¡paused harm, or personal injury, to any of my fellow-creatures. It
was my peculiar situation which rendered this accident more than
ordinarily unfortunate and distressing. I knew not whether, jn
so hot a climate, fatal consequences might not in a few hours ensue
from the wound; or whether mortification could be prevented, or
life saved* only by amputation of part of the arm: an operation
which no one in this part of the globe was competent to perform.
Little, indeed, as I knew of surgery, I may even say that nobody
in these regions knew more. The secondary, though not unimportant,
considerations which encreased my distress, were the loss of
his services; the unfavorable gloom which it cast over my affairs,
not very inviting to those Hottentots whom I expected to join my
party; and, added to these, the loss of time and delay which must
unavoidably be occasioned by giving him all that attention which
was requisite, and by waiting at this place till his cure was effected.
He was sitting on the ground, and with his left hand supported
his right, which presented a shocking sight; literally blown to pieces.
The fore-finger and thumb were remaining, although torn apart;
but the other fingers, with part of the palm, and the two outer
metacarpal bones, were quite separated, and adhered, or rather hung,
only by a small piece of the flesh. A multitude of painful ideas
pressed upon me; but Gert himself appeared quite unchanged and
unmoved; and it was some consolation to perceive that he felt, in
mind, at least, not a tenth part of what I suffered on his account.
I took him instantly to the missionary’s house, where I obtained
^Mr. Anderson’s assistance in cleansing the wound of gunpowder and
particles of dirt. I bathed it with the preparation called Friar’s
Balsam, and closed it with bandages : for, as it did not bleed, I conceived
the balsam useful in the absence of blood, to form, as it were,
an artificial skin, to protect it from the effects of the air. In a
couple of hours after this, it first began to bleed; and having allowed
it to continue doing so for such time as I thought sufficient for the
purpose of preventing inflammation, I washed it frequently with a
solution of alum in plain water, which, before night, gradually
stopped the flow of blood.
Dam, to whom Gert was, as I now found, in some degree
related, very humanely offered to take the poor fellow into his hut,
where his wife could nurse him. This was immediately done; and
I agreed to make them a compensation for their trouble. Twenty
drops of laudanum were given him in the course of the evening; by
the assistance of which he enjoyed his usual sleep. But with me it
was far otherwise: I passed a night of distressing wakefulness, dreading
that in the morning I should be told of some fatal symptoms
having shown themselves, or of a lock-jaw having supervened. But,
thanks to the little sensibility of his nerves, nothing untoward of this
kind, nor any inflammatory appearance, occurred to check my hopes
that all would go on properly.
22nd. As the bursting of a gun is an ‘accident too likely to
happen, future travellers in these warm regions, who may unhappily
be placed in such a situation .will not think the details here given
of the management by which the cure was effected, a useless part of
my narrative, although others may find it uninteresting.
The Hottentots expressed so much faith in the powers of
BoeJcoe-azyn (Bookoo vinegar) as a wash to cleanse and heal the
wound, that I allowed it to be used, as I knew of nothing in the
nature of it which could be hurtful; but, on the contrary, had long
believed the leaves of the Diosmas to contain virtues which would at
some future period obtain for them a place in the materia medica of
Europe, as they have long done in that of the Hottentots and Boors.
This Boekoe (or Buku) azyn is made by simply putting the leaves of
some kind of diosma * into a bottle of cold vinegar, in which they
are left to steep. The longer they have been infused, the more
efficacious the vinegar is esteemed; becoming at length almost a
mucilage.
When the small stock which could be procured of old Buku-
vinegar was consumed, a succedaneum was made by a similar infusion
* In the present instance, those of Diosma sen'atifolia; of which the Jigure of a
sprig in seed of its natural size, is given at page 476.