uavas, and paupas in great abundance; but we found no
water-melons, scurvy-grass, or sorrel.

[Footnote 42: See a particular description of the bread-fruit, in the
8th chapter of Lieut. Cook's voyage.]

Notwithstanding the fatigue and distress that we had endured, and the
various climates we had passed through, neither of the ships had yet
lost a single man since their sailing from England; but while we lay
here two died of fevers, a disease with which many were seized, though
we all recovered very fast from the scurvy. I am indeed of opinion that
this is one of the most unhealthy spots in the world, at least during
the season in which we were here. The rains were violent, and almost
incessant, and the heat was so great as to threaten us with suffocation.
The thermometer, which was kept on board the ship, generally stood at
eighty-six, which is but nine degrees less than the heat of the blood at
the heart; and if it had been on shore it would have risen much higher.
I had been upon the coast of Guinea, in the West Indies, and upon the
island of Saint Thomas, which is under the Line, but I had never felt
any such heat as I felt here. Besides the inconvenience which we
suffered from the weather, we were incessantly tormented by the flies in
the day, and by the musquitos in the night. The island also swarms with
centipedes and scorpions, and a large black ant, scarcely inferior to
either in the malignity of its bite. Besides these, there were venomous
insects without number, altogether unknown to us, by which many of us
suffered so severely, that we were afraid to lie down in our beds; nor
were those on board in a much better situation than those on shore, for
great numbers of these creatures being carried into the ship with the
wood, they took possession of every birth, and left the poor seamen no
place of rest either below or upon the deck.

As soon as we were settled in our new habitations, I sent out parties to
discover the haunts of the cattle, some of which were found, but at a
great distance from the tents, and the beasts were so shy that it was
very difficult to get a shot at them. Some of the parties which, when
their haunts had been discovered, were sent out to kill them, were
absent three days and nights before they could succeed; and when a
bullock had been dragged seven or eight miles through such woods and
lawns as have just been described, to the tents, it was generally full
of flyblows, and stunk so as to