We now met the first tropic
bird we had seen in this sea.
On the 26th, in the afternoon, being in the latitude of 28 deg. 44', we had
several observations of the sun and moon, which gave the longitude 135 deg. 30'
W. My reckoning at the same time was 135 deg. 27', and I had no occasion to
correct it since I left the land. We continued to stretch to the north,
with light breezes from the westward, till noon, the next day, when we were
stopped by a calm; our latitude at this time being 27 deg. 53', longitude 135 deg.
17' W. In the evening, the calm was succeeded by a breeze from the N. and
N.W., with which we plied to the N.
On the 29th I sent on board the Adventure to enquire into the state of her
crew, having heard that they were sickly; and this I now found was but too
true. Her cook was dead, and about twenty of her best men were down in the
scurvy and flux. At this time we had only three men on the sick list, and
only one of them attacked with the scurvy. Several more, however, began to
shew symptoms of it, and were accordingly put upon the wort, marmalade of
carrots, rob of lemons and oranges.
I know not how to account for the scurvy raging more in the one ship than
the other, unless it was owing to the crew of the Adventure being more
scorbutic when they arrived in New Zealand than we were, and to their
eating few or no vegetables while they lay in Queen Charlotte's Sound,
partly for want of knowing the right sorts, and partly because it was a new
diet, which alone was sufficient for seamen to reject it.
