my pecuniary condition, and to acquaint myself with the
world, I prepared to embark for the South. My purpose was to teach. It
was the beginning of October, and yellow fever was said to be raging in
Charleston, where I purposed to disembark. Was it, then, safe for me to
go? Should the prospect of doing good, improving my mind, and bettering
my condition in many other respects, weigh against the danger of
disease; or was it preferable that I should wait?

My numerous friends counselled me according to their various
temperaments and prepossessions. The strong and vigorous in body and
mind said, _Go on_; the feeble and timorous and trembling interposed
their caution. But the vessel was ready and would soon sail; and I saw
on board many of my acquaintances. The temptation was before me, and was
great; the dangers, though many, were remote--the dangers of the sea
excepted. For these, it is true, I was, like everybody else, entirely
unprepared, having never before in my life crossed more than a single
river. I was moreover exceedingly timid.

One kind friend--kind, I mean, in general intention--who had been many
years at the South, amid the ravages of the gold fever, as well as other
fevers more or less yellow, whispered me just at this critical moment,
"Take with you a box of Lee's Windham Bilious Pills; and as soon as you
arrive at Charleston, make it your rule to swallow, every other day, one
of these pills. That will prevent your getting the fever. I have often
tried it, and always with success."

My friend's words gave me more courage than his pills. I saw that he had
been in the midst of sickness and had lived through it. Why might not I?
My mind was soon made up to proceed on the journey.

We sailed from New Haven in Connecticut, and were seventeen days on our
passage. When we reached Charleston, either the yellow fever had spent
itself or it had not recently been there, except in a few rare
instances. I found no use for pills of any kind, except _such as grew on
fruit-trees_--the apple, peach, orange, persimmon, etc., or such as
were the products of the corn, potato, and rice fields; nor did I ever
take any other while I remained in the South. A queer idea, I often said
to myself, that of taking poison while a person is well, in order to
prevent becoming sick! In any event, I did not do it.

There was sickness in the country, however, if not in the city; and I
was much and often exposed to it. But what then? How w