Despite his strength and constitution, Washington was frequently the
victim of illness. What diseases of childhood he suffered are not known,
but presumably measles was among them, for when his wife within the first
year of married life had an attack he cared for her without catching the
complaint. The first of his known illnesses was "Ague and Feaver, which I
had to an extremity" about 1748, or when he was sixteen.

In the sea voyage to Barbadoes in 1751, the seamen told Washington that
"they had never seen such weather before," and he says in his diary that
the sea "made the Ship rowl much and me very sick." While in the island,
he went to dine with a friend "with great reluctance, as the small-pox was
in his family." A fortnight later Washington "was strongly attacked with
the small Pox," which confined him for nearly a month, and, as already
noted, marked his face for life. Shortly after the return voyage he was
"taken with a violent pleurise, which ... reduced me very low."

During the Braddock march, "immediately upon our leaving the camp at
George's Creek, on the 14th, ... I was seized with violent fevers and
pains in my head, which continued without intermission 'till the 23d
following, when I was relieved, by the General's [Braddock] absolutely
ordering the physicians to give me Dr. James' powders (one of the most
excellent medicines in the world), for it gave me immediate ease, and
removed my fevers and other complaints in four days' time. My illness was
too violent to suffer me to ride; therefore I was indebted to a covered
wagon for some part of my transportation; but even in this I could not
continue far, for the jolting was so great, I was left upon the road with
a guard, and necessaries, to wait the arrival of Colonel Dunbar's
detachment which was two days' march behind us, the General giving me his
word of honor, that I should be brought up, before he reached the French
fort. This _promise_, and the doctor's _threats_, that, if I persevered