Page:Voyage of discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and round the world in the years 1791-95, volume 3.djvu/429

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relaxation in the meaHures I had adopted at the commencement of our voyage; but on the contrary, the moll rigid obfervancc had I)cvii paid to all ihoic ciiCLinnhuicis, which had been piovod from experience to ho. the happv aid elUitual means of prefervin^r tl;at mod valuable of all blelhngs, healih. All ihele precaiilioiis and (alutary meafurcs on this occanon feemed to have loll their effect, for the number of our fcorbutic invalids inciealed, and with theni alfo my folicitutle, which may probably be more cafy to imagine than to defcribe. The baneful efl'e6ls which feldom fail to l)e confequent on this diforder at fea, filled my mind with apprehenfions for the falety of our patients; and having prefumed that we had at length profited fo much by the experience and indefatigable labours of that renowned navigator Captain Cook, as that by due attention we could on a certainty protect feafaring people from the fatal eonfcquences hitherto iideparable, under (imilar circumllances, from this malignant diforder, the difappointinenl which I felt on this occafion was inexprellible. This was the fecond inflance in which it had appeared during the voyage. The firfl was on our palfage from Nooika to the Spanifh fetilements in New Albion; but I was then in foine meafure able to account for its appearance, our people having been for many of the preceding months expofed in a very arduous and fatiguing fervice to mofl inclement weather, with only the very fmall portion of refit fhments we were enabled to procure during that time. Thefe rcafons did not now exifl, and I remained in the grcatell uncertainty concerning the caufe of its origin, until at length it appeared to liave been derived from a fburce from whence I lead expcfled it; namely, from a difobedience of my pofiiive injunftions and orders on the part of the cook, who had been flriftly forbidden on any account whatever to allow the (kimmings of the boiling failed meat to be eaten by the people. Of this difobedience the fhip's cook, a fteady, grave, and valuable man, came aft on the quarter deck and made a voluntary confethon; and flaied, that he had not only afted in direft oppofition to my repraleil iiijuntiions in the prefent inflance, but alfo on the former occal'.on; though he had not been induceil at any other t'me durinor the voyage, by the unportimities of the people, to tranfgrefs, in giving to the crew the Ikimmings of the boilers to mix with their pulfe, whicii at both