vant, and is called shalaka. Ras Michael's letters to the Naybe were very short. He said the king Hatze Hannes's health was bad, and wondered at hearing that the physician, sent to him by Metical Aga from Arabia, was not forwarded to him instantly at Gondar, as he had heard of his being arrived at Masuah some time before. He ordered the Naybe, moreover, to furnish me with necessaries, and dispatch me without loss of time; although all the letters were the contrivances of Janni, his particular letter to the Naybe was in a milder style. He expressed the great necessity the king had for a physician, and how impatiently he had waited his arrival. He did not say that he had heard any such person was yet arrived at Masuah, only wished he might be forwarded, without delay, as soon as he came.

To us Janni sent a message by a servant, bidding us a hearty welcome, acknowledging the receipt of the patriarch's letter, and advising us, by all means, to come speedily to him; for the times were very unsettled, and might grow worse.

In the afternoon I embarked for Masuah. At the shore I received a message from the Naybe to come and speak to him; but I returned for answer, "It was impossible, as I was obliged to go to Masuah to get medicines for his nephew, Achmet."

CHAP. II.

Directions to Travellers for preserving Health-Disea ses of the Country-Music-Trade, &c. of Masuah -Conferences with the Naybe.

WE arrived in the island at eight o'clock, to the great joy of our servants, who were afraid of some stratagem of the Naybe. We got every thing in order, without interruption, and completed our observations upon this inhospitable island, infamous for the quantity of Christian blood shed there upon treacherous pretences.

. Masuah, by a great variety of observations of the sun and stars, we found to be in lat. 15° 35′ 5′′, and, by an observation of the second satellite of Jupiter, on the 22d of September 1769, we found its latitude to be 39° 36′ 30" east of the meridian of Greenwich: the variation of the needle was observed at mid-day, the 23d of September, to be 12° 48' west. From this it follows, that Loheia, being nearly opposite (for it is in lat. 15° 40′ 52"), the breadth of the Red Sea between Masuah and Loheia is 4° 10′ 22′′. Supposing, then, a degree to be equal to 66 statute miles, this, in round numbers, will bring the breadth to be 276 miles, equal to 92 leagues, or there-abouts.

Again, as the generality of maps have placed the coast of Arabia where Loheia stands, in the 44°, and

it is the part of the peninsula that runs farthest to the westward, all the west coast of Arabia Felix will fall to be brought farther east about 3° 46' 0".

Before packing up our barometer at Loheia, I filled a tube with clean mercury, perfectly purged of outward air; and, on the 30th of August, upon three several trials, the mean of the results of each trial was, at six in the morning, 26° 8' 8"; two o'clock in the afternoon, 26° 4′ 1′′; and, half past six in the evening, 26° 6′ 2′′, fair clear weather, with very little wind

at west.

At Masuah, the 4th of October, I repeated the same experiment with the same mercury and tube. The means were as follow: At six in the morning 25° 8′ 2′′; two o'clock in the afternoon, 25° 3′ 2′′; and, at half past six in the evening, 25° 3′ 7′′, clear, with a moderate wind at west; so that the barometer fell one inch and one line at Masuah lower than it was at Loheia, though it often rose upon violent storms of wind and rain; and, even where there was no rain, it again fell instantly upon the storm ceasing, and never arrived to the height it stood last at on the coast of Arabia. The greatest height I ever observed Fahrenheit's thermometer in the shade, at Masuah, was on the 22d of October, at two in the afternoon, 93°, wind north-east and by north, cloudy; the lowest was on the 23d, at four in the morning, 82°, wind west. It was, to sense, much hotter than in any part of Arabia Felix; but we found no such tickling or irritation on our legs, as we had done at Loheia, probably because the soil was here less impregnated with salt.

We observed here, for the first time, three remarkable circumstances shewing the increase of heat. I had carried with me several steel plates for making screws of different sizes. The heat had so swelled the pin, or male screw, that it was cut nearly one

third through by the edge of the female. The sealing-wax, of which we had procured a fresh parcel from the India ships, was fully more fluid, while lying in our boxes, than tar. The third was the colour of the spirit in the thermometer, which was quite discharged, and sticking in masses at unequal heights, while the liquor was clear like spring-water.

Masuah is very unwholsome, as, indeed, is the whole coast of the Red Sea from Suez to Babelmandeb, but more especially between the tropics. Violent fevers, called there nedad, make the principal figure in this fatal list, and generally terminate the third day in death. If the patient survives till the fifth day, he very often recovers by drinking water only, and throwing a quantity of cold water upon him, even in his bed, where he is permitted to lie, without attempting to make him dry, or change his bed, till another deluge adds to the first.

There is no remedy so sovereign here as the bark ; but it must be given in very different times and manners from those pursued in Europe. Were a physician to take time to prepare his patient for the bark, by first giving him purgatives, he would be dead of the fever before his preparation was completed. Immediately when a nausea, or aversion to eat, frequent fits of yawning, straitness about the eyes, and an unusual, but not painful, sensation, along the spine, comes 、 on, no time is then to be lost; small doses of the bark must be frequently repeated, and perfect abstinence observed, unless from copious draughts of cold water.

I never dared to venture, or seldom, upon the deluge of water, but am convinced it is frequently of great use. The second or third dose of the bark, if any quantity is swallowed, never fails to purge; and, if this evacuation is copious, the patient rarely dies, but, on the contrary, his recovery is generally rapid.

Moderate purging, then, is for the most part to be a dopted; and rice is a much better food than fruit.

I know that all this is heterodox in Europe, and contrary to the practice, because it is contrary to system. For my own part, I am content to write faithfully what I carefully observed, leaving every body afterwards to follow their own way at their peril.

Bark, I have been told by Spaniards, who have been in South America, purges always when taken in their fevers. A different climate, different regimen, and different habit of body, or exercise, may surely so far alter the operation of a drug as to make it have a different effect in Africa from what it has in Europe. Be this as it may, still I say bark is a purgative when it is successful in this fever; but bleeding, at no stage of this distemper, is of any service; and, indeed, if attempted the second day, the lancet is seldom followed by blood. Ipecacuanha both fatigues the patient and heightens the fever, and so conducts the patient more speedily to his end. Black spots are frequently found on the breast and belly of the dead person. The belly swells, and the stench becomes insufferable in three hours after death, if the person dies in the day, or if the weather is warm.

The next common disease in the low country of Arabia, the intermediate island of Masuah, and all Abyssinia (for the diseases are exactly similar in all this tract) is the Tertian fever, which is in nothing different from our Tertian, and is successfully treated here in the same manner as in Europe. As no species of this disease (at least that I have seen) menaces the patient with death, especially in the beginning of the disorder, some time may be allowed for prepara tion to those who doubt the effect of the bark in the country. But still I apprehend the safest way is to give small doses from the beginning, on the first in