flute, than we can conceive the cause of the personal difference of the various inhabitants of the globe to exist in mere local situation; nor can he any more form an idea of the cause itself in one case, than we can in the other: what happens to him then, in consequence of having but four senses instead of five, may, with respect to many phenomena of nature, happen to us, in consequence of having but five senses instead of six, or any greater number. Possibly, however, the learning of ancient Egypt might run in two courses, one through Africa, and the other through Asia, disseminating the same words in each, especially terms of number, which might thus become part of the language of people who never had any communication with each other. We now made the best of our way for the Cape of Good Hope, but the seeds of disease which we had received at Batavia began to appear with the most threatening symptoms in dysenteries and slow fevers. Lest the water which we had taken in at Prince’s Island should have had any share in our sickness, we purified it with lime, and we washed all parts of the ship between decks with vinegar, as a remedy against infection. Mr. Banks was among the sick, and for some time there was no hope of his life. We were very soon in a most deplorable situation; the ship was nothing better than an hospital, in which those that were able to go about, were too few to attend the sick, who were confined to their hammocks; and we had almost every night a dead body to commit to the sea. In the course of about six weeks, we buried Mr. Sporing, a gentleman who was in Mr. Banks’s retinue, Mr. Parkinson, his natural-history painter, Mr. Green the astronomer, the boatswain, the carpenter and his mate, Mr. Monkhouse the midshipman, who had fothered the ship after she had been stranded on the coast of New Holland, our old jolly sail-maker and his assistant, the ship’s cook, the corporal of the marines, two of the carpenter’s crew, a midshipman, and nine seamen; in all three-and-twenty persons, besides the seven that we buried at Batavia. CHAP. XIV. OUR ARRIVAL AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE; SOME REMARKS ON THE RUN FROM JAVA HEAD TO THAT PLACE; A DESCRIPTION OF THE CAPE, AND OF SAINT HELENA; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE HOTTENTOTS, AND THE RETURN OF THE SHIP TO ENGLAND. ON Friday the 15th of March, about ten o’clock in the morning, we anchored off the Cape of Good Hope, in seven fathom, with an ouzey bottom. The west point of the bay, called the Lion’s Tail, bore W. N. W. and the castle S. W., distant about a mile and a half. I immediately waited upon the Governor, who told me that I should have every thing the country afforded. My first care was to provide a proper place ashore for the sick, which were not a few; and a house was soon found, where it was agreed they should be lodged and boarded at the rate of two shillings a-head per day.