as he was only in hospital
for ten days, being back to his duty on the 17th February. In April, when
"off the Isle of Bass, brought to and sent on board the cutter a petty
officer and five men with arms, provisions, etc." This extract from the
log records Cook's first independent command; the cutter was one of two
hired vessels which had joined the squadron the previous day under
convoy, and the armed party was probably put on board as a precaution
against privateers who were at that time pretty busy on the French coast.
Cook took her into Plymouth Sound, and he and his five men went on board
the St. Albans, and in her rejoined his own ship on the 2nd May, and then
returned to Plymouth on the 4th June. Pallisser, in reporting his arrival
to the Secretary of the Admiralty, said that he had:

"put ashore to the hospital 130 sick men, most of which are extremely
ill: buried in the last month twenty-two. The surgeon and four men died
yesterday, and the surgeon's two mates are extremely ill: have
thirty-five men absent in prizes and thirty-five short of complement, so
that we are now in a very weak condition."

This sickness and mortality was attributed to the absolute want of proper
clothing, many of the men having come on board with only what they stood
in and some in rags, so the Captain asked for permission to issue an
extra supply of slops, a request that was immediately granted.

DUC D'AQUITAINE.

After another short cruise the Eagle returned to Plymouth with Pallisser
very ill with fever. He obtained sick leave, and Captain Proby was
ordered to take command, but was detained so long in the Downs by
contrary winds that Pallisser, who had heard a rumour of a French
squadron having been seen in the Channel, shook off his fever and resumed
the command of his ship, which was almost ready for sea. Every part of
the Channel mentioned in the rumour was carefully searched, but no signs
of the enemy were seen, and the author of the report, a Swede, was
detained in Portsmouth for some months.

On the 19th November the Eagle's crew was increased to 420 men, and she
was kept cruising throughout the winter, and on the 4th January 1757 she
was caught in a heavy gale off the Isle of Wight, where she had most of
her sails blown out of her. On 25th May she sailed from Plymouth Sound in
company with H.M.S. Medway, and a day or two afterwards they fell in with
and chased a French East Indiaman, the Duc d'Aquitaine, in rather heavy