All these various appearances of disease are attributed by the author of this voyage principally to the bad quality of their provisions; their salt meat being corrupted, their bread full of maggots, and their water intolerably putrid. Under these circumstances medicines were of no avail, being utterly unable to work a cure, and could at best only defer death for a little, and protract the sufferings of the sick. Though as well as any one in either ship, the author of this journal had the scurvy to such a degree that his teeth were all loose, his gums inflamed and ulcerated, and his body all over covered with livid spots. Even such as were reputed in best health, were low, weak, and much afflicted with the scurvy. Nothing could effectually relieve or even alleviate their sufferings, except fresh meat, vegetables, and sweet water. At length it pleased God to put a period to their miseries, by giving them sight of the coast of New Britain, the joy of which filled the sick with new spirits, and encouraged those who were still able to move, with the enlivening hope of once more revisiting their native land. Our author was fully of opinion, that if they had been many days longer at sea, they must all have perished by the continuance and necessary increase of the miseries which they endured, which no description can possibly express in any thing like adequate terms. SECTION VI. _Description of New Britain, and farther Continuation of the Voyage till the Arrival of Roggewein at Java._