A 
VOYAGE 
ae 
JAMAICA. 
EN our intended Voyageto Famaica was drawing near, 
Z- \was defir'd by feveral who were to go the fame Voy- 
EL age, to give them my Advice what Phyfick would be’ 
lam belt to prevent their being Sick at Sea, and receiving 
ACS injury thereby, and by the change of the feveral Climates 
ee we were to pafs through; to which my Anfwer was, 
that I thought the beft Counfel I could give, was, to eat 
wie 
| MSE and drink what was fitting, and to ufe Exercife, and the 
other fix non-naturals with that moderation, that their Bodies might be keptin 
ahealthful ftate, and made ftrong and able to endure any Difeafe fhould through 
unavoidable contingences attack them; for that when one is well, if Phyfick . 
be taken, it muft either make no alteration at all on the Body, and then it will 
not deferve the name of Phyfick, but be a Chip, and fo confequently a 
netdlefs trouble and good for nothing; or it muft make an alteration on 
thofe, whobeing fuppofed perfectly well in Health, muft by it be changed and 
made Sick. Some of thofe who would take Phyfick notwithftanding this 
warning, felt this trueto their Coft, being by Purges thrown into Gripes, and 
other troublefome Diftempers from which they were not {fo eafily freed. The 
fame Argument might be urg’d againft thofe, who when perfe@ly well will Preventive 
take preventive Phyfick, who if they efcape Death (which the famous Phy/fick con- 
Machiavel did not) or Sicknefs, will at leaft by Cuftom, which will become fider’d. 
at laft neceflary, make themfelves Slaves to bleeding and purging every Fall 
and Spring to prevent Difeafes, which are much rather brought by thefe means 
than hindered. And it feems as reafonable to me that a Soldier fhould be- 
fore a Fight come to a Chirurgeon to ask a remedy to prevent his being Shot, 
as when one is altogether Well, to a Phyfician fora Remedy againft Sicknefs. 
And to confirm this neceflary Caution a little further, I have {een more than 
once in Scafons for Epidemical! Difeafes, as the Small-pox, ¢c. that thofe who 
have been over-wife, in either taking Medicines or Journies to fhun the com 
mon Diftempers, have, by the agitation they put their Bodies into, been 
taken with what perhaps otherwife they might have avoided. 
On Monday the 1x. day of September 1687. I went on Board the Afiftance 
Frigat, one of the King’s Ships, of forty four Guns, and two hundred Men; 
Commanded by Captain Laurence Wright, lying at Anchor at Spithead near 
Port(mouth. She had in Company two large Merchant Ships, and the Dukes 
Yacht, carrying His Graces Provifions and Servants, We. i coer 
B ter- 
