To remedy this evil, the general
ordered cloth to be distributed among them.
[Footnote 86: In Harris these are erroneously called Pimento, but they
must have been the Wintera aromatica. The Pimento, or Myrtus
Pimenta, is a native of the warm regions of America and the West India
islands, producing Pimento, All-spice, or Jamaica pepper. - E.]
[Footnote 87: This date, here anticipated, refers to the day when they
afterwards set sail. - E.]
It was found that many of the seamen, when at their meals, were in use
to sell their victuals to others at high prices, and afterwards
satisfied their hunger with raw muscles and green herbs, which
occasioned them to fall into dropsies and other lingering sickness, of
which several died: For this reason, the captains and other officers
were ordered to be present at all their meals, to see and oblige them to
eat their allowances.
The 7th May the vice-admiral was sent, with two boats, to an island
opposite Great bay, to catch sea-dogs.[88] He found there seven small
boats or canoes, with savages on board, who were of a reddish colour
with long hair, and, as well as he could observe, seemed ten or eleven
feet high.
