This fleet, after arriving from America, had lain at anchor for three weeks at Barbadoes, where it had the advantage of the vegetable refreshments which that island affords; but during three weeks that it lay at anchor, in the face of the enemy, at St. Christopher’s, the men were excluded from all communication with the shore, and had no vegetable food, except some yams, with which they were supplied from Antigua, in place of biscuit, of which there was at this time a scarcity. These ships had therefore been in no port for six weeks, except for a few days that they lay in the road of Antigua refitting, and putting the sick and wounded on shore. The men had also been deprived of their natural rest, and exposed to the air during all the time that the fleet was at anchor before St. Christopher’s; for they had been twice attacked by the enemy in that situation, and were therefore under the necessity of keeping the ships constantly clear for action; yet no increase of sickness followed. This might partly be owing to the eagerness and alacrity of spirits naturally excited in such a situation, and also to the fleet not lying under the lee of any land, and having springs upon their cables, so that they had all the perflation and all the purity of air which ships enjoy when at sea. The fumigation which ships undergo in battle, has also been thought to contribute to their health. To whatever cause it was owing, the fleet we found in the West Indies was at this time healthier than that which had just come from England; and there was but little difference in the degree of health of the different ships that composed it. Of those which left the West Indies in August, and returned in December, the only one that could be said to have any epidemic disease was the Prince William, which had never got entirely free from the dysentery that was formerly mentioned as prevailing so much on board of this ship last year. The disease was kept up, by the ship never having been cleared of the men affected with it, and by the crew in general being ill provided with slops[9], a circumstance that would render them more susceptible of whatever infection they might be exposed to. There were also some remains of the same disease in the Intrepid, the seeds of it having been more or less continued from the summer of 1780, at which time it prevailed to a most violent degree. The Alfred had a few of all the sea epidemics, and had been for a long time before more or less in the same situation, from a neglect of cleanliness, particularly of the men’s persons.