• violence, and broke fo high upon the reef, that I was obliged
to put to £ea for a week; for i f our cable had parted
■ in the. night, and the wind had been upon .the ihore, which
fotnetim.es happens for two or three days together, the £hi,p
mull inevitably have been loft upon the rocks.
As'I was myfelf very ill with the fcurvy, I ordered a tent
to be pitched for me, and took up my refidence on fhore;
where we alfo eredted the armourer’s forge, and began to
repair the iron-work o f both the fliips. I foon found that
the ifland produced limes, four oranges, cocoa-nuts, breadfruit
*, guavas, and paupaus in great abundance-, but we
found no water-melons, fcurvy-grafs, or forreL
Notwithftanding the fatigue and diftrefs that we had en-
I dured, and the various climates we had palled through, neither
of the fhips had yet loft a fingle man fince their failing
from England; but while we lay here two died of fevers, a
dileafe with which many were feized, though we all recovered
very fall from the fcurvy. I am indeed o f opinion that this is
one of the moft unhealthy fpots in the world, at leaft during
the feafon in which we were here. The rains were violent,
and almoft incellant, and the heat was fo great as to threaten
us with fuffocation. The thermometer, which was kept on
board the lhip, generally flood at eighty-fix, which is but
nine degrees lefs than the heat o f the blood at the heart;
and i f it had heen on Ihore it would have rifen much
higher. I had been upon the coaft o f Guinea, in the Weft-
Indies, and upon the ifland of Saint Thomas, which is under
the Line, but I had never felt any fuch heat as I felt
here. Befides the inconvenience which we Buffered from
the weather, w e were inceflantly tormented by the flies in the
* See a particular defcriptionof the bread-fruit, vol.ji. p. 8a.
day,
day, and by the mufquitos : in the night. The ifland alio ^7®sfvvarms
with centipieds and fcorpions, and a large black ant, 1----«—
fcarcely inferior to either in the malignity, of- its bite. Befides
thefe, there’were venomous infetfts without number,
altogether unknown to us, by which many of us fuffered
fo feverely, that we were afraid to lie down in our beds ;,
nor were thole on board in a much better fituation than
thofe on fhore, for great numbers of thefe creatures being
carried into the lliip with the wood, they took pofiefiion of •
every birth, and le ft the poor feamen noplace of reft either.-
below or upon the.deck..
AS foon as we were fettled in our new habitations, I Tent,
out parties to difcover the haunts of the- cattle, fome o f
which were found, but at a great diftance -from-the tents, .
and the beafls were To fhy that-it was very difficult to get a
flaot at them. Some of the parties which, when their haunts
had been difcovered, were fent out- to kill them, wereabfent
threedays and nights before they could fucceed; and when
a bullock had been draggedfevcn or- eight miles .through
fuch; woods and lawns as have.juft been defcribed, to the
tents, it; was generally full of fly-blows, and flunk fo as to Ï
be unfit for ule.: nor was this the worft, for the fatigue of
the-men-in bringing down th e. carcafs,- and that intolérable
heat they-, fuffered : from the -climate and-the labour,- frequently
brought on fevers which laid them up. Poultry
however we procured upon eafier terms; there was-great
plenty,of birds, and they-were eafily killed; .but the flefhof
the heft o f them, was very- ill.-tafted, and fuch was the heat
of the -climate r-that- within an hour after they-were killed
it was as green as graft, and fwarmed. with maggots. Our
principal refource for frefli .meat, was the wild hog, with <
which the ifland.abounds, Thefe . creatures, are very fierce,,
6 and.i