as three degrees
more offensive and more suffocating than our own berth below. Another,
in my condition, perhaps, would have submitted to his fate, and died
in a pet; but I could not brook the thought of perishing so pitifully,
after I had weathered so many gales of hard fortune: I therefore,
without minding Oakum's injunction, prevailed upon the soldiers (whose
good-will I had acquired) to admit my hammock among them; and actually
congratulated myself upon my comfortable situation; which Crampley no
sooner understood, than he signified to the captain my contempt of his
orders, and was invested with power to turn me down again into my proper
habitation.

This barbarous piece of revenge incensed me so much against the author,
that I vowed, with bitter imprecations, to call him to a severe account,
if ever it should be in my power; and the agitation of my spirits
increased my fever to a violent degree. While I lay gasping for breath
in this infernal abode, I was visited by a sergeant, the bones of whose
nose I had reduced and set to rights, after they had been demolished
by a splinter during our last engagement; he, being informed of my
condition, offered me the use of his berth in the middle deck, which was
enclosed with canvas, and well aired by a port-hole that remained
open within it. I embraced this proposal with joy, and was immediately
conducted to the place, where I was treated, while my illness lasted,
with the utmost tenderness and care by this grateful halberdier, who had
no other bed for himself than a hencoop during the whole passage. Here
I lay and enjoyed the breeze, notwithstanding which my malady gained
ground, and at length my life was despaired of, though I never lost
hopes of recovery, even when I had the mortification to see, from my
cabin-window, six or seven thrown overboard every day, who died of the
same distemper. This confidence, I am persuaded, conduced a great
deal to the preservation of my life, especially when joined to another
resolution I took at the beginning, namely, to refuse all medicine,
which I could not help thinking co-operated with the disease, and,
instead of resisting putrefaction, promoted a total degeneracy of the
vital fluid. When my friend Morgan, therefore, brought his diaphoretic
bolases, I put them into my month, 'tis true, but without any intention
of swallowing them: and, when he went away, spit them out, and washed
my mouth with water-gruel. I seemingly complied in thi