The entrance into warmer regions gave occasion to an observation perhaps not generally known, which (though uncouth) must be of great importance to sailors; namely, that between the Tropics, while vermin may remain in the head, none can possibly continue to exist in the bedding, cloaths, linen, &c. Having humbly apologized for the above remark to my delicate readers, I will endeavour to describe a curious animal with which these seas abound, and which appears to sail on the surface of the waves with a side-wind, while by the sailors it is vulgarly called a Portuguese man-of-war, and is probably either the Nautilus or the Argonauta of Linnæus. This wonderful creature, when above water, assumes the shape of an expanded fan, decorated with a beautiful red border, while the lower extremity is fixed to a shell as thin as paper, or rather a kind of boat, which is sunk below or raised above the surface of the sea, and guided in any direction, at the pleasure of the animal, by means of six tentacula or limbs, which it uses as oars. When these creatures are touched by the hand, they occasion, like the sea blubber or jelly fish, a painful tinkling sensation, which continues for several minutes. The two following days it blew very fresh, and heavy seas washed over the vessel; during which, while helping to put a reef in the main-top-sail for a little exercise, I lost every one of my keys, which dropped from the yardarm into the sea. This trifling accident I should never have related, had it not proved a very great inconvenience, by debarring me from coming at my private property, particularly since the whole ship’s company, officers included, lived on salt provision alone, a pig and a couple of lean sheep excepted, whose legs had been broken by the rolling and pitching of the vessel. This manner of living on salt-beef, pork, and peas, like common sailors, was introduced by our commander in chief, in order to enure us (he said) to such food as we were likely to be alone supplied with in the woods of Surinam; and from the generous motive of regaling his American friends with European refreshments—such as live sheep, hogs, fowls, ducks, bacon hams, bullocks tongues, preserved vegetables, pickles, spices, &c. all of which were provided by the town of Amsterdam in profusion. But good intentions do not always meet with their rewards; since the worms, without any one’s permission, laid hold of the greatest part of the dead stock for themselves; who were, for a punishment, together with their plunder, thrown overboard into the ocean. Let me add, that instead of plate, our meals were frequently served up in small wooden tubs of not the most cleanly appearance, and only once a day; which negligence, however, I am willing to impute to Monsieur Laurant, the colonel’s French valet-de-chambre. In short, the scurvy and other loathsome disorders began to make their appearance; dejection and low-spirits took place throughout the ship, while I complained aloud,