taken when this ship was first manned and fitted out, of stripping and washing the men that were brought from the guardship to complete the crew. The Intrepid, while in England, had been afflicted with fevers to a most uncommon degree; for, being one of the fleet in the Channel cruise the year before, almost the whole crew either died at sea, or were sent to the hospital upon arriving at Portsmouth. This ship, after refitting, was pretty healthy for a little time; but, probably from the operation of the old adhering infection, she became extremely sickly immediately after joining our fleet, and sent two hundred men to the hospital the first two months after arriving in the West Indies. Most of these were ill of the dysentery. The Pegasus frigate arrived with the ships from Gibraltar, and we have here an instance of the superior health commonly enjoyed by this class of ships over ships of the line; for when she was dispatched to England in the end of April, there had not been a man taken ill from the time of her arrival on the station. This season was a very active one in the operations of war; for, besides the general battle of the 17th of April, there were two partial actions in May; and, from the 15th of the former month till the 20th of the latter, our fleet was constantly in the face of the enemy’s, except for a few days that it was refitting at St. Lucia after the first battle. This was extremely harrassing to the men, not only from the incessant labour necessary in the evolutions of the fleet, but by their being constantly at quarters with the ships clear for action; for, in that situation, they had nothing to sleep upon but the bare decks, the hammocks and bedding being removed from between decks, where they might embarrass the men in fighting, and they become useful on the quarter deck, by serving to barricade the ship, which is done by placing them in ranges on the gunwale, to cover the men from the enemy’s grape and small shot. These hardships were productive of some sickness, though much less than might have been expected; for the weather is at all times warm, and it was at this time extremely moderate and dry. Besides we shall see in other instances as well as this, that, in the ardour inspired by the presence of an enemy, men are less exhausted by their exertions than on ordinary and less interesting occasions. Almost the whole of the sick and wounded, to the number of 750, were put on shore at Barbadoes, where all the fleet, except three ships[1], arrived on the 22d of May. I now began to keep regular and methodical accounts of the sickness and mortality in the fleet, though in a manner more imperfect and less accurate than was afterwards adopted. I was embarked on board of the Sandwich, where the Commander in Chief had his flag, so that I was always present with the main body of the fleet, whether at sea or in port. A form of monthly returns[2] was adopted, which, as well as other points of method, was afterwards improved.