About midday
So Moll writes a letter at once to Simon , bidding him come at once to her relief ; and Captain Ballcock , after carefully enquiring his way to this place he knew so well -LRB- as he would have us believe -RRB- , starts off with it , accompanied by his boatswain , a good-natured kind of lick-spittle , who never failed to back up his captain 's assertions , which again was to our great advantage ; for Simon would thus learn our story from his lips , and find no room to doubt its veracity . As soon as these two were out of the house , Dawson , who had been carried from the ship and laid in bed , though as hale since we passed the Godwins as ever he was in his life before , sprang up , and declared he would go to bed no more , for all the fortunes in the world , till he had supped on roast pork and onions , -- this being a dish he greatly loved , but not to be had at Elche , because the Moors by their religion forbid the use of swine 's flesh , -- and seeing him very determined on this head , Don Sanchez ordered a leg of pork to be served in our chamber , whereof Dawson did eat such a prodigious quantity , and drank therewith such a vast quantity of strong ale -LRB- which he protested was the only liquor an Englishman could drink with any satisfaction -RRB- , that in the night he was seized with most severe cramp in his stomach . This gave us the occasion to send for a doctor in the morning , who , learning that Jack had been ill ever since we left Barbary , and not understanding his present complaint , pulled a very long face , and , declaring his case was very critical , bled him copiously , forbade him to leave his bed for another fortnight , and sent him in half a dozen bottles of physic . About midday he returns , and , finding his patient no better , administers a bolus ; and while we are all standing about the bed , and Dawson the colour of death , and groaning , betwixt the nausea of the drug he had swallowed and the cramp in his inwards , in comes our Captain Ballcock and the little steward . `` There ! '' cries he , turning on Simon , `` did not I tell you that my old friend Evans lay at death 's door with the treatment he hath received of these Barbary pirates ? Now will you be putting us off with your doubts and your questionings ?