+-------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber’s Keys | | | | A Proportion of those taken ill in the | | Course of the Month. | | | | B Proportion of Deaths, in relation to | | the Number of Sick. | +-------------------------+--------+--------+ | DISEASES. | A | B | +-------------------------+--------+--------+ | | ONE IN | ONE IN | +-------------------------+--------+--------+ | Fevers | 44 | 0 | | Fluxes | 49 | 0 | | Scurvy | 123 | 0 | | Ulcers | 183 | 0 | | Other Complaints | 38 | 138 | +-------------------------+--------+--------+ | General Proportion | 12 | 403 | +-------------------------+--------+--------+ The proportion of deaths to the whole number was one in four thousand and eighty-seven. About one in eleven of all the sick were sent to the hospital. The main body of the fleet remained at Barbadoes till the 12th of January, when they went to cruise to windward of Martinico, in order to intercept a French squadron expected from North America. This cruise lasted four weeks; and intelligence being received of the enemy’s having taken a different route, the whole fleet bore away for St. Lucia, where it came to an anchor on the 8th of February. In the course of the three months above mentioned, we see the two squadrons approaching to each other, in point of health, till they became pretty equal and similar; and the new squadron became even somewhat more healthy than the old. The increase of fevers in the old squadron was owing to two causes. One was the importation of new-raised recruits brought from England by some ships that arrived in the beginning of January. These were distributed to such ships as stood most in need of men; and being very dirty and ill cloathed, were likely to harbour infection. They were evidently the cause of sickness in the Warrior and Royal Oak; for these ships were before that time healthy, and the fever began with these strangers, and spread amongst the former crew. It is remarkable that the ships that brought them from England were not affected by them.