FIRST VOYAGE 99 



great injury, and a part of three of them was thinner than 

 the sole of a shoe. 



Messrs. Solander and Banks were now so worn down by 

 their disorders, that the physician, who attended them, 

 recommended the country air, as the only thing that could 

 possibly restore them to the wishes of their friends. In 

 consequence of this advice, they hired a country house of 

 the master of the hotel, who engaged to supply them with 

 slaves, and to furnish their table ; but as they had suffi- 

 ciently experienced the worthlessness of these slaves, they 

 bought two Malay women, who soon became excellent 

 nurses, from that tenderness of nature which does so much 

 honour to the sex. While these gentlemen were taking 

 measures for the recovery of their health, poor Tupia 

 fell a victim to the ravages of his disorder, and to his grief 

 for the deceased Tayota : they were both buried in the 

 island of Edam. 



By this time not above ten men out of the whole ship's 

 crew were able to do duty, and these were employed in 

 getting the water and stores aboard, and in putting up 

 the rigging.* 



Captain Cook was now taken ill, and Mr. Sporing and a 

 sailor, who attended Messrs. Banks and Solander, at their 

 country-house, were attacked with intermitting fevers ; but 

 those two gentlemen grew something better, though their 

 recovery was very slow. Their house was situated on the 

 borders of a rivulet, which, of course, assisted the circula- 

 tion of the air, and it was likewise open to the sea breeze. 



In the night of the 25th, there fell such a shower of rain, 

 for the space of four hours, as even our voyagers had scarce 

 ever remembered. The water poured through every part 

 of Mr. Banks's house ; and the lower apartments admitted 

 a stream sufficient to have turned a mill. As this gentle- 

 man was now greatly restored in health, he went to Batavia 

 the following day, and was surprised to see that the inhabi- 

 tants had hung out their bedding to dry. The westerly 

 monsoon set in about the 26th of this month ; it blows in 



* " The mortality of the Europeans in Batavia is far beyond what 

 is known in any other settlement, exceeding those in the most fatal 

 of the West India Islands. We had indeed in our own instance a 

 fatal proof of the malignancy of the climate, notwithstanding every 

 precaution that was taken for preserving the health of the crew. A 

 dysentery, accompanied with typhus fever, was here brought on 

 board, which continued with more or less severity during the remain- 

 ing part of the voyage. We had not lost a man on our arrival at 

 this place, but from hence to the end of the voyage there died not 

 fewer than fifty men." Barrow's Voyage to Cochinchina, in H.M.S. 

 Lion. P. 179. 



