Memoir of 



201 



tomed, they were allowed only three-sixteenths of a bottle of 

 tafia.* Buscuit and salt meat were to be their daily food. "A 

 sorrowful prelude to those misfortunes/' says Peron, " which 

 afterwards overwhelmed us." 



Immediately after the ships had sailed from Timor for Van 

 Diemens Land, a voyage of two months 7 duration, abundantly 

 supplied with water, the usual ration was curtailed, notwithstand- 

 ing the remonstrances of the physicians as to the dangerous effect 

 of an inadequate supply, especially to the sick, who were then 

 numerous. Some of the poor sailors, during the tortures of thirst, 

 were induced to drink their own urine !f 



Although there was an abundance of ammunition on board of 

 the vessels, the commander, on the pretext of economy, would sel- 

 dom allow the boats' crew to be armed, and sometimes refused arms 

 to the officers and scientific men, even when the hostile disposition 

 of the natives was manifest. This prohibition of the means of 

 self-defense could admit of no justification ; for the commander 

 could not be ignorant of the sad disasters which had frequently been 

 the result of misplaced confidence in the innocence of savages. 



Captain Baudin's system of discipline was one of extreme 

 rigidity ; hence when parties were permitted to go on shore, or ex- 

 peditions were despatched on surveys, he was accustomed to pre- 

 scribe a stated time for their return, without allowance for difficul- 

 ties or accidents. To insure the fulfillment of his commands, they 

 were furnished with provisions and water sufficient only for the 



* About .a .riii and a half. 



f The following observations, in Surgeon White's Journal of a voya to Xow 



«^. Wales, are worthy of attention. 



<v Were it by any moans possible, people subject to lonir voyage* should never be . 

 put to a short allowance f water; for 1 am satisfied that a Ube^al use of it (when 



freed from the foul air, and made sweet by a machine now in use on hoard Ins 

 Majesty a navy) will tend to prevent a scorbutic habit, as much, if not m« . ■.than 



anything we are acquainted with. My own experience in the navy has convinced 

 rae, that when .scorbutic patients are restrained in the use of wi r (which I believe 



te never the case but through absolute necessity), and they have nothing to live on 



out the ships provision, all the antiseptics and antiscorbut* we know of will avail 

 v ery little in a disease so much to be guarded against, and dreaded, by seainea In 

 °ne of hi s Majesty's ships, I was liberally supplied with that powerful antiscorbutic, 

 essence of malt; Ve had. also, sour-krout; and besides these, every remedy that 

 could be compressed in the small compass of a medicine chest; yet, when necessity 



t( *ced us to a short allowance if water, although, aware of tin mm ■• i freely 



administered the essence, <vc, as a preservative, the scurvy made its ap] uancv 



with such h; ' - ■ * .i- ;x ^ ft -* 1 - ™* 1 



Rood fortune 



ser, • the mck wun as much as tney couia u»«, wu ^ «*«~— ;— ~— r~ - 



ance to the seamen. This fortunate and very seasonable supply, added to the free 

 use of the essence of malt, <ve. which I bad before strictly adhered to, made m a few 



days so sudden a change for the better in the poor fellows, who had been covered with 

 «lcers and livid blotches, that every 1 «oa« board wa urpnsed at it; and in a 

 fortnight after, when ~~ x ~ **—*«- tu^. «* 



the time we received 

 fungus as nearly to envelop 

 " lute s Jourmil, p. 34. London. 1790, 4°. 



Second Series, Vol. VIII, jf . 28.— Sept, 1849. 26 



