On the third day he became delirious, and commenced
chattering and talking to himself, and imagining that all kinds of
horrid shapes and creatures were around and near him. I had to watch him
narrowly in order to prevent him stealing out of his bed, which he
was ready to do at any moment to avoid the tortures which he fearfully
imagined awaited him. By these signs I knew that he was in the middle
of an attack of delirium tremens, and I tried to quiet him by means of
laudanum, but it had no effect upon him. I got him, however, to swallow
a little soup, which sustained him. My own boy was the only negro I had
been able to induce to stay in the room, and he would only remain in it
while I was there.
I had sent a messenger to the nearest station, where I remembered there
was a Portuguese doctor; but he had not returned by the evening of the
fourth day. That night, worn out with watching, I had dozed off to sleep
on a chair placed by the sick man's bed, when all at once I was awakened
by a loud report, and I jumped up to find the room filled with smoke.
As it cleared away I saw that Jackson was standing in the middle of
the room with a revolver in his hand.
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