in his ship; and that there were few on board who had not, in some degree, been afflicted with the distemper, though they had not been then eight months from England.  That in the ninth month, when standing for the island of Juan Fernandez, the Centurion lost double that number; and that the mortality went on at so great a rate (I still speak of the Commodore’s ship) that before they arrived there she had buried two hundred; and at last could muster no more than six of the the common men in a watch capable of doing duty.  This was the condition of one of the three ships which reached that island; the other two suffered in proportion.

Nor did the tragedy end here for after a few months respite the same fatal sickness broke out afresh, and made such havock, that before the Centurion (which now contained the whole surviving crew of the three ships) had got to the island of Tinian, there died sometimes eight or ten in a day; insomuch that when they had been only two years on their voyage, they had lost a larger proportion than of four in five of their original number; and, by the account of the historian, all of them, after their entering the South Sea, of the scurvy.  I say by the account of the elegant writer of this voyage; for as he neither was in the medical line himself, nor hath authenticated this part of his narrative by appealing to the surgeons of the ship or their journals, I should doubt that this was not strictly the case; but rather, that in producing this great mortality, a pestilential kind of distemper was joined to the scurvy, which, from the places where it most frequently occurs, hath been distinguished by the name of jail or hospital-fever*.  But whether the scurvy alone, or this fever combined with it, were the cause, it is not at present material to inquire, since both, arising from foul air and other sources of putrefaction, may now in a great measure be obviated by the various means fallen upon since Lord Anson’s expedition.  For in justice to that prudent as well as brave commander, it must be observed that the arrangements preparatory to his voyage were not made by himself; that his ship was so deeply laden as not to admit of opening the gun-ports, except in the calmest weather, for the benefit of air; and that nothing appears to have been neglected by him, for preserving the health of his men, that was then known and practised in the navy.

[* Dr. Mead, who had seen the original observations of two of Commodore Anson’s surgeons, says, that the scurvy at that time was accompanied with putrid fevers, etc.  See his Treatise on the Scurvy, p. 98. et seq.]