The almost continual rains may be reckoned another evil attending this bay; though, perhaps, this may only happen at this season of the year. Nevertheless, the situation of the country, the vast height, and nearness of the mountains, seem to subject it to much rain at all times. Our people, who were daily exposed to the rain, felt no ill effects from it; on the contrary, such as were sick and ailing when we came in, recovered daily, and the whole crew soon became strong and vigorous; which can only be attributed to the healthiness of the place, and the fresh provisions it afforded. The beer certainly contributed not a little: as I have already observed, we at first made it of a decoction of the spruce leaves; but finding that this alone made the beer too astringent, we afterwards mixed with it an equal quantity of the tea plant (a name it obtained in my former voyage, from our using it as tea then, as we also did now,) which partly destroyed the astringency of the other, and made the beer exceedingly palatable, and esteemed by every one on board. We brewed it in the same manner as spruce beer, and the process is as follows: first make a strong decoction of the small branches of the spruce and tea plants, by boiling them three or four hours, or until the bark will strip with ease from off the branches; then take them out of the copper, and put in the proper quantity of melasses; ten gallons of which is sufficient to make a ton or two hundred and forty gallons of beer; let this mixture just boil; then put it into the casks; and, to it, add an equal quantity of cold water, more or less according to the strength of the decoction, or your taste: when the whole is milk-warm, put in a little grounds of beer, or yeast, if you have it, or any thing else that will cause fermentation, and in a few days the beer will be fit to drink. After the casks have been brewed in two or three times, the beer will generally ferment itself, especially if the weather is warm. As I had inspissated juice of wort on board, and could not apply it to a better purpose, we used it together with melasses or sugar, to make these two articles go farther; for of the former I had but one cask, and of the latter little to spare for this brewing. Had I known how well this beer would have succeeded, and the great use it was of to the people, I should have come better provided; indeed I was partly discouraged by an experiment made during my former voyage; which did not succeed, then, owing, as I now believe, to some mismanagement.