t of Spain, he returned to England, and attempted to get reinstated
in the British Navy, and has since published a narration of his
adventures, in which he complains of the injustice that had been done him
and strongly disavows his ever being in the Spanish service. But as the
change of his religion and his offering himself to the Court of Spain
(though not accepted) are matters, which he is conscious, are capable of
being incontestably proved, on these two heads he has been entirely
silent. And now, after this account of the catastrophe of the Wager, I
shall again resume the thread of our own story.

CHAPTER 14.
THE LOSSES FROM SCURVY--STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE SQUADRON.

EXTRAORDINARY MORTALITY.

Our people by the beginning of September were so far recovered of the
scurvy that there was little danger of burying any more at present; and
therefore I shall now sum up the total of our loss since our departure
from England, the better to convey some idea of our past sufferings and
of our present strength. We had buried on board the Centurion since our
leaving St. Helens 292, and had now remaining on board 214. This will
doubtless appear a most extraordinary mortality; but yet on board the
Gloucester it had been much greater, for out of a much smaller crew than
ours they had buried the same number, and had only eighty-two remaining
alive. It might be expected that on board the Trial the slaughter would
have been the most terrible, as her decks were almost constantly
knee-deep in water; but it happened otherwise, for she escaped more
favourably than the rest, since she only buried forty-two, and had now
thirty-nine remaining alive. The havoc of this disease had fallen still
severer on the invalids and marines than on the sailors; for on board the
Centurion, out of fifty invalids and seventy-nine marines there remained
only four invalids, including officers, and eleven marines; and on board
the Gloucester every invalid perished, and out of forty-eight marines
only two escaped. From this account it appears that the three ships
together departed from England with 961 men on board, of whom 626 were
dead before this time; so that the whole of our remaining crews, which
were now to be distributed among three ships, amounted to no more than
335 men and boys, a number greatly insufficient for manning the Centurion
alone, and barely capable of navigating all the three with the utmost
exertion of their strength and vigour. This p