I now began to experience some of the dreadful symptoms which are, I believe, peculiar to fevers in Turky and Arabia; a sensation of dread and horror, totally unconnected with the fear of death; for, while the patient is most afflicted with this symptom, it is for the most part accompanied with a strong desire to put an end to his existence. The agony from the heat of the body is beyond conception. I have heard some of my fellow sufferers roar hideously under the violence of the pain.
9th Till noon tolerably well. About 1 o’clock the hot fit attacked me, and was full as severe as yesterday; heat and thirst rather greater, and but little relief for more than an hour after the perspiration commenced. This attack left me very weak, much exhausted, with cold, weakening sweats, quick unequal pulse, severe head-ach, confusion, anxiety and incessant thirst; a sleepless night, startings, anxieties, and a constant wish to terminate my sufferings by death.
10th. Forenoon, pretty free from fever. Attacked at the same hour as yesterday. The fit more violent—delirium. The agony of the heat not to be expressed; the whole body as if on fire; unremitting thirst, profuse perspiration, yet no relief till late in the evening; no sleep, a dreadful night, &c. Pulse about 120, unequal and fluttering.
A mere relation of facts can give but a faint idea of the wretched situation to which the factory was now reduced: by this time eleven twelfths of the inhabitants of Bussorah were taken ill, numbers were daily dying, and the reports from Bagdad and Diarbekir, of the increasing ravages of the plague, left the survivors not a ray of hope that they could escape the calamity. On every countenance pain, sickness and horror were strongly painted; nor were we even left the comforts of sympathy, as every mind was too much engrossed with its own sufferings to think of administering consolation to others. Four of us lay under the portico of one of the squares of the factory, calling out for water in a frenzy of thirst. We used to snatch it from each other, and to supplicate for a mouthful with as much fervour as a dying criminal for an hour of further life.
About this period of the fever my eyes became very weak, and every object I saw was quite yellow. This effect was most perceptible at night, in looking at the moon and stars. In the evenings we were sometimes carried in our cots upon the terrace of the factory for air; but the wind was so heated by the burning sands of the desert, that we felt it more intolerable than even the lower apartments. We all remarked that the shemaal, or north winds, which blew without intermission at that time, greatly increased our heat and thirst.
The daily very evident increase of my fever, and its effects upon others becoming more fatal and alarming, determined me, while any strength remained, to embrace the consul’s offer of flying from the seat of infection to Bushire, in the Ranger cruiser.
11th. After an exceeding bad night I was carried early in the morning on board the Ranger, and was not very ill until about 9 o’clock, when l felt the fever coming on, with new and more alarming symptoms—violent head-ach, giddiness, dimness of sight, approaching delirium, horror, and a most painful oppression and burning heat in my stomach.
In despair, and to try to quench the unsufferable heat in my stomach and bowels, I took a pretty large dose of nitre. The oppression and pain increased; in my confusion I took a paper of tartar emetic, which immediately began to operate. From that time, about ten o’clock, till half past two in the afternoon, I know but little of what passed: I was almost all that time either distracted with pain, or in a swoon; and had it not been for the extraordinary care and attention of the commander of the cruiser, who supported me in his arms, and administered such cordials as I, in the short moments of recollection, could call for, I have not a doubt but I must have sunk under this attack. He counted eight times that I fainted, and sometimes an interval of ten minutes before he could perceive any symptoms of returning life. I was chiefly supported by wine, hartshorn, and spirits of lavender. About three o’clock I had recovered my recollection: most copious and continued sweats had carried off the violence of the fever; but faintings and total privation of strength and spirits remained upon me till late in the evening, when I became to all appearance, for a short time, perfectly well. A little strength returned, every symptom of fever vanished, and my feelings were almost the same as if in perfect health. Some circumstances having prevented the Ranger’s carrying me to Bushire, I was taken ashore in the evening. When I was brought to the factory I had an appetite, and ate some chicken broth for supper. Mr. Ross, who had hitherto escaped the fever, administered a potion of laudanum, and, I believe, antimonial wine, on going to rest. I slept pretty well, and awoke refreshed in the morning. I, however, soon became ill, and at noon I had a severe attack, which continued three or four hours, and left me greatly weakened, my skin extremely dry, pulse quick, fluttering and irregular, beating from 100 to 120, with an unquenchable thirst, which no liquids could allay. We had no acids of any kind, which we had great reason to regret.
I did not know till late in the evening that Mr. Abraham, the vice-consul, who for some days past had been ill of the same fever, had determined to embark in the Eagle cruiser next morning for Bushire, as the only chance of saving his life; and a conversation which I overheard to this effect, that as I was so very ill, and no hopes of my recovery, it would be better to leave me to die at Bussorah, made me still more anxious to fly from the place, although I remember well I had not the most distant hope that I could live. I had suffered much at the factory, and in the peevishness of illness I thought (perhaps unjustly) that my living or dying seemed to be a matter of too little consequence to those whom in health I had treated with much kindness and affection.
About ten o’clock, as I was lying in my cot, on a terrace adjoining the stairs from whence the boat was to put off, I was seized with such a fluttering, palpitation, starting, difficulty of utterance from the swelling of my tongue, that I lay in momentary expectation of breathing my last. This was, however, probably the cause of my hearing the preparations for the departure of the boat. About midnight they were leaving the shore. I could not make myself heard, and I was too weak to get up without help. I made several efforts, and at last overset the cot I was lying upon, and brought myself to the floor, from whence I crawled on my hands and knees to the side of the river. Humanity pleaded for me, and I was taken into the boat, in a situation of wretchedness I never can forget. We were, after being several hours on the Euphrates, carried on board the Eagle, opposite to Margil, a country house belonging to the factory, a few miles distant from Bussorah.