Note 13 — CHAP. III.

Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, &c. &c. under the Command of Commodore George Anson, in 1740–1744, by Pascoe Thomas, Lond. 1745, So tremendous were the ravages of scurvy, that, in the year 1726, admiral Hosier sailed with seven ships of the line to the West Indies, and buried his ships’ companies twice, and died himself in consequence of a broken heart. Dr. Johnson, in the year 1778, could describe a sea-life in such terms as these:—“As to the sailor, when you look down from the quarter deck to the space below, you see the utmost extremity of human misery, such crowding, such filth, such stench!”—“A ship is a prison with the chance of being drowned—it is worse—worse in every respect—worse room, worse air, worse food—worse company!” Smollet, who had personal experience of the horrors of a seafaring life in those days, gives a lively picture of them in his Roderick Random.