I am now under the disagreeable necessity of entering on a subject which I had at one time ventured to hope need scarcely occupy any part of this narrative: I mean that of the scurvy, some slight but unequivocal symptoms of which disease were this day reported to me, by Mr. Edwards, to have appeared among four or five of the Fury's men, rendering it necessary, for the first time during the voyage, to have recourse to antiscorbutic treatment among the seamen and marines. It will, perhaps, be considered a curious and singular fact in the history of sea-scurvy, that during the whole of the preceding part of this voyage, none among us but officers were in the slightest degree affected by it, a circumstance directly contrary to former experience. To whatever causes this might be attributed, it could not, however, but be highly gratifying to be thus assured that the various means employed to preserve the health of the seamen and marines had proved even beyond expectation efficacious. That a ship's company began to evince symptoms of scurvy after twenty-seven months' entire dependance upon the resources contained within their ship (an experiment hitherto unknown, perhaps, in the annals of navigation, even for one fourth part of that period), could scarcely, indeed, be a subject of wonder, though it was at this particular time a matter of very sincere regret. From the health enjoyed by our people during two successive winters, unassisted as we had been by any supply of _fresh_ antiscorbutic plants or other vegetables, I had began to indulge a hope that, with a continued attention to their comforts, cleanliness, and exercise, the same degree of vigour might, humanly speaking, be ensured at least as long as our present liberal resources should last. Present appearances, however, seemed to indicate differently; for, though our sick-list had scarcely a name upon it, and almost every individual was performing his accustomed duty, yet we had at length been impressed with the unpleasant conviction that a strong predisposition to disease existed among us, and that no very powerful exciting cause was wanting to render it more seriously apparent. Such a conviction at the present crisis was peculiarly disagreeable; for I could not but lament any circumstance tending to weaken the confidence in our strength and resources at a time when more than ordinary exertion was about to be required at our hands.