Indeed, it was most remarkable, in all our reiterated
experience of this malady, that whatever discouraged our people, or at
any time damped their hopes, never failed to add new vigour to the
distemper, for it usually killed those who were in the last stage of it,
and confined those to their hammocks who were before capable of some kind
of duty; so that it seemed as if alacrity of mind and sanguine thoughts
were no contemptible preservatives from its fatal malignity.
A most extraordinary circumstance, and what would be scarcely credible
upon any single evidence, is, that the scars of wounds which had been for
many years healed were forced open again by this virulent distemper. Of
this there was a remarkable instance in one of the invalids on board the
Centurion, who had been wounded above fifty years before at the battle of
the Boyne;* for though he was cured soon after, and had continued well
for a great number of years past, yet, on his being attacked by the
scurvy, his wounds, in the progress of his disease, broke out afresh, and
appeared as if they had never been healed. Nay, what is still more
astonishing, the callous of a broken bone, which had been completely
formed for a long time, was found to be hereby dissolved, and the
fracture seemed as if it had never been consolidated. Indeed, the effects
of this disease were in almost every instance wonderful; for many of our
people, though confined to their hammocks, appeared to have no
inconsiderable share of health, for they ate and drank heartily, were
cheerful, and talked with much seeming vigour, and with a loud, strong
tone of voice; and yet on their being the least moved, though it was only
from one part of the ship to the other, and that in their hammocks, they
have immediately expired; and others who have confided in their seeming
strength, and have resolved to get out of their hammocks, have died
before they could well reach the deck.
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