Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/455

] of the water close alongside. From the little fear with which they approached us, we concluded that they had never been pursued by fishers.

We were pestered with the species of parrot called lorries, of which our people had bought a great number at Amboyna. Their piercing cries gave us no rest in the day time. Their new situation, on board ship, did not agree with them, for they died daily. They were seized with convulsions for which we found vitriolic ether a palliative; but it did not preserve their lives.

The mortality also spread among our feathered stock, the greater part of which were seized with violent diseases in the eyes, in consequence of the coldness of the nights; and those which were deprived of sight, soon died of hunger. It would, however, have been very easy to have prevented that disagreeable circumstance, by sheltering them from the night air, with a sail properly spread over their coops.

The water, which we took in at Amboyna, did not justify the great encomiums bestowed upon it, for keeping well at sea. It had already become so putrid, that it could not be drunk, till the inflammable air, with which fortunately it was but weakly united, had been expelled by strong agitation. This unexpected decomposition certainly arose from the negligence with which the