it has
already been so well ventilated and whitewashed, that nothing else can
be done; we must hope for the best."

"I do so," replied Captain M---; "but my hope is mingled with anxious
apprehensions, which I cannot control. We must do all we can, and leave
the rest to Providence."

The fears of Captain M--- were but too well grounded. For some days, no
symptoms of infection appeared on board of the _Aspasia_; but the
ravages on shore, among the troops, were to such an extent, that the
hospitals were filled, and those who were carried in might truly be said
to have left hope behind. Rapid as was the mortality, it was still not
rapid enough for the admittance of those who were attacked with the
fatal disease; and as the bodies of fifteen or twenty were, each
succeeding evening, borne unto the grave, the continual decrease of the
military _cortege_ which attended the last obsequies, told the sad tale,
that those who, but a day or two before, had followed the corpses of
others, were now carried on their own biers.

Other vessels on the station, which had put to sea from the different
isles, with the disappointed expectation of avoiding the contagion, now
came to an anchor in the bay, their crews so weakened by disease and
death that they could with difficulty send up sufficient men to furl
their sails. Boat after boat was sent on shore to the naval hospital,
loaded with sufferers, until it became so crowded that no more could be
received. Still the _Aspasia_, from the precautions which had been
taken, in fumigating, and avoiding all unnecessary contact with the
shipping and the shore, had for nearly a fortnight escaped the
infection; but the miasma was at last wafted to the frigate, and in the
course of one night fifteen men, who were in health the preceding
evening, before eight o'clock on the following morning were lying in
their hammocks under the half-deck. Before the close of that day, the
number of patients had increased to upwards of forty. The hospitals
were so crowded that Captain M--- agreed with Macallan that it would be
better that the men should remain on board.

The frigate was anchored with springs on her cable, so as always to be
able to warp her stern to the breeze; the cabin bulk-heads on the
main-deck, and the thwart-ship bulk-heads below, were removed, and the
stern windows and ports thrown open, to admit a freer circulation of air
than could have been obtained by riding with her head to the