we
should be speedily cheered with the moderate gales, the smooth water, and
the temperate air, for which that tract of the globe has been so
renowned. And under the influence of these pleasing circumstances we
hoped to experience some kind of compensation for the complicated
miseries which had so constantly attended us for the last eight weeks.
But here we were again disappointed; for in the succeeding month of May
our sufferings rose to a much higher pitch than they had ever yet done,
whether we consider the violence of the storms, the shattering of our
sails and rigging, or the diminishing and weakening of our crew by deaths
and sickness, and the probable prospect of our total destruction.

(*Note. Peace-making. So named by Magellan from the fine weather he
experienced there in 1520 and 1521. He was the first European to enter
that ocean. The name was scarcely deserved.)

CHAPTER 7.
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
particular