535 
THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
1778. 
December. 
they took on our firft arrival in King George’s Sound, not to 
drink the fpruce-beer made there. But, whether from a 
confideration that it was not the firft time of their being re¬ 
quired to ufe that liquor, or from lbme other reafon, they 
did not attempt to carry their purpofe into a£tual execu¬ 
tion ; and I had never heard of it till now, when they renew¬ 
ed their ignorant oppofition to my beft endeavours to ferve 
them. Every innovation whatever, on board a fhip, though 
ever fo much to the advantage of feamen, is fure to meet 
with their higheft difapprobation. Both portable foup, and 
four krout, were, at firft, condemned as fluff unfit for hu¬ 
man beings. Few commanders have introduced into their 
fhips more novelties, as ufeful varieties of food and drink, 
than I have done. Indeed few commanders have had the 
fame opportunities of trying fuch experiments, or been 
driven to the fame neceflity of trying them. It has, how¬ 
ever, been, in a great meafure, owing to various little devi¬ 
ations from eftablifhed practice, that I have been able to 
preferve my people, generally {peaking, from that dreadful 
diftemper, the fcurvy, which has perhaps deftroyed more of 
our failors, in their peaceful voyages, than have fallen by 
the enemy in military expeditions. 
I kept at fome diftance from the coaft, till the 13th, when Sunday x 3 . 
I ftood in again, fix leagues farther to windward than we 
had as yet reached; and, after having fome trade with the 
natives who vifited us, returned to fea. I fhould have got 
near the fhore again on the 15th, for a fupply of fruit or Tuefday 15 
roots, but the wind happening to be at South Eaft by South, 
and South South Eaft, I thought this a good time to ftretch 
to the Eaftward, in order to get round, or, at leaft, to get a 
fight of the South Eaft end of the ifland. The wind conti¬ 
nued at South Eaft by South, raoft part of the 16th. It was Wednef. 16, 
3 variable 
