ry. I had resolved to let myself blood, though I was
altogether a stranger to the manner of doing it, and had no lancet, but
my companions hearing of a surgeon of reputation in the place, went and
brought him. I saw, with the utmost surprise, an old Moor enter my
chamber, with a kind of small dagger, all over rusty, and a mallet in his
hand, and three cups of horn about half a foot long. I started, and
asked what he wanted. He told me to bleed me; and when I had given him
leave, uncovering my side, applied one of his horn cups, which he stopped
with chewed paper, and by that means made it stick fast; in the same
manner he fixed on the other two, and fell to sharpening his instrument,
assuring me that he would give me no pain. He then took off his cups,
and gave in each place a stroke with his poignard, which was followed by
a stream of blood. He applied his cups several times, and every time
struck his lancet into the same place; having drawn away a large quantity
of blood, he healed the orifices with three lumps of tallow. I know not
whether to attribute my cure to bleeding or my fear, but I had from that
time no return of my fever.
When I came to Pate, in hopes of meeting with my associate, I found that
he was gone to Mombaza, in hopes of receiving information. He was sooner
undeceived than I, and we met at the place where we parted in a few days;
and soon afterwards left Pate to return to the Indies, and in nine-and-
twenty days arrived at the famous fortress of Diou. We were told at this
place that Alfonso Mendes, patriarch of AEthiopia, was arrived at Goa
from Lisbon. He wrote to us to desire that we would wait for him at
Diou, in order to embark there for the Red Sea; but being informed by us
that no opportunities of going thither were to be expected at Diou, it
was at length determined that we should meet at Bazaim; it was no easy
matter for me to find means of going to Bazaim. However, after a very
uneasy voyage, in which we were often in danger of being dashed against
the rocks, or thrown upon the sands by the rapidity of the current, and
suffered the utmost distress for want of water, I landed at Daman, a
place about twenty leagues distant from Bazaim. Here I hire a catre and
four boys to carry me to Bazaim: these catres are a kind of travelling
couches, in which you may either lie or sit, which the boys, whose
business is the same with that of chairmen in our country, support upon
their shoulders
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