- The day being much warmer, many large flies were about, and I
was obliged to have a fire kept constantly around the meat, to keep them
away by the smoke. I now put the natives upon an allowance of five pounds
of flesh each per day, myself and the overseer using about half that
quantity.
On the 19th, I sent out one of the boys to try and get a sting-ray to
vary our diet, but he returned unsuccessful. During the forenoon I was
seized with a violent attack of dysentery, accompanied with diabetes,
from which I suffered extremely. The overseer was affected also, but in a
less violent degree. The origin of this complaint was plainly traceable
to the food we had used for the last day or two; it rendered us both
incapable of the least exertion of any kind, whilst the disorder
continued, and afterwards left us very languid and weak. In the evening
upon examining the meat, a great deal of it was found to be getting
putrid, or fly-blown, and we were obliged to pick it over, and throw what
was tainted away.
April 20. - To-day I had all the meat boiled, as I thought it would keep
better cooked than raw, we had only a small tin saucepan without a
handle, to effect our cooking operations with, and the preparation of the
meat therefore occupied the whole of the day.
