decks, and after all washed every part well with vinegar. Our next
employment was wooding and watering our squadron, caulking our ships'
sides and decks, overhauling our rigging, and securing our masts against
the tempestuous weather we were, in all probability, to meet with in our
passage round Cape Horn in so advanced and inconvenient a season.

In order to render the ships stiffer, and to enable them to carry more
sail abroad, and to prevent their labouring in hard gales of wind, each
captain had orders given him to strike down some of their great guns into
the hold. These precautions being complied with, and each ship having
taken in as much wood and water as there was room for, the whole squadron
was ready for the sea; on which the tents on shore were struck, and all
the sick were received on board. And here we had a melancholy proof how
much the healthiness of this place had been overrated by former writers,
for we found that though the Centurion alone had buried no less than
twenty-eight men since our arrival, yet the number of our sick was in the
same interval increased from eighty to ninety-six.

And now our crews being embarked, and everything prepared for our
departure, the Commodore made a signal for all captains, and delivered
them their orders, containing the successive places of rendezvous from
hence to the coast of China. And then on the next day, being the 18th of
January, 1741, the signal was made for weighing, and the squadron put to
sea.


CHAPTER 4.
THE COMMODORE'S INSTRUCTIONS--BAD WEATHER--NARROW ESCAPE OF THE
PEARL--ST JULIAN.