Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/432

374 morning he was something better, and from that time recovered, though by extremely slow degrees, till his second attack. I myself, either by the influence of the bark of which I had all along taken quantities, or by the anxiety I suffered on Dr. Solander's account, missed my fever, nor did it return for several days, until he became better.

14th. We had the agreeable news of the repairs of the ship being completely finished, and that she had returned to Cooper's Island, where she proved to be no longer leaky. When examined she had proved much worse than anybody expected; her main plank being in many places so cut by the rocks that not more than one-eighth of an inch in thickness remained; and here the worm had got in and made terrible havoc. Her false keel was entirely gone, and her main keel much wounded. The damages were now, however, entirely repaired, and very well too in the opinion of everybody who saw the Dutch artificers do their work.

Dr. Solander grew better, though by very slow degrees. I soon had a return of my ague, which now became quotidian; the captain also was taken ill on board, and of course we sent his servant to him. Soon after both Mr. Sporing and our seaman were seized with intermittents, so that we were again reduced to the melancholy necessity of depending entirely upon the Malays for nursing us, all of whom were often sick together.

24th. We had for some nights now had the wind on the western board, generally attended with some rain, thunder and lightning; this night it blew strong at S.W. and rained harder than ever I saw it before for three or four hours. Our house rained in every part, and through the lower part of it ran a stream almost capable of turning a mill. In the morning I went to Batavia, where the quantities of bedding that I everywhere saw hung up to dry, made a very uncommon sight, for I was told almost every house in the town and neighbourhood suffered more or less. This was certainly the shifting of the monsoon; for the winds, which had before been constantly to the eastward, remained constantly on the western board. The people here, however,