TO 2 L O R D A N S O N ’ S V O Y A G E
deadly of all. the fcorbutick fymptoms: at other times' the whole
body, but more.-especially the legs, were fubjeft to ulcers of the
word: kind, attended with rotten bones, and fuch a luxuriaucy of
fungous -flefh, as yielded to no remedy. But a moll extraordinary
circumftance, and what would be Scarcely credible upon any Single
evidence, is, that the fears o f wounds, which had been for many
years healed, were forced open again by this virulent diftemper. O f
this, there was a remarkable inftance in one of the invalids on board
the Centurion, who had been wounded above fifty years before at
the battle o f the Boyne-, for though he was cured foon after, and had
continued well for a great number o f years paft, yet, on his being
attacked by the feurvy, his wounds, in the progrefs o f his difeafe,
broke outafrefh, and appeared as if they had never been.healed:
nay, what is Hill more aftonifhiug, the callous of a broken bone
which had been compleatly formed for a long time, was found to be
hereby diffolved, and the fra&ure Teemed as i f it had never -been
confolidated. Indeed, the effedtsof this difeafe were inalmoft every
inftance wonderful; for many of ou r people, though confined .to their
hammocks, appeared to have no inconfiderable lhare o f health; for
they eat and drank heartily, were chearful, and .talked- with much
feeming vigour, and with a loud ftrong tone o f voice ; and yet, on
their being the leaft moved, though it was only from one part of
the fhip to the other, and that too in their hammocks, they have
immediately expired ; and others, who have confided in their Seeming
Strength, and have refolved to get out of their hammocks, have
died before they could well reach the deck ; nor was it an uncommon
thing for thofe who were able to walk the deck, and to do
fome kind of duty, to drop down dead in an inftant, on any endeavours
to a£t with their utmoft effort, many of our people
having perifhed in this manner, during the courfe of this- voyage.
With this terrible difeafe we Struggled the greatefl. part o f' the
time, of our beating round Cape Horn ; and though it did not then
rage with its utmoft violence, yet we buried no lefs than forty-
three men on board the Centurion, in the month of April, as hath
.been
R O U N D T H E W O R L D , 102
been- already obferved j however,1 we ftill entertained hopes, that,
when we fhou-ld .have once fecured our paflage round the Cape, we
fhould put a. period to this, and all the other evils which had fo con-
ftantly purfued us. But it was our misfortune to find, that the Pa-
cifick Ocean was to us lefs hofpitable than the turbulent neighbourhood
o f Terra del Fuego and Cape Horn : for being arrived, on the
8th of May, off the Ifland of Socoro, which was the fia ft rendezvous-
appointed for the fquadron, and where we hoped to have met with
fbme of our companions, we cruized for them in that ftation feveral.
days- But here ,we were, not only difappointed in our expeftations
of being joined by our friends, and were thereby induced to favour
the gloomy fuggeftions of their having all perilhed but we were
likewife perpetually alarmed with the fears of being drivenon fhore
upon this coaft, which appeared too craggy and irregular to give us-
the leaft profpeeft, that, in fuch a cafe, any of us could poffibly
efcape immediate deftruftion ; for the land had, indeed, a moft tremendous
afpedt: the moft diftant part of it, and which appeared
far within the country, being the mountains ufually called the Andes.
or Cordilleras, was extremely high and covered with fnow; and the
coaft itfelf feemed quite rocky and barren, and the water’s edge
Ikirted with precipices. In fome places, indeed, we difeerned feveral.
deep bays running into the land; but the entrance into them was-
generally blocked up by numbers- of little Iflands ;. and though it
was not improbable but there might be convenient. fhelter in fome
of thofe bays, and proper channels leading thereto ; yet, as we were
utterly ignorant of the coaft, had. we been driven alhore by the
weftern winds, which blew a-lmoft conftantly there,, we did-not ex-
pe£f to have avoided the lofs of our fhip and o f our lives.
This.yontinued peril, which- lafted for above a. fortnight* was-
greatly aggravated by the difficulties we found in working the fhip -
as the feurvy had, by this-time, deftroyed fo great apart of ourr
hands, and had in fome degree affefted almoft the whole crew. Nor<
did we, as We hoped, find the winds lefs violent, as we advanced
to the northward.;, fox, we, had often prodigious fqpalls,.which.fplitr
eutr