ne's care, I sallied forth to
seek a fresh supply of fruit for him, and, wandering farther than usual
afield in my misery and abstraction, I discovered a fruit-bearing tree
quite new to me. The fruit--a kind of nut somewhat similar to a
walnut--had a very strong, but by no means unpleasant, bitter taste, and
it suddenly occurred to me that possibly this fruit might prove to be a
not altogether ineffective substitute for quinine. At all events, I was
resolved to try it, on myself first, if necessary, and I gathered as
many of the nuts as I could conveniently carry.

On my arrival at the hut I showed them to Daphne, and tried to find out
whether she knew anything about them; but for once we failed to
comprehend each other, and I was obliged to carry out my original
intention of experimenting upon myself. With this object I opened the
nuts and set the kernels to steep in water in a gourd basin (upon
setting up housekeeping we soon accumulated quite a number of gourd
utensils). I observed with satisfaction that the water soon began to
acquire a brown colour; and after my decoction had stood for about three
hours I found that its flavour had become quite as strong as was
desirable. Fearing to take much at the outset, lest I should
unwittingly be swallowing poison, I drank about a quarter of a pint, and
then, with some anxiety, awaited the result. It was about noon when I
swallowed the potion, and two hours afterwards I was more hungry than I
remembered to have ever been before. So far, good; I determined to wait
until night, and then, if no worse result than hunger revealed itself,
try the effect of my new medicine upon Smellie. By sunset I had come to
the conclusion, that whatever else my decoction might be, it was not a
poison, and with, I must confess, a certain amount of fear and
trepidation, I at last prevailed upon myself to administer the draught,
sitting down forthwith to watch and await the result. By midnight the
most that could be said of our patient was that he was no worse; and,
encouraged on the whole by this negative result, I then administered a
second and larger dose. Next morning I thought I detected signs of
improvement, and by sundown the improvement was no longer doubtful; the
dry, scorching feeling of the skin had given place to a cool healthy
moisture; the pulse was slower; the fevered and excited brain at length
found rest, and the patient at last even pleaded guilty to a feeling of
hunger.