to 
settle there. It has been much neglected; the floods 
of water have carried away the gate, and destroyed 
FIRST 
JOURNEY. 
Fort St. 
Joachim 
