Lord Colville wrote that frozen (fresh) beef from Boston kept
his men healthy when in port, "but the scurvy never fails to pull us down
in great numbers upon our going to sea in spring."

Having had such experiences Cook appears to have made up his mind to
fight the dreadful scourge from the very first, and though the popular
idea is that he only turned his mind to it during the second voyage, it
is very evident that on the Endeavour he fought it successfully, and it
is most probable would have laid claim to victory had it not been for the
serious losses incurred through the malarial fever and its usual
companion, dysentery, contracted at Batavia. In proof of this reference
may be made to the report of Mr. Perry, surgeon's mate, and, after Mr.
Monkhouse's death, surgeon on board. He states they rounded the Horn with
the crew "as free from scurvy as on our sailing from Plymouth," i.e.
after five months. He reports FOR THE WHOLE OF THE VOYAGE, FIVE CASES OF
SCURVY, "three in Port at New Holland, and two while on the Coast of New
Zealand, not a man more suffered any inconvenience from this distemper."
He was one of the five cases, but, at the same time, it must not be
understood that no others developed symptoms of scurvy, only they were so
closely watched and at once subjected to such treatment that the disease
was not able to gain the upper hand. Cook wrote to the Secretary to the
Admiralty immediately after his arrival at Batavia, saying, "I have not
lost one man from sickness." He means here, as elsewhere in his Journals,
"sickness" to be taken as scurvy, and at that time he had lost only seven
men: two of Mr. Banks's servants from exposure; three men drowned; Mr.
Buchan, a fit, probably apoplectic; and one man, alcoholic poisoning. He
arrived at home with a total loss of forty-one, including Tupia and his
boy; thirty-two of these deaths were from fever and dysentery, and 2, Mr.
Hicks and Sutherland, from consumption.

TREATMENT OF SCURVY.

The chief anti-scorbutics used on the Endeavour, according to Mr. Perry's
report, were:

"Sour Kraut, Mustard, Vinegar, Wheat (whole), Inspissated Orange and
Lemon juice, Saloup, Portable Soup, Sugar, Molasses, Vegetables (at all
times when they could possibly be got), were some in constant, others in
occasional use."

Saloup was a decoction made from the Orchis mascula root, a common meadow
plant, or else from Sassafras, and was at one time sold in the streets as
a drink befo