native element. To add to our distresses, some
ten barrels of ship's paint, or colour, got loose from their lashings,
and rolled from side to side, and from head to stern, carrying
everything before them by their enormous weight. From our inability to
stop them in their destructive progress, they one and all were staved
in, and the gun-deck soon became one mass of colours, in which lay the
dead and the dying, both white and black.

It would be difficult for the reader to picture to himself a set of men
more deplorably situated that we now were; but our distresses were not
yet at their height: for, as though our miseries still required
aggravation, the scurvy broke out among us in a most frightful manner.
Scarcely a single individual on board escaped this melancholy disorder,
and the swollen legs, and gums protruding beyond the lips, attested the
malignancy of the visitation. The dying were burying the dead, and the
features of all on board wore the garb of mourning.

Every assistance and attention that humanity or generosity could
dictate, was freely and liberally bestowed by the officers on board, who
cheerfully gave up their fresh meat and many other comforts, for the
benefit of the distressed; but the pestilence baffled the aid of
medicine and the skill of the medical attendants. My poor legs were as
big as drums; my gums swollen to an enormous size; my tongue too big for
my mouth; and all I could eat was raw potatoes and vinegar. But my kind
and affectionate officers sometimes brought me some tea and coffee, at
which the languid eye would brighten, and the tear of gratitude would
intuitively fall, in spite of my efforts to repress what was thought
unmanly. Our spirits were so subdued by suffering, and our frames so
much reduced and emaciated, that I have seen poor men weep bitterly,
they knew not why. Thus passed the time; men dying in dozens, and, ere
their blood was cold, hurled into the briny deep, there to become a prey
to sharks. It was a dreadful sight to see the bodies of our comrades the
bone of disputation with these voracious natives of the dreary deep; and
the reflection that such might soon be our own fate would crush our best
feelings, and with horror drive the eye from such a sight. Our
muster-rolls were dreadfully thinned: indeed, almost every fourth man
amongst the Europeans, and more than two-thirds of the natives, had
fallen victims to the diseases on board; and it was by the mercy of
Providence