two
lieutenants and myself, and we were recovering, though still in a very
feeble condition.

It is certain that none of our people contracted the venereal disease
here, and therefore, as they had free commerce with great numbers of the
women, there is the greatest probability that it was not then known in
the country. It was, however, found here by Captain Cook, in the
Endeavour, and as no European vessel is known to have visited this
island before Captain Cook's arrival, but the Dolphin, and the Boudeuse
and Etoil, commanded by M. Bougainville, the reproach of having
contaminated, with that dreadful pest, a race of happy people, to whom
its miseries had till then been unknown, most be due either to him or to
me, to England or to France; and I think myself happy to be able to
exculpate myself and my country beyond the possibility of doubt.

It is well known that the surgeon on board his majesty's ships keeps a
list of the persons who are sick on board, specifying their diseases,
and the times when they came under his care, and when they were
discharged. It happened that I was once at the pay-table on board a
ship, when several sailors objected to the payment of the surgeon,
alleging, that although he had discharged them from the list, and
reported them to be cured, yet their cure was incomplete. From this
time, it has been my constant practice when the surgeon reported a man
to be cured, who had been upon the sick-list, to call the man before me,
and ask him whether the report was true: If he alleged that any symptoms
of his complaint remained, I continued him upon the list; if not, I
required him, as a confirmation of the surgeon's report, to sign the
book, which was always done in my presence. A copy of the sick-list on
board the Dolphin, during this voyage, signed by every man in my
presence, when he was discharged well, in confirmation of the surgeon's
report, written in my own hand, and confirmed by my affidavit, I have
deposited in the Admiralty; by which it appears, that the last man on
board the ship, in her voyage outward, who was upon the sick-list for
the venereal disease, except one who was sent to England in the
store-ship, was discharged cured, and signed the book on the 27th of
December, 1766, near six months before our arrival at Otaheite, which
was on the 19th of June, 1767; and that the first man who was upon the
list for that disease, in our return home, was entered on the 26th of
February, 1768,