SOUTH AMERICA. 
147 
The next morning I swallowed a large dose of castor T1IIHD 
oil: it was genuine, for Louisa Backer had made it J0URNE - 
from the seeds of the trees which grew near the door. 
I was now entirely free from all symptoms of fever, 
or apprehensions of a return ; and the morning after 
I began to take bark, and continued it for a fortnight. 
This put all to rights. 
The story of the wound I got in the forest, and the Meets 
mode of cure, are very short.—I had pursued a red- Occident, 
headed woodpecker for above a mile in the forest, 
without being able to get a shot at it. Thinking 
more of the woodpecker, as I ran along, than of the 
way before me, I trod upon a little hardwood stump, 
which was just about an inch or so above the ground; 
it entered the hollow part of my foot, making a deep 
and lacerated wound there. It had brought me to 
the ground, and there I lay till a transitory fit of 
sickness went off. I allowed it to bleed freely, and 
on reaching head-quarters, washed it well and probed 
it, to feel if any foreign body was left within it. 
Being satisfied that there was none, I brought the 
edges of the wound together, and then put a piece of 
lint on it, and over that a very large poultice, which 
was changed morning, noon, and night. Luckily, 
Backer had a cow or two upon the hill; now as heat 
and moisture are the two principal virtues of a poul¬ 
tice, nothing could produce those two qualities better 
than fresh cow-dung boiled : had there been no cows 
there, I could have made out with boiled grass and 
leaves. I now took entirely to the hammock, 
placing the foot higher than the knee $ this prevented 
