THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 



291 



and getting in eight tons of fhingle ballaft. We alfo got up »779- 

 two of our guns, that had been flowed in the fore-hold, and - -•-.. _j 

 mounted them on the deck, being now about to vifit na- 

 tions, our reception amongft whom might a good deal de- 

 pend on the refpectability of our appearance. 



The Refolution hauled on fhore on the 8th, to repair fome Wednef. $, 

 damages, which fhe had alfo received among the ice, in her 

 cutwater ; and our carpenters, in their turn, were fent to 

 her afliftance. 



About this time we began to brew a flrong decoction of 

 a fpecies of dwarf-pine that grows here in great abun- 

 dance, thinking that it might hereafter be ufeful in 

 making beer, and that we fhould probably be able to pro- 

 cure fugar or melafles to ferment with it at Canton. At all 

 events, I was fure it would be ferviceable as a medicine for 

 the fcurvy ; and was more particularly defirous of fupply- 

 ing mylelf with as much of it as I could procure, becaufe 

 moll of the preventatives we had brought out, were either 

 ufed, or fpoilcd by keeping. By the time we had prepared 

 a hogfhead of it, the fhip's copper was difcovered to be 

 very thin, and cracked in many places. This obliged me 

 to defift, and to give orders, that it fhould be ufed as fpa- 

 ringly, for the future, as poffible. It might, perhaps, be 

 an ufeful precaution for thofe who may hereafter be en- 

 gaged in long voyages of this kind, either to provide them- 

 felves with a fpare copper, or to fee that the copper ufually 

 furnifhed be of the ftrongeft kind. The various extra- 

 fervices, in which it will be found neceffary to employ them, 

 and efpecially the important one of making antifcorbutic 

 decoctions, feem abfolutely to require fome fuch provifion ; 

 and I mould rather recommend the former on account 



Pp 2 of 



