Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/381

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Nov.]
OF LA PEROUSE.
319

ing in the house of Messrs. Bawer and Stagh, who received me with the greatest cordiality.

November 10th. The council revoked the permission they had granted us, and all our company were immediately obliged to return on board, with the exception of our invalids, to which number I belonged, the dysentery having left me in a state of extreme debility. Being now removed from the rest of my fellow-sufferers in this contagious malady, I was very much relieved by the use of purgatives, sago, and skimmed milk; and in a short time completely recovered.

It was high time that this captivity should have an end; for the number of sick persons on board increased with alarming rapidity. Almost one half of the crew were attacked with dysentery and contagious fevers, which did not abate of their violence till they had carried off several of our men. At length the Council again granted the permission which they had revoked a few days before, and we had the satisfaction of meeting again together in the town.

The heat was excessive during the first days of our stay at Sourabaya. I was astonished to see Reaumur's thermometer rise to 27°; but these burning heats were but of short duration; for the change of the monsoon, which took place about the beginning of November, caused fora con-