ing by various symptoms he had been poisoned, I asked him one day
whether he thought that, in any of his visits the Arabs or Tuaricks, any
poisonous ingredients had been put into the camel's milk they had given
him, of which he was particularly fond. He replied, "No, my dear boy; no
such thing has been done, I assure you. Do you remember," he continued,
"that when on a shooting excursion at Magaria, in the early part of
February, after walking the whole of the day, exposed to the scorching
rays of the sun, I was fatigued, and lay down under the branches of a
tree for some time? The earth was soft and wet, and from that hour to
the present I have not been free from cold: this has brought on my
present disorder, from which, I believe, I shall never recover."

For twenty days my poor master remained in a low and distressed state.
He told me he felt no pain; but this was spoken only to comfort me, for
he saw I was dispirited. His sufferings must have been acute. During
this time he was gradually, but perceptibly, declining; his body,
from being robust and vigorous, became weak and emaciated, and indeed
was little better than a skeleton. I was the only person, with one
exception, he saw in his sickness. Abderachman, an Arab from Fezzan,
came to him one day, and wished to pray with him, after the manner of
his countrymen, but was desired to leave the apartment instantly. His
sleep was uniformly short and disturbed, and troubled with frightful
dreams. In them he frequently reproached the Arabs aloud with much
bitterness; but being an utter stranger to the language, I did not
understand the tenor of his remarks. I read to him daily some portions
of the New Testament, and the 95th Psalm, which he was never weary of
listening to, and on Sundays added the church service, to which he
invariably paid the profoundest attention. The constant agitation of
mind and exertions of body I had myself undergone for so long a time,
never having in a single instance slept out of my clothes, weakened me
exceedingly, and a fever came on not long before my master's death,
which hung upon me for fifteen days, and ultimately brought me to the
very verge of the grave. Finding myself unequal to pay that attention
to my master's wants which his situation so particularly required,
I solicited and obtained his consent to have old Pascoe once more to
assist me. On entering the hut, he fell on his knees, and prayed to
be forgiven, promising to be faithful t