Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/33

Rh always had shewed me, and some other common methods with the members of the regency, staved off the dangerous moment, and were the means of procuring time. Admiralty passes at last came out, and the matter was happily adjusted; but it was an affair the least pleasing and the least profitable, and one of the most dangerous in which I was ever engaged.

this disagreeable interval I had given to study, and making myself familiar with every thing that could be necessary to me in my intended journey. The king's surgeon at Algiers, Mr Ball, a man of considerable merit in his profession, and who lived in my family, had obtained leave to return home. Before I was deprived of this assistance, I had made a point of drawing from it all the advantages possible for my future travels. Mr Ball did not grudge his time or pains in the instruction he gave me. I had made myself master of the art of bleeding, which I found consisted only in a little attention, and in overcoming that diffidence which the ignorance how the parts lie occasions. Mr Ball had shewn me the manner of applying several sorts of bandages, and gave me an idea of dressing some kinds of sores and wounds. Frequent and very useful lessons, which I also received from my friend Doctor Russel at Aleppo, contributed greatly to improve me afterwards in the knowledge of physic and surgery. I had a small chest of the most efficacious medicines, a dispensary to teach me to compound others that were needful, and some short treatises upon the acute diseases of several countries within the tropics. Thus instructed, I flatter myself, no offence I hope, I did not occasion a greater mortality among the Mahometans and Pagans abroad, than may be attributed to Vol I.