We have again had abundant occasion to remark the fact regarding the coincidence between the returns of fever in this climate, and the periods of the spring-tides. Only a few days ago, at the time of full moon, Mr. Beete (the commissary), Mr. Mulheran (one of our assistants in the medical department), and six of the convalescents in the hospital, were attacked with a relapse of fever, or what is here called “the tides.” Three were cases of continued fever; five of intermittent: but it is not in the paroxysms of intermittent, and the relapses of fever, only that the disease appears to be influenced by the recurrence of the spring-tides; for we now find that the primary invasion of the disorder is more frequent, and the number of fever-patients admitted into the hospital greater, at these periods, than at any other time.

The case of Mr. Beete is peculiar; and places the fact in a very striking light. He has been long resident in the West Indies, and from having withstood all the late perils of disease at Grenada, might be regarded as, in a great degree, secure against that particular form of the fever which is so fatal to newly arrived Europeans: but very soon after he came from the islands to Demarara, he was attacked with it, in the form which it more commonly assumes among the creoles, and those who have been long on this shore of the Atlantic, viz. as an intermittent, yet not returning as a quotidian, a tertian, or a quartan, but as a quindecimana, and so regularly observing its type that, if referred to its place in a system of nosology, it might justly be ranked among the species of intermittent fever, under the title of quindecimana. It has continued ever since, returning at intervals of a fortnight, with the exacerbations correctly obeying the periods of new and full moon, but he has always the power of interrupting it, and averting the paroxysm by a copious use of the bark for only a day or two previous to the time of spring-tide, and his friends very earnestly hope that he will soon, so far subdue his aversion to the taking of medicine, as to employ it in sufficient quantity to eradicate the disease. In the four other cases of intermittent, the fever assumes the ordinary quotidian, or the tertian type. In the cases wherein the disorder appears in its continued form, the relapses are, frequently, not less severe than the original attack.

The 18th instant being the Queen’s birth-day, it was honored in public and private rejoicing, and as our days of festival are few, you will believe that justice was done to the occasion. In the morning we had a general review of the troops; afterwards a large party dined, and drank her Majesty’s health with the commandant: and, in the evening, the officers gave a splendid ball at the fort.

The review afforded great satisfaction to the inhabitants, by placing before them a fine body of troops, armed in the defence of the colony. They were of different nations, different colours, and in different uniform; yet from the excellent discipline instilled among them by the unwearied attentions of the commandant and the officers, their appearance in the field was highly military, and their manœuvres executed with order and correctness. The line, if not formidable, was very respectable. On the right were the British troops, and the corps of Demarara volunteers, in scarlet uniform: on the left were the Dutch, in blue: in the centre the fine battalion of South American rangers, in white: and, on each wing a party of the royal artillery.

At the dinner, the board was enriched with all the dainties of the country, and the appetite provoked by choice wines and cheering music. The governor, the fiscal, most of the officers, and many of the principal inhabitants of the colony, were present. A military band enlivened the banquet, and merry toasts and songs caused the bumper glass to move in quick time. I left the table early, in order to make my round of duty at the hospital, and joined the party again at the ball, where, in a group of about seventy persons, we met all the beauty and fashion of the colony. In the whole party, the number of ladies did not exceed sixteen, so that many of the gentlemen, at an early period of the evening, had to lament the deficiency; yet such was the prowess of the fair, that, before the dancing ceased, each had fatigued her third companion; and it fell to their lot to complain of the want of partners. The exercise used by the ladies was truly astonishing, and far surpassed all that I could have believed them capable of supporting; but, call it pleasure, and the body is strong. If such excess had been recommended, as necessary for any other purpose, it would no doubt have been regarded as dangerous and destructive. Some of them, with only the interval of supper-time, danced from nine o’clock until daylight, in a room where the heat, probably, exceeded 90 degrees.

At supper, few as the ladies were, it happened to be my fortune to be placed between two of them: of one, only, I have now to speak; but let me first remark that the colony was ransacked to supply the table; which was most sumptuously and profusely spread. On my noticing the uncommon crowd of dishes, an officer dryly replied, “Perhaps you are not aware that the party to be entertained is Dutch.” I thought it fully sufficient for five such parties, whether Dutch, English, or French; but if all had eaten like the fair one in question, I must have been egregiously deceived.

The lady at my right elbow, was very large, and of true Dutch figure. Her person may be well described in two words—broad and bulky! By some accident she had sprained her wrist, and this formed a ready apology for appealing to my particular attention, which, from not being in the habit of eating supper, I could the better devote to her service: but I almost fear to note the fact I have to relate, lest you should imagine that I assume a traveller’s privilege, and indulge in the marvellous at the expense of a fair associate guest. Let me therefore premise, that in what follows, the boundaries of sober truth are not outstepped a single iota; for I not only helped the lady to her meats, and poured forth her wines, but was further called upon to cut her food, into small pieces, ready for the fork, by which I had the opportunity of observing, literally, every mouthful.

Scarcely had we taken our seats, before my fair neighbour requested me to help her to a glass of claret, of which I found a full bottle standing between us. The ceremony of a gentleman drinking, at the same time, was not deemed essential; consequently I tasted but very lightly: yet it somehow happened, and without the bottle being once removed, that, before the supper was at an end, the gentle lady was compelled to have recourse to a glassful or two of sound Madeira, to supply the deficiencies of our empty bottle! With this, her eating was in no degree at variance, for she commenced by forming a solid stratum of two heavy slices of fat ham, after which I helped her from no less than fourteen other dishes, of each of which, to my surprise, she partook with appetite! Such a supper I had not before seen swallowed by man or woman! Although satiated, not satisfied, she afterwards desired me to reach towards her several of the dishes of fruit, from each of which, after liberally tasting, she privately gave a portion to a female slave, who was standing at her back; and when she rose to leave the supper-room, I observed under her chair a loaded plate of fruits and sweets, which, without doubt, the negress had received instructions to carry home, for the purpose of regaling her mistress on the morrow. This, by the by, is a custom, which I have more than once seen practised by foreign ladies, both Dutch and French!

But what will surprise you most is, to know that after this light supper, the lady briskly resumed the merry dance! and, when I retired, at five o’clock in the morning, she remained tripping it away as gaily as if it had been only the commencement of the evening.

It affords me real pleasure to be able to remark that we have entered the more cordially into the late festivity on account of the improved state of our sick list, and from the happy circumstance of the last weekly return of the hospital not containing even a single casualty. This is a subject of great and peculiar satisfaction to the medical officers; it being the first week, since our arrival in these colonies, that we have had the opportunity of making out a weekly return, without marking some one in the fatal column. But the healthy season is now setting in, and we are taught to expect nearly four months of dry weather, with a salubrious breeze, which is to waft away all our maladies. I have been too much in the habit of busy employment to feel any desire to sit down in idleness; yet, upon such terms, I could be very happy to continue without professional duty.