,12 JAMAICA. 



duceJ from twelve to three thoufand, more by licknefs than in 

 their eiv'^apements with the Spaniards. To add to the misfortune 

 of thofe who returned, they were encamped at Greenwich ; and 

 the mortality was increafed, as well by the unwholefomenefs of 

 that fpot, as by the rains which fell, and to which the men were 

 inevitably expofed. The malady was foon communicated to the 

 town of Kingfton, where it committed vaft havock. A merchant, 

 who was here at the time, affured me, that, having dined with an 

 intimate acquaintance one day, and left him in the evening in 

 feeming perfe£t health, he was fummoned the very next day to at- 

 tend his friend's funeral. He accordingly went, with five others, 

 as a bearer ; and in a few days he was left the only furvivor of the 

 whole company, the other five having caught infection from the 

 corpfe, as they accompanied it to the burial-place. He imputed 

 his efcape to the precaution he took of chewing tobacco, and car- 

 rying fome in his hand, which he frequently applied to his nofe. 

 It would be a forrowful talk to enumerate the many fimilar cataftro- 

 phes which have befallen this town by the importation of ma- 

 lignant fevers from Porto Bello, Carthagena, the coaft of Guiney, 

 and the Havannah ; not omitting the gaol -fever from England: all 

 of which in their turns have at various periods raged with a fury 

 that threatened to depopulate it. It may be more to the purpofe 

 (fince the town, all circumftances confidered, does not appear to be 

 locally unhealthy) to fuggeft fome means of guarding it againft 

 the invafion of thefe exotic difeafes ; fo that, when they happen on 

 board any of the fliips that arrive here, the infeftion may be de- 

 barred from extending into the town. 



It would probably be one means of preferving the lives of our 

 feamen, if the fliips, intended for Porto Bello, were difpatched at 

 thofe times of the year when the endcmia leaft prevails there. 

 Thefe times are the months of December, January, February, 

 and March. But, when they are unfortunately feized with thele 

 malignant fevers, there are no remedies which promife fo fpeedy 

 and effedual relief as medicines of the antimonial clafs, and a re- 

 moval as foon as poflible into a better air. In the year 1769, his 

 majefty's fhip Levant being at Porto Bello, the crew were attacked 

 with a malign^int, petechial fever ; but, out of feventy men who 



were 



