On April 19th, an easy pleasant ride of three hours brought them to the first walled town they had seen, which was called Assinara. The wall was of clay and so diminutive, that a person might easily jump over it; a dry ditch about eighteen inches deep, and three or four feet in width also surrounds the town. Over this a single plank is thrown, which answers the purpose of a draw-bridge, and is the only means the inhabitants have of getting in and out of the place. Assinara had also lately lost its chief in some battle, and all business was transacted by a benevolent elderly man, who volunteered his services till a successor should be appointed. From him the Landers received the warmest reception, and the most hospitable treatment.
The climate now began to have a most debilitating effect upon John Lander, and from a state of robust health and vigour, he was now reduced to so great a degree of lassitude and weakness, that he could scarcely stand a minute at a time. Every former pleasure seemed to have lost its charm with him. He was on this day attacked with fever, and his condition would have been hopeless indeed, had his brother not been near to relieve him. He complained of excessive thirst. Ten grains of calomel were administered to him, and afterwards a strong dose of salts. On the following day, April 20th, he was much better and free from fever, but too weak to travel, their stay, therefore, at Assinara was unavoidably protracted.
The acting governor visited them with a very long face, and entreated the Landers to discover a certain wizard, whom he imagined to be concealed somewhere in the town. By the influence of this sorcerer, a number of people, it was said, pined away and died, and women with child were more especially the object of his malevolence. These victims dropped down suddenly, without the slightest warning, and the deaths had lately been so numerous, that the old man himself was grievously alarmed, and begged a charm to preserve him and his family.
On the 23rd, John Lander finding himself considerably invigorated and refreshed by a day’s rest at Assinara, and sufficiently recovered to pursue their journey, all hands were in readiness to start at an early hour. The morning was cool and pleasant, and they travelled onwards in excellent spirits. Without meeting any thing particular in the path, or perceiving any object sufficiently interesting or novel to demand attention, they entered the town of Accadoo in the forenoon, having had an agreeable ride of a few hours duration only.
At this time John Lander seemed to be free from any kind of complaint whatever, and enjoyed an unusual cheerfulness and buoyancy of spirits, which led his brother to form the most flattering anticipations. In the course of a few minutes, however, his body was overspread with a burning heat, and he suffered under another attack of fever, more violent than any of the former. He resorted to the most powerful