536 A V O Y A G E T O 



1778. They had no better rcafon to fupport a refolution, which 



y_ -.-J' they took on our firft arrival in King George's Sound, not to 

 .drink the fpruce-beer made there. But, whether from a 

 confidcration that it was not the firft time of their being re- 

 quired to ufe that liquor, or from fome other reafon, they 

 (lid not attempt to cany their purpofe into a<5lual execu- 

 tion; and I had never heardof it till now, when they renew- 

 ed their ignorant oppofition to my beft endeavours to ferve 

 them. Every innovation whatever, on board a fliip, though 

 ever fo much tp the advantage of feamen, is fure to meet 

 with their highcft difapprobation. Both portable foup, and 

 four krout were, at firft, condemned as fluff unfit for hu- 

 man beings. Few commanders have introduced into their 

 fhips more novelties, as ufcful varieties of food and drink, 

 than I have done. Indeed few commanders have had the 

 fame opportunities of trying fuch experiments, or been 

 driven to the fame neccfllty of trying them. It has, how- 

 ever, been, in a great meafure, owing to various little devi- 

 ations from eftabliflied pratftice, that I have been able to pre- 

 ferve my people, generally fpeaking, from that dreadful 

 diftemper, the fcurvy, which has perhaps deftroyed more of 

 our fiulors, in their peaceful voyages, than have fallen by 

 the enemy in military expeditions, 



giKiday 13. I kept at fome diftance from the coafl, till the 13th, when 

 I. flood in again, fix leagues farther to windward than we had 

 as yet reached ; and, after having fome trade with the na- 

 tives who vifited us, returned to fea. I fliould have got near 



Tucfdiy 15. the fliore again on the Jith, for a fupply of fruit or roots, 

 biit the wind happening to be at South Eaft by South, and 

 South South Eaft, 1 thouglit this a good time to ftretch to 

 the Eaftward, in order to get round, or, at leaft, to get a 

 iight of the South Eaft end of the ifland. The wind conti- 



z niicd 



