OUTBREAK OF SCURVY*--DANGER OF SHIPWRECK.
(*Note. 'Scurvy.' The nature of the disease and the proper method of
treatment were not fully understood in Anson's day. It is caused by
improper diet and particularly by the want of fresh vegetables. Lemon and
lime juice are the best protectives against it and they were made an
essential element in nautical diet in 1795. The disease which used to
cause dreadful mortality on long voyages has since that time gradually
disappeared and is now very rarely met with.)
THE PACIFIC.
Soon after our passing Straits le Maire the scurvy began to make its
appearance amongst us; and our long continuance at sea, the fatigue we
underwent, and the various disappointments we met with, had occasion its
spreading to such a degree, that at the latter end of April there were
but few on board who were not in some degree afflicted with it; and in
that month no less than forty-three died of it on board the Centurion.
But though we thought that the distemper had then risen to an
extraordinary height, and were willing to hope that as we advanced to the
northward its malignant would abate, yet we found, on the contrary, that
in the month of May we lost nearly double that number. And as we did not
get to land till the middle of June, the mortality went on increasing,
and the disease extended itself so prodigiously that after the loss of
above two hundred men we could not at last muster more than six foremast
men in a watch capable of duty.
This disease, so frequently attending all long voyages, and so
particularly destructive to us, is usually attended with a strange
dejection of the spirits, and with shiverings, tremblings, and a
disposition to be seized with the most dreadful terrors on the slightest
accident. Indeed, it was most remarkable, in all our reiterated
experience of this malady, that whatever discouraged our people, or at
any time damped their hopes, never failed to add new vigour to the
distemper, for it usually killed those who were in the last stage of it,
and confined those to their hammocks who were before capable of some kind
of duty; so that it seemed as if alacrity of mind and sanguine thoughts
were no contemptible preservatives from its fatal malignity.
A most extraordinary circumstance, and what would be scarcely credible
upon any single evidence, is, that the scars of wounds which had been for
many years healed were forced open again by this virulent distemper. Of
this there was a remarkable instance in one of the invalids on board the
Centurion, who had been wounded above fifty years before at the battle of
the Boyne;* for though he was cured soon after, and had continued well
for a great number of years past, yet, on his being attacked by the
scurvy, his wounds, in the progress of his disease, broke out afresh, and
appeared as if they had never been healed. Nay, what is still more
astonishing, the callous of a broken bone, which had been completely
formed for a long time, was found to be hereby dissolved, and the
fracture seemed as if it had never been consolidated. Indeed, the effects
of this disease were in almost every instance wonderful; for many of our
people, though confined to their hammocks, appeared to have no
inconsiderable share of health, for they ate and drank heartily, were
cheerful, and talked with much seeming vigour, and with a loud, strong
tone of voice; and yet on their being the least moved, though it was only
from one part of the ship to the other, and that in their hammocks, they
have immediately expired; and others who have confided in their seeming
strength, and have resolved to get out of their hammocks, have died
before they could well reach the deck. And it was no uncommon thing for
those who were able to walk the deck, and to do some kind of duty, to
drop down dead in an instant, on any endeavours to act with their utmost
vigour, many of our people having perished in this manner during the
course of this voyage.
(*Note. William III defeated James II and his army of Irish and French
troops July 12th, 1690.)
THE ISLAND OF SOCORO.
With this terrible disease we struggled the greatest part of the time of
our beating round Cape Horn. We entertained hopes that when we should
have once secured our passage round the Cape, we should put a period to
this and all the other evils which had so constantly pursued us. But it
was our misfortune to find that the Pacific Ocean was to us less
hospitable than the turbulent neighbourhood of Tierra del Fuego and Cape
Horn; for being arrived, on the 8th of May, off the island of Socoro,
which was the first rendezvous appointed for the squadron, and where we
hoped to have met with some of our companions, we cruised for them in
that station several days. And here we were not only disappointed in our
hopes of being joined by our friends, and thereby induced to favour the
gloomy suggestions of their having all perished, but we were likewise
perpetually alarmed with the fears of being driven on shore upon this
coast, which appeared too craggy and irregular to give us the least hopes
that in such a case any of us could possibly escape immediate
destruction. For the land had indeed a most tremendous aspect; the most
distant part of it, and which appeared far within the country, being the
mountains usually called the Andes or Cordilleras, was extremely high,
and covered with snow; and the coast itself seemed quite rocky and
barren, and the water's edge skirted with precipices. As we were utterly
ignorant of the coast, had we been driven ashore by the western winds,
which blew almost constantly there, we did not expect to have avoided the
loss of our ship and of our lives.
And this continued peril, which lasted for about a fortnight, was greatly
aggravated by the difficulties we found in working the ship; as the
scurvy had by this time destroyed so great a part of our hands, and had
in some degree affected almost the whole crew. Nor did we, as we hoped,
find the winds less violent as we advanced to the northward; for we had
often prodigious squalls, which split our sails, greatly damaged our
rigging, and endangered our masts.