THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
231 
voyage ; but the firft who could be faid, from his age, and 1779. 
the conftitutional habits of his body, to have had, on our t 
Petting out, an equal chance with the reft of his comrades : 
Watman, w r e fuppofed to be about lixty years of age; and 
Roberts, and Mr. Anderfon, from the decay which had 
evidently commenced before we left England, could not* 
in all probability, under any circumftances, have lived a 
greater length of time than they did. 
I have already mentioned, that Captain Clerke’s health 
continued daily to decline, notwithftanding the falutary 
change of diet which the country of Kamtfchatka afforded 
him. The prieft of Paratounca, as foon as he heard of the 
infirm ftate he was in, fupplied him every day with bread, 
milk, frefn butter, and fowls, though his houfe was lix- 
teen miles from the harbour where we lay. 
On our firft arrival, we found the Ruffian hofpital, which 
is near the town of St. Peter and St. Paul, in a condition truly 
deplorable. All the foldiers were, more or lefs, affedfed by 
the fcurvy, and a great many in the laft ftage of that dis¬ 
order. The reft of the Ruffian inhabitants were alfo in the 
fame condition; and we particularly remarked, that our 
friend the Serjeant, by making too free with the fpirits we 
gave him, had brought on himfelf, in the courfe of a few 
days, fome of the moft alarming fymptoms of that malady. 
In this lamentable ftate, Captain Clerke put them all under 
the care of our furgeons, and ordered a fupply of four-krout, 
and malt, for wort, to be furnifhed for their ufe. It was 
aftoniffiing to obferve the alteration in the figures of al- 
moft every perfon we met on our return from Bolcheretfk; 
and I was informed, by our furgeons, that they attributed 
their fpeedy recovery principally to the effedts of the fweet- 
wort. 
On 
