r ballast or winding-sheet; so that numbers of human
carcases floated in the harbour, until they were devoured by sharks
and carrion crows, which afforded no agreeable spectacle to those who
survived. At the same time the wet season began, during which a deluge
of rain falls, from the rising to the setting sun, without intermission,
and that no sooner ceases than it begins to thunder, and lighten with
such continued flashing, that one can see to read a very small print by
the illumination.

CHAPTER XXXIV

An epidemic Fever rages among us--we abandon our Conquests--I am seized
with Distemper--write a Petition to the Captain, which is rejected--I am
in danger of Suffocation through the Malice of Crampley, and relieved
by a Serjeant--my Fever increases--the Chaplain wants to confess
me--I obtain a favourable Crisis-Morgan's Affection for me proved--the
Behaviour of Mackshane and Crampley towards me--Captain Oakum is removed
into another Ship with his beloved Doctor--our new Captain described--An
Adventure of Morgan

The change of the atmosphere, occasioned by this phenomenon, conspired,
with the stench that surrounded us, the heat of the climate, our own
constitutions, impoverished by bad provisions, and our despair, to
introduce the bilious fever among us, which raged with such violence,
that three-fourths of those whom it invaded died in a deplorable manner;
the colour of their skin being, by the extreme putrefaction of the
juices, changed into that of soot.

Our conductors, finding things in this situation, perceived it was high
to relinquish our conquests, and this we did, after having rendered
their artillery useless, and blown up their walls with gunpowder. Just
as we sailed from Bocca Chica, on our return to Jamaica, I found myself
threatened with the symptoms of this terrible distemper; and knowing
very well that I stood no chance for my life, if I should be obliged
to be in the cockpit, which by this time was grown intolerable, even to
people in health, by reason of the heat and unwholesome smell of decayed
provision, I wrote a petition to the captain, representing my case, and
humbly imploring his permission to be among the soldiers in the middle
deck, for the benefit of the air: but I might have spared myself the
trouble; for this humane commander refused my request, and ordered me
to continue in the place allotted for the surgeon's mates, or else be
contented to be in the hospital, which, by the by, w