Little Doubt Remained Of The Plague Being Actually In The
Ship, Though The Sailors Insisted That It Was A Different Malady.
On the
third day, the boy, the Reys's brother, felt great pains in his head,
and, struck with the idea of the plague, he insisted on being set on
shore.
We were then in a small bay; the Reys yielded to his entreaties,
and agreed with a Bedouin on shore to carry him back on his camel to
Yembo. He was landed, and I am ignorant of his fate. The only precaution
I could take against infection, was to place my baggage round me, so as
to form an insulated spot in which I had just room enough to sit at my
ease; but notwithstanding this, I was compelled to come in contact every
moment with the ship's company. Very luckily the disease did not spread;
we had only another death, on the fifth day from our departure, though
several of the passengers were seized with the malady, which I cannot
possibly affirm to have been the plague, as I did not examine the
corpses, but every thing led me to that belief. The continual sea-
sickness and vomiting of the passengers were, perhaps, to them a
salutary operation of nature. As to myself, I was in a very low state of
health the whole of the voyage, and frequently tormented with my ague,
which was increased by the utter want of comforts on board. I had taken
a disgust to all food, excepting broths: whenever we entered a port, I
bought a sheep of the Bedouins, in order to have a dish of soup; and by
distributing the meat among the ship's people, I obtained their good-
will, so that in every instance I was well treated by them; and could
command their assistance whenever I stood in need of it, either to raise
a temporary awning every morning, or to fill my water-skins on shore.
The navigation is here the same as what I have already described in my
voyage from Sowakin to Djidda. We went into a harbour every evening,
never sailing during the night, and started again at day-break. If it
was known that no small creek or harbour lay before us, near enough to
be reached before sun-set with the then existing wind, we sometimes
stopped at an anchoring-place soon after mid-day. Unfortunately,
[p.428] the ship's boat had been carried away by a heavy sea, in a
preceding voyage; we therefore could seldom get on shore, excepting at
places where we found other vessels, whose boats we took, as we usually
anchored in deep water. The sailors showed as great cowardice here, as
those of Sowakin on a former occasion. Whenever it blew fresh, the sails
were taken in; the dread of a storm made them take shelter in a harbour,
and we never made longer courses than from twenty-five to thirty-five
miles per day. A large square cask of water was the only one on board,
and contained a supply for three days for the ship's crew only.
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