It Has A Jail, And A Good House For The Commandant,
But Neither Fort Nor Church, Though The Ruins Of A Place Of Worship
Are Still Standing.
We were most kindly received by the commandant of Ambaca, Arsenio de Carpo,
who spoke a little English.
He recommended wine for my debility,
and here I took the first glass of that beverage I had taken in Africa.
I felt much refreshed, and could then realize and meditate on
the weakening effects of the fever. They were curious even to myself;
for, though I had tried several times since we left Ngio
to take lunar observations, I could not avoid confusion of time and distance,
neither could I hold the instrument steady, nor perform a simple calculation;
hence many of the positions of this part of the route were left till my return
from Loanda. Often, on getting up in the mornings, I found my clothing
as wet from perspiration as if it had been dipped in water.
In vain had I tried to learn or collect words of the Bunda, or dialect spoken
in Angola. I forgot the days of the week and the names of my companions,
and, had I been asked, I probably could not have told my own.
The complaint itself occupied many of my thoughts. One day I supposed that
I had got the true theory of it, and would certainly cure the next attack,
whether in myself or companions; but some new symptoms would appear,
and scatter all the fine speculations which had sprung up,
with extraordinary fertility, in one department of my brain.
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