Notwithstanding the fatigue and distress that we had endured, and the various climates we had passed through, neither of the ships had yet lost a single man since their sailing from England; but while we lay here two died of fevers, a disease with which many were seized, though we all recovered very fast from the scurvy. I am indeed of opinion that this is one of the most unhealthy spots in the world, at least during the season in which we were here. The rains were violent, and almost incessant, and the heat was so great as to threaten us with suffocation. The thermometer, which was kept on board the ship, generally stood at eighty-six, which is but nine degrees less than the heat of the blood at the heart; and if it had been on shore it would have risen much higher. I had been upon the coast of Guinea, in the West Indies, and upon the island of Saint Thomas, which is under the Line, but I had never felt any such heat as I felt here. Besides the inconvenience which we suffered from the weather, we were incessantly tormented by the flies in the day, and by the musquitos in the night. The island also swarms with centipedes and scorpions, and a large black ant, scarcely inferior to either in the malignity of its bite. Besides these, there were venomous insects without number, altogether unknown to us, by which many of us suffered so severely, that we were afraid to lie down in our beds; nor were those on board in a much better situation than those on shore, for great numbers of these creatures being carried into the ship with the wood, they took possession of every birth, and left the poor seamen no place of rest either below or upon the deck.