38 BRAZIL

unceasingly active. As soon as we left S. started an exter*
minating campaign, and killed sixty straight away in his own
cabin and the saloon. For weeks afterwards, Mr* Gillam could
be seen daily going on his rounds with a bottle of quinine tabloids,
the lambs obediently swallowing the same. His medicinal doses
were under all circumstances magnificently heroic, some of his
remedies being kept in quart bottles, on the principle, as he
explained, that it was " no use spoiling the ship for a halfpenny-
worth of tar/' It was doubtful in this case if the enemy were
really of the malaxia-^arrying type; they did not appear to
stand on their heads in the correct manner—anyway, we all
escaped contagion with one slight exception, though I myself
had had a bad attack shortly before leaving England, brought
on by influenza, after six years* complete immunity,

We had now before us a voyage of some 3,000 miles down
the eastern coast of South America before the Magellan Straits
were reached. It was marvellously impressive sailing day after
day along the coast-line of a great continent, although at the
moment the said coast was sandy and flat, the only diversity
being occasional lights at night from some town on the shore.
Bahia de Todos os Santos, more generally known simply as
Bahia, was our next destination* Some fine Portuguese houses
are said to survive from the days when it was the old capital,
and it may be remembered as the locality where Robinson
„ Crusoe was engaged in planting tobacco, when he was induced
to go on the slave-raiding voyage which led to his best-known
adventure. The bay, which runs north and south, extends
ior twenty-five miles, and the situation of the town on its east
sy^is ais&fjxctly fine; part of it has been built on the shore, and
••gWw-^-Ihe top of rising ground immediately above it. The
funiotiter railway which connects the one with the other is to be
seen from the sea, '

This unfortunately is all that circumstances allow us to
record. The anchor was dropped at midday, Wednesday,
June 25th, and orders given for luncheon to be served at once,
so that we might go on shore as loon as we had got our pratique.

2l^^°^Ceri wllw' ^e came on board> w^ found to sPcak-
*-'•**•' juese, which made communication difficult;

.the case with the pilot at Pernambuco; and
^s visiting those ports are %gUsh it might per^