Chapter 23
On June 16th I found a large turtle on the beach. I cooked it and its meat turned out to be delicious.
In the last week of June I fell sick. I had a fever and I couldn’t get out of bed. I was very afraid. I had horrible nightmares because of the fever, I was very weak, and could not get food or water.
A few days later when I felt a bit better I looked through my belongings and found a few green leaves of tobacco. I chewed some of them and put some in rum, which I then drank. Soon I was feeling better.
On July 3rd I was well again. The next ten days I spent walking around the island. This exercise improved my health. When I felt strong again, I decided to explore the whole island. I found new plains and meadows where I saw some tobacco plants among other unknown ones. The next day I found melons and grapes. I dried and preserved the grapes as raisins.