148 cook's second VOYAGE jtfLY, 



and the weather became fair and settled. We now 

 met the first tropic bird we had seen in this sea. 



On the 26th, in the afternoon, being in the lati- 

 tude of 28 44', we had several observations of the 

 sun and moon, which gave the longitude 13.5 30' 

 west. My reckoning at the same time was 135 27' 

 and I had no occasion to correct it since I left the 

 land. We continued to stretch to the north, with 

 light breezes from the westward, till noon the next 

 day, when we were stopped by a calm ; our latitude 

 at this time being 27 5S\ longitude 135 17' west. 

 In the evening, the calm was succeeded by a breeze 

 from the N. and N. W., with which we plied to the 

 north. 



On the 29th, I sent on board the Adventure to 

 enquire into the state of her crew, having heard that 

 they were sickly, and this I now found was but too 

 true ; her cook was dead, and about twenty of her 

 best men were down in the scurvy and flux. At 

 this time, we had only three men on the sick list, 

 and only one of them attacked with the scurvy ; 

 several more, however, began to show symptoms of 

 it, and were accordingly put upon the wort, mar- 

 malade of carrots, rob of lemons and oranges. 



I know not how to account for the scurvy raging 

 more in the one ship than the other, unless it was 

 owing to the crew of the Adventure being more 

 scorbutic when they arrived in New Zealand than 

 we were, and to their eating few or no vegetables 

 while they lay in Queen Charlotte's Sound, partly 

 for want of knowing the right sorts, and partly be- 

 cause it was a new diet, which alone was sufficient 

 for seamen to reject it. To introduce any new 

 article of food among seamen, let it be ever so much 

 lor their good, requires both the example and autho- 

 rity of a commander ; without both of which, it will 

 be dropped before the people are sensible of the bene- 

 fits resulting from it: were it necessary, I could 



