by
yellow fever--Proceed to Cape St. Nicholas mole--Great mortality
among the officers.

On the fourth evening after our arrival it was thought necessary to
despatch two armed boats to Kingston to procure seamen either by entering
or impressing them. Finding there was no chance of the first, we entered
on the unpleasant duty of the last. We boarded several of the vessels in
the harbour, but found only the mates and young boys, the seamen having on
seeing our boats gone on shore. We had information of three houses
notorious for harbouring seamen. To the first of these we repaired, where,
after strictly searching the premises, we were unsuccessful. A sailor we
had recently impressed, and who the day after entered, informed us that it
was the fashion for the men of the West Indian and Guinea ships, when on
shore, to disguise themselves, sometimes as American women, at other times
as tradesmen, such as coopers, shoemakers, etc.

On entering the second house, the scene was laughably ridiculous. At a
table sat three slovenly-dressed females with old, coarse stockings in
their hands, which they appeared to have been mending, and on the table
near them were some children's shirts, with needles, thread and a small
basket. Not far distant from them was a cradle of a large size,
half-covered by a thick mosquito net. The bed in the room had also a net,
and in it was lying a person in the last stage of illness. Another female,
who appeared to be a nurse, was near the head of the bed, persuading the
invalid to take the contents of a bottle of some red mixture. At the foot
of the bed stood a man dressed in the uniform of the town militia, who
acquainted us that the woman in bed was his wife in the last stage of
consumption; that in consequence he had sent for all her friends to take
leave of her before she died, and to attend her funeral; and that the
person dressed in black standing near him was the doctor. This last, with
a countenance full of gravity, assured the lieutenant that he did not
think his patient could live more than an hour, and begged him to examine
the house as quietly as possible, as he had another sick patient in the
next room who had arrived from the other side of the island, and from
fatigue and distress had been seized with a fever. The lieutenant, who
really was a humane man, listened to his mournful story with much
attention, and replied he was sorry to disturb a dying person.