1774.
F e b r u a r y .
Tueftfay i .
fliort calm. The day after it fluffed to S. E. and freshened
fo as to blow very hard at night, and fplit feveral fails. As
it was favourable for the purpofe of advancing to the
northward, the only circumftance that afforded us comfort,
we were far from being concerned at its violence, and in
the next twenty-four hours made upwards of three degrees
of latitude. The fame gale affifted us till the 1 2th, when
we obferved the latitude to be 500 15' fouth, our thermometer
being once more returned to the milder temperature
of 48 degrees. We were now told that we fhould fpend
the winter feafon, which was coming on apace, among the
tropical iflands of the Pacific Ocean, in the fame manner as
we had paffed that immediately preceding. The profpedt
of making new difcoveries, and of enjoying the excellent
refrefhments which thofe illands afford, entirely revived
our hopes, and made us look on our continuance on the
weftern fide of Cape Horne with fome degree of fatis-
fadtion.
A great number of our people were however afflicted
with very fevere rheumatic pains, which deprived them of
the ufe of their limbs ; but their fpirits were fo low, that
they had no fever. Though the ufe of that excellent prophylactic
the four krout, prevented the appearance of the-
fcurvy during all the cold weather, yet being made of
cabbage, it is not fo nutritive that we could live upon it
without the aflifiance of bifcuit and falt-beef. But the
former
former of thefe being rotten, and the other almoft con- FEJ'” ^,y.
fumed by the fait, it is obvious that no wholefome juices
could be fecreted from thence, which might have kept the
body ftrong and vigorous. Under thefe difficulties all our
patients recovered very flowly, having nothing to reftore
their ftrength ; and my father, who had been in exquifite
torments during the greateft part of our fouthern cruize,
was afflidled with tooth-aches, fwelled cheeks, fore-throat,
and univerfal pain till the middle of February, when he
ventured on deck perfedtly emaciated. The warm weather
which was beneficial to him, proved fatal to captain Cook’s
conflitution. The difappearance of his bilious complaint
during our laft pu(h to the fouth, had not been fo fincere,
as to make him recover his appetite. The return to the
north therefore brought on a dangerous obftrudlion, which
the captain very unfortunately flighted, and concealed from
every perfon in the fhip, at the fame time endeavouring to
get the better of it by taking hardly any fuftenance. This
proceeding, inftead of removing, encreafed the evil, his
ftomach being already weak enough before. He was af-
flidted with violent pains, which in the fpace of a few days
confined him to his bed, and forced him to have recourfe a
to medicines. He took a purge, but inftead of producing
the defired effedl, it caufed a violent vomiting, which was
afiifted immediately by proper emetics. All attempts however
to procure a paffage through his bowels were inef-
4 A 2 fedtual;