The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 362, March 21, 1829Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 362, March 21, 1829
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
My master grew weaker daily, and the weather was insufferably hot, the
thermometer being, in the coolest place, 107 at twelve in the morning,
and 109 at three in the afternoon. At his own suggestion I made a couch
for him outside the hut, in the shade, and placed a mat for myself by
its side. For five successive days I took him in my arms from his bed in
the hut to the couch outside, and back again at sunset, after which time
he was too much debilitated to be lifted from the bed on which he lay.
He attempted to write once, and but once, during his illness; but before
paper and ink could be brought him, he had sunk back on his pillow,
completely exhausted by his ineffectual attempt to sit up in his bed.
Fancying by various symptoms he had been poisoned, I asked him one day
whether he thought that, in any of his visits the Arabs or Tuaricks, any
poisonous ingredients had been put into the camel's milk they had given
him, of which he was particularly fond. He replied, "No, my dear boy; no
such thing has been done, I assure you. Do you remember," he continued,
"that when on a shooting excursion at Magaria, in the early part of
February, after walking the whole of the day, exposed to the scorching
rays of the sun, I was fatigued, and lay down under the branches of a
tree for some time? The earth was soft and wet, and from that hour to
the present I have not been free from cold: this has brought on my
present disorder, from which, I believe, I shall never recover."
For twenty days my poor master remained in a low and distressed state.
He told me he felt no pain; but this was spoken only to comfort me, for
he saw I was dispirited. His sufferings must have been acute. During
this time he was gradually, but perceptibly, declining; his body,
from being robust and vigorous, became weak and emaciated, and indeed
was little better than a skeleton. I was the only person, with one
exception, he saw in his sickness. Abderachman, an Arab from Fezzan,
came to him one day, and wished to pray with him, after the manner of
his countrymen, but was desired to leave the apartment instantly. His
sleep was uniformly short and disturbed, and troubled with frightful
dreams. In them he frequently reproached the Arabs aloud with much
bitterness; but being an utter stranger to the language, I did not
understand the tenor of his remarks. I read to him daily some portions
of the New Testament, and the 95th Psalm, which he was never weary of
listening to, and on Sundays added the church service, to which he
invariably paid the profoundest attention. The constant agitation of
mind and exertions of body I had myself undergone for so long a time,
never having in a single instance slept out of my clothes, weakened me
exceedingly, and a fever came on not long before my master's death,
which hung upon me for fifteen days, and ultimately brought me to the
very verge of the grave. Finding myself unequal to pay that attention
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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