fluff, with the addition of a hood for covering their heads.
This garb (which the failors called their Magellan jacket)
they occafionally wore, and found it moft comfortable for
working in rain and fnow, and among the broken ice in the
high latitudes of the South.
Let us proceed to another article, one of the moft material,,
the care to guard againft putrefaction, by keeping clean the
perfons, the cloaths, the bedding, and berths of the failors.
The Captain acquainted me, that regularly, one morning in
the week, he palled his fhip’s company in review,and fawthat
every man had changed his linen, and was in other points as
clean and neat as circumftances would permit. It is wellknown
how much cleanlinefs is conducive to health, but it is not fo
obvious how much it alfo tends to regularity and other virtues*
That diligent officer was perfuaded, that fuch men as he could
induce to be more cleanly than they were difpofed to be of
themfelves, became at the fame timemore fober, more orderly,
and more attentive to their duty. It muft be acknowledged
that a feaman has but indifferent means to keep himfelf
clean, had he the greateft inclination to do i t ; for I have not
heard that commanders of fhips have yet availed themfelves
o f the f i ll for providing frelh water for walhing; and it is
well known that fea-water doth not mix with foap, and that
linen wet with brine never thoroughly dries. But for Captain
Cook, the frequent opportunities he had of taking, in
water among the illands of the South-Sea, enabled him in.
that trad! todifpenfe to hisffiip’s company fome frelh water
for every ufe ; and when he navigated in the high latitudes
o f the fouthern oceans, he ftill more abundantly provided
them with it, as you will find by the fequel of this dif-
co'urfe.
Of the hammocks and bedding I need fay little, as all
officers are now fenfible, how much it concerns the health of
their people to have this part of a ffiip’s furniture kept dry
and well-aired; as by the breath and perfpiration of fo>
many men, every thing below, even in the fpace of twenty-
four hours, is apt to contract an offenfive moifture. But Captain
Cook was not fatisfied with ordering upon deck the
hammocks and bedding every day that was fair (the common
practice) but took care that every bundle ffiould be un-
lalhed, and fo fpread out, that every part of it might be ex~
pofed to the air.
His next concern was to fee to the purity of the Chip itfelf,
without which attention all the reft would have profited little.
I ffiall not however detain you with his orders about
walhing and fcraping the decks, as I do not underftand that
in this kind of cleanfing he excelled others ; but fince our author
has laid fo great a ftrefs upon fire, as a purifier, I ffiall
endeavour to explain his, way of ufing it, more fully than he
has done in his Paper. Some wood, and that not fparingly,
being put into a proper ftove or grate, was lighted, and carried
fucceffively to every part below deck. Wherever fire is, the
air neareft to it being heated becomes fpecifically lighter,
and by being lighter rifes, and pafles through the hatchways
into the atmofphere. The vacant fpace is filled with the.
\ cold air around, and that being heated in its turn, in like
manner afcends, and is replaced by other air as before.
Thus, by continuing the fire for fome time, in any of the
lower apartments, the foul air is in a good meafure driven
out, and the frelh admitted. This is not a ll: I apprehend
that the acid fleams of the wood; in burning, adl here as an
antifeptic and correct the corrupted air that remains.