All were busy, I say, and no one had given a thought of what we
were about to encounter from the port officials farther up the coast; it
was pretended by them that a passport could not be granted to so small a
craft to go on so long a voyage as the contemplated one to North
America.
Then fever returned to the writer and the constructor of the little
craft, and I was forced to go to bed, remaining there three days.
Finally, it came to my mind that in part of a medicine chest, which had
been saved from the wreck, was stored some _arsenicum_, I think it is
called. Of this I took several doses (small ones at first, you may be
sure), and the good effect of the deadly poison on the malaria in my
system was soon felt trickling through my veins. Increasing the doses
somewhat, I could perceive the beneficial effect hour by hour, and in a
few days I had quite recovered from the malady. Absurd as it was to have
the judgment of sailors set on by pollywog navigators, we had still to
submit, the pollywogs being numerous.
About this time--as the astrologers say--a messenger came down from the
_Alfandega_ (Custom House), asking me to repair thither at midday on the
morrow.
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