The medicines were all,
or nearly all, gone; and if we had had a chest-full, they would have
been of no use; for nothing but fresh provisions and terra firma has
any effect upon the scurvy. This disease is not so common now as
formerly; and is attributed generally to salt provisions, want of
cleanliness, the free use of grease and fat (which is the reason of
its prevalence among whalemen,) and, last of all, to laziness. It
never could have been from the latter cause on board our ship; nor
from the second, for we were a very cleanly crew, kept our
forecastle in neat order, and were more particular about washing and
changing clothes than many better-dressed people on shore. It was
probably from having none but salt provisions, and possibly from our
having run very rapidly into hot weather, after having been so long in
the extremest cold.
Depending upon the westerly winds, which prevail off the coast in
the autumn, the captain stood well to the westward, to run inside of
the Bermudas, and in the hope of falling in with some vessel bound
to the West Indies or the Southern States. The scurvy had spread no
farther among the crew, but there was danger that it might; and
these cases were bad ones.
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