The shore was mudbanks and reeds and mangroves, and all sweating with
heat and mosquitoes. I spent that day in hiding. Towards sunset the
savages rafted a good third of the cargo ashore, and, having stacked
the kegs and built a fire about them, started to dance, making a
silly mock of the powder, till it blew up. Which it did, and must
have killed hundreds.
I heard the noise of it at about two miles' distance, having crept
out of my hiding when I saw them busy, and started to tramp it along
shore to Cape Corse Castle. I had no food, and must have died but
that next morning I fell in with a tribe that seemed pleased to see
me; which was lucky, me having no strength left to run. They took me
to their kraal, a mile inland, and to a hut where was a man lying in
a fever. He was a man covered with dirt and vermin, but at first
sight of his face I knew him to be a white man and English.
Ever since my first voyage to these parts I carried a small box in my
pocket, filled with bark of Peru, which is the best cure for coast
fever. I took out some of this bark and managed to make myself
understood that I wanted a fire lit and some water fetched; boiled up
the bark and made him drink it. After that I nursed him for three
days before he died.
Pages:
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195