442 cook's voyage to oct. 



which our people had not been used to consider 

 as food for men, and being sometimes exceedingly 

 nauseous, it required the joint aid of persuasion, 

 authority, and example to conquer their prejudices 

 and disgusts. 



The preventives we principally relied on were 

 sour krout and portable soup. As to the anti- 

 scorbutic remedies, with which we were amply sup- 

 plied, we had no opportunity of trying their effects, 

 as there did not appear the slightest symptoms of 

 the scurvy, in either ship, during the whole voyage. 

 Our malt and hops had also been kept as a resource, 

 in case of actual sickness, and on examination at 

 the Cape of Good Hope, were found entirely spoiled. 

 About the same time, were opened some casks of 

 biscuit, flour, malt, peas, oatmeal, and grots, 

 which, by way of experiment, had been put up in 

 small casks, lined with tinfrail, and found all, except 

 the peas, in a much better state than could have 

 been expected, in the usual manner of package. 



I cannot neglect this opportunity of recommending 

 to the consideration of government, the necessity 

 of allowing a sufficient quantity of Peruvian bark, 

 to such of his majesty's ships as may be exposed 

 to the influence of unwholesome climates. It hap- 

 pened very fortunately in the Discovery, that only 

 one of the men that had fevers in the Straits of 

 Sunda, stood in need of this medicine, as he alone 

 consumed the whole quantity usually carried out 

 by surgeons, in such vessels as ours. Had more 

 been affected in the same manner, they would 

 probably all have perished, from the want of the 

 only remedy capable of affording them effectual 

 relief. 



Another circumstance attending this voyage, 

 which, if we consider its duration, and the nature of 

 the service in which we were engaged, will appear 

 scarcely less singular than the extraordinary health- 



