276 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



shore from the Centurion alone, of whom 28 soon died, 

 and the number of sick increased to 96. Although this 

 was nothing compared to what took place afterward^ it 

 is nevertheless worthy of remark, for as yet they had 

 suffered no privations or unusual hardships, except from 

 contrary winds. The causes of disease lay entirely with- 

 in themselves. 



879. After a stormy and tedious navigation of three 

 months around Cape Horn, scurvy carried off 43 more in 

 the month of April, and double that number in May, 1741. 

 Those who remained alive now became more dispirited 

 and melancholy than ever ; which " general dejection 

 added to the virulence of the disease, and the mortality 

 increased to a frightful degree" 



880. On the 9th of June, when in sight of Juan Fer- 

 nandez, the debility of the people was so great, that, 200 

 being already dead, the lieutenant could muster only two 

 quartermasters, and six foremast-men able for duty in the 

 middle watch ; so that, had it not been for the assistance 

 of the officers, servants, &c., they would have been un- 

 able to reach "the island to such a condition was a crew 

 of 400 men reduced in the course of a few months. 

 Within a year, out of upward of 1200 men, comprising 

 the crews of the squadron, who had sailed from England, 

 335 only remained. 



881. Spanish Squadron. The fate of the Spanish 

 squadron which sailed nearly at the same time, was still 

 more horrible. The Esperanza, of 50 guns, lost 392 

 out of 450 men, and the other ships almost as large a 

 proportion. It is true that in doubling Cape Horn, they 

 encountered the severest weather and the greatest priva- 

 tions, and that their deplorable fate was aggravated by 

 these causes. But when we look to the conduct of later 

 navigators, in circumstances equally trying, it is impossi- 

 ble to resist the gratifying conviction that mortality like 

 this forms no part of the designs of a beneficent Provi- 

 dence, and that, for the best of purposes, our safety is 



laced, to a great extent, within the limits of our own 



882. The late memorable expeditions of Parry, of 

 Franklin, and more especially, of Ross, who, with few 

 resources, spent upward of four years in the desolate 



