A few days afterwards the two cows and nearly all the poultry were stolen. The butcher at Mozambique, from whom I had purchased the cows, sent me word that they were at the palace of the Governor-general at Messuril. At first the Governor-general refused to return them, alleging that they were his property. The butcher went to his Excellency, and stated that I had purchased the cows from him, they being his property. Some days after the butcher had seen the Governor-general on this subject, the cows were returned to me, and the butcher was put in prison.
Some days previous to this occurrence, Mr. Charles Hilliard, the mate of the “Herald,” was attacked with fever, and after Mr. Duncan and myself had completely despaired of his recovery, by the blessing of Providence on my wife’s treatment of this fever, and her unwearied nursing, he was enabled to get about again. He had five different attacks of this most malignant fever before we left Mozambique, but, owing to his good constitution and the treatment adopted in his case, he recovered, and is now, I believe, in the enjoyment of the best health at Natal. Mr. Duncan, in consequence of the illness of some of his men at Mozambique, exposed himself a good deal, and, in fact, had never felt quite well since his arrival at Mozambique, having suffered considerably from the treatment he underwent at the hands of the Governor of Lourenço Marques.
On the 24th of February, he complained of headache, lassitude, loss of memory, and pains in his back and limbs, being the usual symptoms of this fever.
Having studied for the medical profession in his younger years, he had some knowledge of the treatment of fevers in general, and adopted what he considered was a most efficacious mode for his recovery. For this purpose he had recourse to emetics, to clear the stomach; and, although remonstrated with, he, by this treatment, so reduced the system, that when we took him in hand, although we were able to keep him alive by the use of quinine for some short time, still he never recovered sufficiently to rally against the fever, and he positively died from sheer exhaustion, the fever having in his case assumed the most malignant form.
Unfortunately, at the same time that Mr. Duncan was attacked with fever, my wife had an attack of the same fever, but at first in a milder form, and was of course confined to her room.
Rosa, observing a great change in Mr. Duncan on the evening of the 2nd of March, communicated her fears of his approaching dissolution to her mistress; and, in the hope of being able to suggest something for the recovery of Mr. Duncan, my wife insisted on being wrapped up in blankets, and taken to see him. Mrs. M’Leod was at the time in that stage of the fever when it is so necessary to humour the patient, and by no means to excite irritation by offering opposition to their wishes. Finding that dissuasion only rendered her more determined to endeavour to be as useful in his case as she had been in Mr. Hilliard’s, she was wrapped in blankets, and conveyed to the side of the sufferer, when she at once pronounced that there was no hope. Perceiving that he was partially conscious, she endeavoured to prepare him for his approaching end, and asked for any message he might have for her who was so soon to be a widow. While trying to catch a few inarticulate sounds from the dying man, she leaned over him, and, in her anxiety not to lose a sound, she inhaled the fetid breath of him who was fast passing into eternity. The consequence of this was that she had a putrid sore throat accompanying her fever, and for six long weeks she was confined to her bed.
During the time that Mr. Duncan was dying, Mr. Hilliard was suffering from another attack of fever, and for three days and nights I expected from hour to hour to lose him.
The Portuguese frigate, “Don Ferdinand,” was lying in the harbour, on her return from Goâ, and en route to Lisbon. There were two medical officers on board of that vessel; at the city of Mozambique there were three medical men; and of these five doctors not one could be found to visit the British consul’s house, with three people at the point of death in it, although I made an application to the Governor-general for that purpose.
To my neighbour, Brigadier Candido da Costa Soares, I applied, asking him to send me his native doctor, in the hope of saving Mr. Duncan, and suggesting something for the other sufferers; but although this man’s son, João da Costa Soares, had been treated by my wife and myself, when he was sick at the Cape of Good Hope, as if he had been our brother, he brutally refused to send me any assistance.