We Immediately Set Sail, Keeping Close In Shore.
In The Evening I Saw That My Situation Was Much Worse Than I Had
Suspected It To Be When I Came On Board; In The Hold Were Lying Half A
Dozen
[P.427] sick people, two of whom were in a violent delirium; the Reys's
young brother, who had his seat close to me, was paid to attend the
sick; one of them died on the following day, and the body was thrown
overboard.
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.
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