Note (return) — Chapter XIV · VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY CAPTAIN GEORGE ANSON, IN THE YEARS 1740-1744.1 (continued 6)

When we had furled our sails, the remaining part of the night was allowed to our people for their repose, to recover them from the fatigue they had undergone; and in the morning a party was sent on shore well armed, of which I myself was one, to make ourselves masters of the landing place, as we were not certain what opposition might be made by the Indians on the island: We landed without difficulty, for the Indians having perceived, by our seizure of the bark the night before, that we were enemies, they immediately fled into the woody parts of the island. We found on shore many huts which they had inhabited, and which saved us both the time and trouble of erecting tents; one of these huts which the Indians made use of for a storehouse was very large, being twenty yards long, and fifteen broad; this we immediately cleared of some bales of jerked beef, which we found in it, and converted it into an hospital for our sick, who as soon as the place was ready to receive them were brought on shore, being in all a hundred and twenty-eight: Numbers of these were so very helpless that we were obliged to carry them from the boats to the hospital upon our shoulders, in which humane employment (as before at Juan Fernandes) the commodore himself, and every one of his officers, were engaged without distinction; and, notwithstanding the great debility and the dying aspects of the greatest part of our sick, it is almost incredible how soon they began to feel the salutary influence of the land; for, though we buried twenty-one men on this and the preceeding day, yet we did not lose above ten men more during our whole two months stay here; and in general, our diseased received so much benefit from the fruits of the island, particularly the fruits of the acid kind, that, in a week's time, there were but few who were not so far recovered, as to be able to move about without help.1