d to
cleanliness, as well in the ship as amongst the people, too great
attention cannot be paid; the least neglect occasions a putrid and
disagreeable smell below, which nothing but fires will remove.

Proper attention was paid to the ship's coppers, so that they were kept
constantly clean.

The fat which boiled out of the salt beef and pork, I never suffered to
be given to the people; being of opinion that it promotes the scurvy.

I was careful to take in water wherever it was to be got, even though we
did not want it, because I look upon fresh water from the shore to be
more wholesome than that which has been kept some time on board a ship.
Of this essential article we were never at an allowance, but had always
plenty for every necessary purpose. Navigators in general cannot,
indeed, expect, nor would they wish to meet with such advantages in this
respect, as fell to my lot. The nature of our voyage carried us into
very high latitudes. But the hardships and dangers inseparable from that
situation, were in some degree compensated by the singular felicity we
enjoyed, of extracting inexhaustible supplies of fresh water from an
ocean strewed with ice.

We came to few places, where either the art of man, or the bounty of
nature, had not provided some sort of refreshment or other, either in
the animal or vegetable way. It was my first care to procure whatever of
any kind could be met with, by every means in my power; and to oblige
our people to make use thereof, both by my example and authority; but
the benefits arising from refreshments of any kind soon became so
obvious, that I had little occasion, to recommend the one, or to exert
the other.

It doth not become me to say how far the principal objects of our voyage
have been obtained. Though it hath not abounded with remarkable events,
nor been diversified by sudden transitions of fortune; though my
relation of it has been more employed in tracing our course by sea, than
in recording our operations on shore; this, perhaps, is a circumstance
from which the curious reader may infer, that the purposes for which we
were sent into the Southern Hemisphere, were diligently and effectually
pursued. Had we found out a continent there, we might have been better
enabled to gratify curiosity; but we hope our not having found it, after
all our persevering researches, will leave less room for future
speculation about unknown worlds remaining to be explored.

But, whatever may be