Intelligence
Was Brought That An Indian Family Lay Sick In A Neighbouring Cove:
The Governor, Attended By Arabanoo, And A Surgeon, Went In A Boat Immediately
To The Spot.
Here they found an old man stretched before a few lighted sticks,
and a boy of nine or ten years old pouring water on his head, from a shell
which he held in his hand:
Near them lay a female child dead,
and a little farther off, its unfortunate mother: the body of the woman
shewed that famine, superadded to disease, had occasioned her death:
eruptions covered the poor boy from head to foot; and the old man was
so reduced, that he was with difficulty got into the boat. Their situation
rendered them incapable of escape, and they quietly submitted to be led away.
Arabanoo, contrary to his usual character, seemed at first unwilling
to render them any assistance; but his shyness soon wore off, and he treated
them with the kindest attention. Nor would he leave the place until
he had buried the corpse of the child: that of the woman he did not see
from its situation; and as his countrymen did not point it out,
the governor ordered that it should not be shown to him. He scooped a grave
in the sand with his hands, of no peculiarity of shape, which he lined
completely with grass, and put the body into it, covering it also with grass;
and then he filled up the hole, and raised over it a small mound with the earth
which had been removed.
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