he most extraordinary circumstance, and which
would scarcely be credible upon any single evidence, was, that the
scars of wounds that had been healed for many years, were forced open
again by this virulent distemper. There was a remarkable instance
of this in the case of one of the invalid soldiers on board the
Centurion, who had been wounded above fifty years before, at the
battle of the Boyne; and though he was cured soon after, and had
continued well for a great many years, yet, on being attacked by the
scurvy, his wounds broke out afresh in the progress of the disease,
and appeared as if they had never been healed. What is even still more
extraordinary, the callus of a broken bone, which had been completely
formed for a long time, was dissolved in the course of this disease,
and the fracture seemed as if it had never been consolidated. The
effects, indeed, of this disease, were in almost every instance
wonderful, for many of our people, though confined to their hammocks,
appeared to have no inconsiderable share of health, as they eat and
drank heartily, were even cheerful, talking with much seeming vigour
with a loud strong voice; and yet, on being in the least moved, though
only from one part of the ship to another, and that too in their
hammocks, they would instantly expire. Others, who have confided
in their seeming strength, and have resolved to get out of their
hammocks, have died before they could well reach the decks; neither
was it uncommon for such as were able to walk the deck, and even to
perform some kind of duty, to drop down dead in an instant, on any
attempt to act with their utmost effort; many of our people having
perished in this manner in the course of our voyage.

We struggled under this terrible disease during the greatest part of
the time of our beating round Cape Horn; and though it did not then
rage with its utmost violence, yet we buried no less than forty-three
men in the month of April, as formerly observed. We were still,
however, in hopes of seeing a period to this cruel malady, and to all
the other evils which had so constantly pursued us, when we should
have secured our passage round the Cape: but we found, to our
heavy misfortune, that the (so-called) Pacific Ocean was to us less
hospitable even than the turbulent neighbourhood of Terra del Fuego
and Cape Horn. On the 8th of May, being arrived of the island of
Socoro, on the western coast of Patagonia, [in lat. 44 deg. 50' S. long.
7