Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/495

 THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 47 1

As I had never defpaired, fome way or other, of arriving at the fountains of the Nile, from which we were not fifty miles dillant when we turned back at Karcagna, fo I never neglected to improve every means that held out to me the leall probability of accompliihing this end. I had been very attentive and ferviceable to Faiil's iervants while in the camp. I fpoke greatly of their mailer, and, when they went away, gave each of them a fmall prefent for himfelf, and a trifle alfo for Fafil. They had, on the other hand, been very importunate with me as a phylician to prefcribe fome- thing for a cancer on the lip, as I underilood it to be, with which Welleta Yafous, Fafil's principal general, was afflic- ted.

I had been advifed, by fome of my medical friends, to carry along with me a preparation of hemlock, or cicuta,. recommended by Dr Stork, a phyfician at Vienna. A confi- derable quantity had been fent me from France by commif- fion, with directions how to life it. To keep on the fafe fide, I prcfcribed fmall dofes to Welleta Yafous, being much more anxious to preferve myfelf from reproach than warm- ly folicitous about the cure of my unknown patient. I gave him pofitive advice to avoid eating raw meat ; to keep to a milk diet, and drink plentifully of whey when he ufed this medicine. They were overjoyed at having fucceeded fo well in their commiffion, and declared before the king, That Fafil their mailer would be more pleafed with receiving a medicine that would reftore Welleta Yafous to health, than with the magnificent appointments the king's goodnefs had bellowed upon him. " If it is fo, faid I, in this day of grace, I will aik two favours." — " And that's a rarity, fays the king ; come, out with, them ; I don't believe anybody is defirous

you.