Let me draw the sketch only of a fingle captive. It is taken from the life. I had to look through the twilight of his grated door to take his true features. I beheld his body half wafted away with long expectation and confinement, and felt what kind of fickness of the heart it was which arifes from hope deferred.-Upon looking nearer, I faw him pale and wan:-in thirty years the western breeze had not once warmed his blood-he had feen no fun, no moon in all that time-nor had the voice of friend or kinfman breathed through his lattice-his children-but here my heart began to bleed-and I am forced to go on with another part of the portrait. He was fitting upon the ground upon a little ftraw, in the furtheft corner of his dungeon, which was alternately his chair and bed; a little calendar of small sticks were laid at the head, notched all over with the difmal days and nights he had paffed there-he had one of these little fticks in his hand, and with a rusty nail he was etching another day of mifery to add to the heap. As I darkened the little light he had, he lifted up a hopeless eye towards the door, then caft it down-fhook his head, and went on with his work of affliction. I heard the chains upon his legs, as he turned his body to lay his little ftick upon the bundle-He gave a deep figh-I faw the iron enter into his foul-I burst into tears This is too faithful a picture of every prisoner, fome few excepted, who appear totally devoid of feeling. Hence it is, fays Howard, and I speak from my own obfervations, during many fucceffive years, that more die of the jail-fever than by the arm of the executioner. The hiftory of the Boullam fever, as it has been called, is a striking inftance of a felf-generated fever. The Hankey failed from England, in company with another fhip, both chartered by the Sierra Leone company, loaded with ftores and adventurers, for the projected colony at Boullam, about the beginning of the month of April, 1792. When these ships failed, and during the voyage out, the crews and fettlers were all healthy; and as the latter were in general of the middling clafs of people, and appeared to be induced to fettle in this new country, more from the delufive prof pect of wealth held out to them, than by any deprivation of the means of fubfiftance in their own country, no fufpicion whatever can be entertained of the exiftence of latent infection among them; nor can marsh effluvia be fuppofed as the origin of the disease which afterwards fwept off fo many of thofe unhappy people. Boullam, being furrounded by the fea, enjoys all the advantages of the fea-breeze; and being dry, and not incommoded by any marshy tracts, it is confidered as the healthieft fpot on the windward coaft. coast *. It is not inhabited, but occafionally vifited by the natives of the adjoining continent, who have small scattered patches of millet on it. It is, however, deftitute of fresh water ; and that, procured by digging temporary wells on the beech, is brackish, and confequently unwholefome. The negroes of this part of Africa are ferocious in an extraordinary degree; and are even faid to be cannibals. This circumftance preventing the erection of any fort of accommodation on fhore, during the nine months the Hankey lay * This part of Africa is allowed, by all who have vifited it, to be uncommonly healthy and pleafant. I have conversed with feveral intelligent captains of flave-fhips, who have uniformly agreed in this point; and indeed the appearance of the flaves brought from the windward coast, part of which this is, conftitutes a convincing proof of the falubrity of the climate. Many travellers have given their teftimony to this effect: the Chevalier de Marchais, in particular, is very full of its praise; "Le lit de cette riviere (Sierra Leona) renferme quantité d'ifles d'un terrein parfaitement bon, gras et profond qui produit de lui-même et prefque fans culture tout ce-qui eft necessaire á la vie-Mais ce qu'on ne fçauroit estimer affez, c'est que l'air y est très pur, et qu'on n'y eft point fujet à ces maladies violentes et dangereufes qui regnent à la Coté de Guinée et qui ont fait perir tant d'Européens." See Voyage du Chev. Des Marchais en Guinée et ifles voifines, par le R. Pere Labat. tom. I. p. 58.Dr. Lind alfo fpeaks favourably of thofe iflands, and the adjoining continent. Difeafes of Hot Climates, p. 56. Capt. Norris, in his African Pilot, lately published, the most correct thing of the kind I ever faw, lays down Boullam in lat. N. 11; and long. W. from Farro, 3; almoft in the mouth of Rio Grande, having Hen Island between it and the ocean. It appears to be nearly circular, about 15 miles long, and 15 broad; and confequently about 45 round. there there, the fettlers were obliged to live on board; and the rainy seafon coming on almost immediately after their arrival, and the heat being at the fame time exceffively great, they endeavoured to shelter themselves from both, by raising the fides of the fhip feveral feet, and covering her with a wooden roof. Among upwards of two hundred people, of whom women and children conftituted a part, thus confined in a fultry moist atmosphere, cleanlinefs could not be well attended to, however well-inclined the people themselves might be. Thefe circumftances, joined to the depreffion of mind confequent upon their disappointment, must certainly be confidered as the causes of the malignant feyer which broke out among those unfortunate people, fometime after their arrival at Boullam*. And no doubt can be entertained, that neglecting to fweeten the fhip, to ventilate her afterwards, and to destroy the clothes, bedding, &c. of those who died on board, was the sole cause of her retaining the feeds of infection when she arrived at this port. The following facts will ferve to illuftrate this: Capt. Coxe, finding the water at Boullam unwholesome, proceeded with his ship to Biffao, where there is a Portuguese settlement, for a supply. The ship was navigated by about twelve feamen, most of whom Such is the origin of the jail-fever, according to Howard. Vide p. 265. It is here we deliver the opinion of Dr. Chisholm. had had not experienced fickness, and had been probably procured from Sierra Leone at any rate they were then taken on board for the first time. Of thefe, before the return of the Hankey to Boullam, nine died; and the remainder were reduced to a deplorable state. The time for which the Hankey was chartered being expired, Mr. Paiba, with his family, intended to return to England in her; but as no feamen could be procured, they were obliged to proceed to fea, having on board the captain fick, and only the mate, Mr. Paiba, and two feamen to navigate the fhip. With much difficulty they arrived at St. Jago, where they fortunately found the Charon and Scorpion fhips of war. Capt. Dodd, of the former, humanely rendered them every service in his power; and, on leaving them, put two men of each fhip on board the Hankey. With this aid they proceeded to the Weft-Indies; a voyage to England being impracticable in their wretched ftate. On the third day after leaving St. Jago, the men they procured from the ships of war were feized with the fever, which had carried off three-fourths of thofe on board the Hankey at Boullam; and having no affiftance, two of the four died the remaining two were put on fhore here in the moft wretched ftate poffible. Capt. Dodd, on his arrival at Barbadoes from the coast of Africa, was ordered by Admiral Gardener to |