It was on the 12th about noon that the Tryal came to anchor within us, when we carried our hawsers on board her, in order to warp our ship nearer the shore; but the wind coming off the land in violent gusts, prevented our mooring in the intended birth.  Indeed our principal attention was now devoted to a business of rather more importance, as we were now anxiously employed in sending on shore materials to erect tents for the reception of the sick, who died rapidly on board.  Doubtless the distemper was considerably augmented by the stench and filthiness in which they lay; for the number of the sick was so great, and so few of them could be spared from the necessary duty of the sails to look after them, that it was impossible to avoid a great relaxation in regard to cleanliness, so that the ship was extremely loathsome between decks.  Notwithstanding our desire to free the sick from their present hateful situation, and their own extreme eagerness to get on shore, we had not hands enough to prepare the tents for their reception sooner than the 16th; but on that and the two following days we got them all on shore, to the number of an hundred and sixty-seven persons, besides twelve or fourteen who died in the boats on being exposed to the fresh air.  The greatest part of our sick were so infirm, that we had to carry them out of the ship in their hammocks, and to convey them afterwards in the same manner from the water-side to the tents, over a stony beach.  This was a work of considerable fatigue to the few who remained healthy; and therefore our commodore, according to his accustomed humanity, not only assisted in this himself, but obliged all his officers to give their helping-hand.

The extreme weakness of our sick may be collected, in some measure, from the numbers that died after they got on shore.  It has generally been found that the land, and the refreshments it affords, very soon produce recovery in most stages of the scurvy, and we flattered ourselves that those who had not perished on their first exposure to the open air, but had lived to be placed in the tents, would have been speedily restored to health and vigour.  Yet to our great mortification, it was nearly twenty days after they landed, before the mortality entirely ceased, and for the first ten or twelve days we rarely buried less than six each day, and many of those who survived recovered by very slow and insensible degrees.  Those, indeed, who had sufficient strength, at their first getting on shore, to creep out of the tents, and to crawl about, were soon relieved, and speedily recovered their health and strength:  But, in the rest, the disease seemed to have attained a degree of inveteracy altogether without example.