Here The Ceremony Ended, Unaccompanied
By Any Invocation To A Superior Being, Or Any Attendant Circumstance
Whence An Inference Of Their Religious Opinions Could Be Deduced.
[*No solution of this difficulty had been given when I left the country,
in December, 1791.
I can, therefore, only propose queries for the ingenuity
of others to exercise itself upon: is it a disease indigenous to the country?
Did the French ships under Monsieur de Peyrouse introduce it? Let it be
remembered that they had now been departed more than a year; and we had never
heard of its existence on board of them. Had it travelled across the continent
from its western shore, where Dampier and other European voyagers
had formerly landed? Was it introduced by Mr. Cook? Did we give it birth
here? No person among us had been afflicted with the disorder
since we had quitted the Cape of Good Hope, seventeen months before.
It is true, that our surgeons had brought out variolous matter in bottles;
but to infer that it was produced from this cause were a supposition
so wild as to be unworthy of consideration.]
An uninhabited house, near the hospital, was allotted for their reception,
and a cradle prepared for each of them. By the encouragement of Arabanoo,
who assured them of protection, and the soothing behaviour of our medical
gentlemen, they became at once reconciled to us, and looked happy and grateful
at the change of their situation. Sickness and hunger had, however,
so much exhausted the old man, that little hope was entertained
of his recovery.
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