Demarara, Jan. 21.
We have again had abundant occasion to remark the fact regarding the
coincidence between the returns of fever in this climate, and the
periods of the spring-tides. Only a few days ago, at the time of full
moon, Mr. Beete (the commissary), Mr. Mulheran (one of our assistants in
the medical department), and six of the convalescents in the hospital,
were attacked with a relapse of fever, or what is here called “the
tides.” Three were cases of continued fever; five of intermittent: but
it is not in the paroxysms of intermittent, and the relapses of fever,
only that the disease appears to be influenced by the recurrence of the
spring-tides; for we now find that the primary invasion of the disorder
is more frequent, and the number of fever-patients admitted into the
hospital greater, at these periods, than at any other time.
The case of Mr. Beete is peculiar; and places the fact in a very
striking light. He has been long resident in the West Indies, and from
having withstood all the late perils of disease at Grenada, might be
regarded as, in a great degree, secure against that particular form of
the fever which is so fatal to newly arrived Europeans: but very soon
after he came from the islands to Demarara, he was attacked with it, in
the form which it more commonly assumes among the creoles, and those who
have been long on this shore of the Atlantic, viz. as an intermittent,
yet not returning as a quotidian, a tertian, or a quartan, but as a
quindecimana, and so regularly observing its type that, if referred to
its place in a system of nosology, it might justly be ranked among the
species of intermittent fever, under the title of quindecimana. It has
continued ever since, returning at intervals of a fortnight, with the
exacerbations correctly obeying the periods of new and full moon, but he
has always the power of interrupting it, and averting the paroxysm by a
copious use of the bark for only a day or two previous to the time of
spring-tide, and his friends very earnestly hope that he will soon, so
far subdue his aversion to the taking of medicine, as to employ it in
sufficient quantity to eradicate the disease. In the four other cases of
intermittent, the fever assumes the ordinary quotidian, or the tertian
type. In the cases wherein the disorder appears in its continued form,
the relapses are, frequently, not less severe than the original attack.
The 18th instant being the Queen’s birth-day, it was honored in public
and private rejoicing, and as our days of festival are few, you will
believe that justice was done to the occasion. In the morning we had a
general review of the troops; afterwards a large party dined, and drank
her Majesty’s health with the commandant: and, in the evening, the
officers gave a splendid ball at the fort.
The review afforded great satisfaction to the inhabitants, by placing
before them a fine body of troops, armed in the defence of the colony.
They were of different nations, different colours, and in different
uniform; yet from the excellent discipline instilled among them by the
unwearied attentions of the commandant and the officers, their
appearance in the field was highly military, and their manœuvres
executed with order and correctness. The line, if not formidable, was
very respectable. On the right were the British troops, and the corps of
Demarara volunteers, in scarlet uniform: on the left were the Dutch, in
blue: in the centre the fine battalion of South American rangers, in
white: and, on each wing a party of the royal artillery.
At the dinner, the board was enriched with all the dainties of the
country, and the appetite provoked by choice wines and cheering music.
The governor, the fiscal, most of the officers, and many of the
principal inhabitants of the colony, were present. A military band
enlivened the banquet, and merry toasts and songs caused the bumper
glass to move in quick time. I left the table early, in order to make my
round of duty at the hospital, and joined the party again at the ball,
where, in a group of about seventy persons, we met all the beauty and
fashion of the colony. In the whole party, the number of ladies did not
exceed sixteen, so that many of the gentlemen, at an early period of the
evening, had to lament the deficiency; yet such was the prowess of the
fair, that, before the dancing ceased, each had fatigued her third
companion; and it fell to their lot to complain of the want of partners.
The exercise used by the ladies was truly astonishing, and far surpassed
all that I could have believed them capable of supporting; but, call it
pleasure, and the body is strong. If such excess had been recommended,
as necessary for any other purpose, it would no doubt have been regarded
as dangerous and destructive. Some of them, with only the interval of
supper-time, danced from nine o’clock until daylight, in a room where
the heat, probably, exceeded 90 degrees.
At supper, few as the ladies were, it happened to be my fortune to be
placed between two of them: of one, only, I have now to speak; but let
me first remark that the colony was ransacked to supply the table; which
was most sumptuously and profusely spread. On my noticing the uncommon
crowd of dishes, an officer dryly replied, “Perhaps you are not aware
that the party to be entertained is Dutch.” I thought it fully
sufficient for five such parties, whether Dutch, English, or French; but
if all had eaten like the fair one in question, I must have been
egregiously deceived.
The lady at my right elbow, was very large, and of true Dutch figure.
Her person may be well described in two words—broad and bulky! By some
accident she had sprained her wrist, and this formed a ready apology for
appealing to my particular attention, which, from not being in the habit
of eating supper, I could the better devote to her service: but I almost
fear to note the fact I have to relate, lest you should imagine that I
assume a traveller’s privilege, and indulge in the marvellous at the
expense of a fair associate guest. Let me therefore premise, that in
what follows, the boundaries of sober truth are not outstepped a single
iota; for I not only helped the lady to her meats, and poured forth her
wines, but was further called upon to cut her food, into small pieces,
ready for the fork, by which I had the opportunity of observing,
literally, _every mouthful_.
Scarcely had we taken our seats, before my fair neighbour requested me
to help her to a glass of claret, of which I found a _full_ bottle
standing between us. The ceremony of a gentleman drinking, at the same
time, was not deemed essential; consequently I tasted but very lightly:
yet it somehow happened, and without the bottle being once removed,
that, before the supper was at an end, the gentle lady was compelled to
have recourse to a glassful or two of sound Madeira, to supply the
deficiencies of our _empty_ bottle! With this, her eating was in no
degree at variance, for she commenced by forming a solid stratum of two
heavy slices of fat ham, after which I helped her from no less than
_fourteen_ other dishes, of each of which, to my surprise, she partook
with appetite! Such a supper I had not before seen swallowed by man or
woman! Although satiated, not satisfied, she afterwards desired me to
reach towards her several of the dishes of fruit, from each of which,
after liberally tasting, she _privately_ gave a portion to a female
slave, who was standing at her back; and when she rose to leave the
supper-room, I observed _under her chair_ a loaded plate of fruits and
sweets, which, without doubt, the negress had received instructions to
carry home, for the purpose of regaling her mistress on the morrow.
This, by the by, is a custom, which I have more than once seen practised
by foreign ladies, both Dutch and French!
But what will surprise you most is, to know that after this _light
supper_, the lady _briskly_ resumed the merry dance! and, when I
retired, at five o’clock in the morning, she remained tripping it away
as gaily as if it had been only the commencement of the evening.
It affords me real pleasure to be able to remark that we have entered
the more cordially into the late festivity on account of the improved
state of our sick list, and from the happy circumstance of the last
weekly return of the hospital not containing even a single casualty.
This is a subject of great and peculiar satisfaction to the medical
officers; it being the first week, since our arrival in these colonies,
that we have had the opportunity of making out a weekly return, without
marking some one in the fatal column. But the healthy season is now
setting in, and we are taught to expect nearly four months of dry
weather, with a salubrious breeze, which is to waft away all our
maladies. I have been too much in the habit of busy employment to feel
any desire to sit down in idleness; yet, upon such terms, I could be
very happy to continue without professional duty.