222 Voyage to the Western Coast of Africa. 



many places. I sent for the surgeon, and pointed it out to him, 

 and he agreed with me, that there was no doubt this canvass had 

 been used in some other ship for laying the sick or wounded men in, 

 and that the matter and blood had been allowed to become putrid. 

 It was now quite evident to us what was the cause of the people 

 having been seized with fever while working at the canvass, and 

 I immediately ordered the worst to be cut out and thrown over- 

 board, and the rest to be well scoured with hot salt water and 

 sand. Every man who was employed on this canvass was 

 taken unwell, and some had the fever very severely, with a yel- 

 low effusion over the body. After the canvass was scrubbed, the 

 people worked on it without any injurious effects ; but had this 

 canvass been made into wind sails without the blood and putrid 

 matter being observed, it might have spread contagion through the 

 whole ship, without a possibility of detecting the cause of it *. 



During this period, the barometer varied only from 30 to 30 j\, 

 the thermometer from 70° to 79°. 



Lat. 16° 54' — A part of the next seven days, from the 8th to 

 the 15th December, we still remained in Praya Bay, watering 

 the ship. The same precautions were still employed, and the 

 same unremitting attention observed in keeping the decks clean 

 and dry with stoves. On the llth^ departed this life Thomas 

 Connor, seaman. He was one of those who had been working 

 on the old canvass, and had caught the yellow fever in conse- 

 quence. He had previously been in a weak state of health. On 

 the day we crossed the Tropic, he had got drunk and slept in his 

 wet clothes in the night air. The sick-list now amounts to eight, 

 three of which consist only of hurts and accidental injuries. I 

 have not been giving the people their usual allowance of sugar 

 and lime-juice lately, as they have abundance of oranges and 

 other fruit from the shore ; and I am desirous of saving as much 

 as possible for our homeward voyage, or when we are using much 

 of salt provisions. 



The weather being fine and moderate, I took the opportunity 

 of bringing all the stores from below upon the quarter-deck, in 

 order to air them, and clean the rooms thoroughly where they 



" I mentioned this case some years ago to Dr Trotter, who has taken notice 

 of it in his " Medicina Nautica," an excellent work on " the diseases of sea- 

 men," vol. iii. 26?. 



