Fortunately he escaped with nothing worse than this gross outrage; but the serious part of the business was that it cut off all communication of Gibraltar with the Barbary Coast; for the Sultan prohibited the export of provisions, and as the supplies brought by the convoy were exhausted in a few months, the garrison was again, not indeed at the starvation point, but in sore need of what was for its health and vigor. The meagre diet threatened to produce a pestilence. At one time there were seven hundred men in the hospitals; at another the small-pox broke out; and at another the garrison was so reduced by the scurvy, caused by the use of salt meats, that strong men became weak as children, and hobbled about on crutches. This threatened a great disaster, which was averted only by lemons! In the moment of extremity a Dutch "dogger" coming from Malaga was captured, and found to be laden with oranges and lemons, "a freight which, at such a crisis, was of more value to the garrison than tons of powder or magazines of ammunition." The lemons were instantly distributed in the hospitals. The men seized them and devoured them ravenously, and the restoration was so speedy as to seem almost miraculous. And yet this relief was only temporary. Soon we have this picture of the condition of the garrison: "As the spring of 1781 advanced, the situation assumed the most distressing aspect. The few provisions which remained were bad in quality, and having been kept too long were decomposed and uneatable. The most common necessaries of life were exorbitantly dear; bad ship biscuit, full of worms, was sold at a shilling a pound; flour, in not much better condition, at the same price; old dried peas, a shilling and fourpence; salt, half dirt, the sweepings of ships' bottoms and storehouses, at eight pence; old salt butter, at two shillings and sixpence; and English farthing candles cost sixpence apiece. Fresh provisions commanded a still higher price: turkeys sold at three pounds twelve shillings, sucking pigs at two guineas, and a guinea was refused for a calf's pluck. "The English government, aware of this condition of things, had for months turned their attention to the relief of the fortress; but the many exigencies of the war, and the extensive arena over which it was spread, caused so many demands upon the navy that it had hitherto been impossible to provide a fleet for the succor of Gibraltar. But the relief of the garrison was indispensable, and the honor of England required that it should be executed. Accordingly the government made extraordinary efforts to equip a squadron to convoy a flotilla of merchantmen to the Rock."[7]