It is also remarkable, that the Ville de Paris was healthy when taken, and had been so ever since leaving France in March, 1781; nor had any other of the captured ships of the line been sickly for some time before, except the Ardent, when she arrived at Martinico four months before, at which time the greater part of the crew were sent to the hospital with fevers. This, as well as other facts of the same kind, tends to prove, that when men come to be much habituated to bad air, their health is not affected by it. The French ships were purified by washing and scraping, by fumigating daily with gunpowder and vinegar, and by the use of wind sails; but nothing seemed to contribute so much to sweeten the air in them as burning fires in the hold; for this tended both to make the putrid matter exhale, and to carry it off, by producing a perpetual change of air. Captain Curgenven, who at this time commanded the Ville de Paris, had great merit from his very assiduous and successful endeavours in so difficult a duty as the management and equipment of this great ship. In consequence of the judicious measures taken, and the men becoming more used to the bad air, the sickness ceased in the course of a few weeks. In the accounts given in the tables, the French prizes are not included, for the disorderly state in which they were at this time prevented my receiving regular returns: but having made inquiry concerning the mortality in the Ville de Paris, I found, that of a crew of three hundred and twelve men, there died ten in the month of May, and there were thirty sent to the hospital, whose cases were so unfavourable, that about one half died. The only diseases were fevers. The surgeon of the Ardent told me about the same time, that one third of the crew of that ship was ill of fevers. The second cause of the prevalence of sickness, while the fleet was at Jamaica, was, the watering duty, which was carried on at Rock-fort, about three leagues from Port Royal. It was the practice of many of the ships to leave the water casks on shore all night, with men to watch them; and as there is a land wind in the night, which blows over some ponds and marshes, there were hardly any of the men employed on that duty who were not seized with a fever of a very bad sort, of which a great many died. The ships that followed a different practice were somewhat longer in watering; but this was much more than compensated by their preserving the health and saving the lives of their men.