They Cure Burns Beyond Credit.
I Have Seen A Man Burnt In Such A Manner, (When Drunk) By Falling Into A Fire,
That I Did Not Think He Could Recover; Yet They Cur'd Him In Ten Days,
So That He Went About.
I knew another blown up with Powder,
that was cured to Admiration.
{No ulcerated Wounds.} I never saw an Indian
have an Ulcer, or foul Wound in my Life; neither is there any such thing
to be found amongst them. {Pox to cure.} They cure the Pox, by a Berry
that salivates, as Mercury does; yet they use Sweating and Decoctions
very much with it; as they do, almost on every Occasion;
and when they are thoroughly heated, they leap into the River.
The Pox is frequent in some of these Nations; amongst which
I knew one Woman die of it; and they could not, or would not, cure her.
Before she died, she was worn away to a Skeleton, yet walk'd up and down
to the last. We had a Planter in Carolina, who had got an Ulcer in his Leg,
which had troubled him a great many Years; at last, he apply'd himself
to one of these Indian Conjurers, who was a Pampticough Indian,
and was not to give the Value of fifteen Shillings for the Cure.
{Indian cure an Ulcer.} Now, I am not positive, whether he wash'd the Ulcer
with any thing, before he used what I am now going to speak of,
which was nothing but the rotten doated Grains of Indian Corn,
beaten to Powder, and the soft Down growing on a Turkey's Rump.
This dry'd the Ulcer up immediately, and no other Fontanel was made
to discharge the Matter, he remaining a healthful Man,
till the time he had the Misfortune to be drown'd, which was many Years after.
{Cure in Maryland.} Another Instance (not of my own Knowledge,
but I had it confirm'd by several Dwellers in Maryland,
where it was done) was, of an honest Planter that had been possess'd
with a strange Lingring Distemper, not usual amongst them,
under which he emaciated, and grew every Month worse than another,
it having held him several Years, in which time he had made Tryal
of several Doctors, as they call them, which, I suppose, were Ship-Surgeons.
In the beginning of this Distemper, the Patient was very well to pass,
and was possess'd of several Slaves, which the Doctors purged all away,
and the poor Man was so far from mending, that he grew worse and worse
every day. But it happen'd, that, one day, as his Wife and he
were commiserating his miserable Condition, and that he could not expect
to recover, but look'd for Death very speedily, and condoling the Misery
he should leave his Wife and Family in, since all his Negro's were gone.
At that time, I say, it happen'd, that an Indian was in the same Room,
who had frequented the House for many Years, and so was become
as one of the Family, and would sometimes be at this Planter's House,
and at other times amongst the Indians.
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