In Many Places
It Is Carried Over Gullies Of Considerable Depth, Which Have Been Filled Up
With Trunks Of Trees Covered With Earth.
All the sawyers, carpenters
and blacksmiths will soon be concentred under the direction of
a very adequate person of the governor's household.
This plan is already
so far advanced as to contain nine covered sawpits, which change of weather
cannot disturb the operations of, an excellent workshed for the carpenters
and a large new shop for the blacksmiths. It certainly promises to be
of great public benefit. A new hospital has been talked of for the last
two years, but is not yet begun. Two long sheds, built in the form of a tent
and thatched, are however finished, and capable of holding 200 patients.
The sick list of today contains 382 names. Rose Hill is less healthy
than it used to be. The prevailing disorder is a dysentery, which often
terminates fatally. There was lately one very violent putrid fever which,
by timely removal of the patient, was prevented from spreading.
Twenty-five men and two children died here in the month of November.
When at the hospital I saw and conversed with some of the 'Chinese
travellers'; four of them lay here, wounded by the natives. I asked these men
if they really supposed it possible to reach China. They answered
that they were certainly made to believe (they knew not how) that
at a considerable distance to northward existed a large river,
which separated this country from the back part of China; and that when
it should be crossed (which was practicable) they would find themselves
among a copper-coloured people, who would receive and treat them kindly.
They added, that on the third day of their elopement, one of the party
died of fatigue; another they saw butchered by the natives who,
finding them unarmed, attacked them and put them to flight.
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