A V O Y A G E T O
The latitude o f the anchoring-plaee at
Prince’s Ifland was 6° S¿' I S'
Longitude - IGi” r-f 30'
Dip o f the South pole o f the magnetic
needle - 28” 0'
Variation o f the compafs 0° 54' ey
Mean o f (he thermometer 8 3 jJ
°
From th e time o f our entering the Straits o f Bancs,
w e began :to experience the powerful effedts o f this peftilen-
>tjal climate. Two o f our people fe ll dangeroufly ill o f malignant
putrid fevers j which however we prevented from
■fpreading, b y putting the patient« apart from the reft, in
th e mofi airy births. Many were attached with teazing
co u g h s ; others complained o f violent pains in the h e ad ;
and even the heahhieft among us felt a fenfation q f fuffqcat-
in g heat, attended by an infufferable languor, and a total
lofs o f appetite. But though our fituatipn was for a time
thus uneafy and alarming, we had at laft the Angular fatis-
fadtion o f efcaping .from .thefe fatal feas, without the lofs
o f a Angle l i f e ; a circumftance which was probably owing
in part to the vigorous health o f the crews, when we Arft
arrived here, as well as to the ftrift attention, now become
habitual in our men, to the falutary regulations introduced
amongft us by Captain Cook.
Gn our leaving Prince’s IAand, and during the whole time
o f our run from thence to the Cape q f Good Hope, the crew
o f the Refolution was in a much.mpre Ackly Hate.than that
.o f the Difcovery. For though many o f us continued, for
fome time, complaining o f the effedts o f the noxious climate
we had left, yet happily we all recovered from them.
i O f
O f the two who had been ill o f fevers, one, after b e in g Fe'b7r^
feizéd with violent convulAons, on the 12th o f February, c— .— j
which made us defpair o f his life, was relieved by the application
o f blitters, and was foon after out o f danger. The
other recovered, but more flowly. On board the Refolution,
beAdes the obftinate coughs and fevers under which they
ve ry generally laboured, a great many were afflidted with,
fluxes, the number o f whom, contrary to our expectations,,
continued increafing till our arrival at the Cape;
Captain Gore attributed this difference in part, and probably
with fome reafon, to the Difcovery having her A re-
place between d e c k s ; the heat and fmoke o f which he
conceived m ight h elp to mitigate the bad effedts o f the damp
n ight air. -But I am rather inclined to believe; that we
efcaped the flux by the precautions that were taken to prevent
our catching it from others.. For i f fome kinds o f ;
fluxes be, as I apprehend there is no doubt they are, contagious,
it is not improbable, that the Refolution caught this
diforder from the Dutch fhips at Cracatoa. In order to avoid;
this danger, when Mr. Williamfon was fent to the India-
man in the entrance o f the Straits o f Sunda, he had the.
itridteft orders not to fuffer any o f our people, on any account
whatever, to go on b o a rd ; and whenever we had;
afterward occaflon to have any communication, with the
Refolution, the fame caution was conftantly obferved,
We were no fooner clear o f Prince’s Ifland, than we had;
a gentle breeze from the Weft North W e f t b u t this did not
laft long -y for the fo llow in g day the wind became again Sunday jo;
variable, and continued fo till the noon o f the 25th, when.
it grew fqually, and blew freih from the North.
On