Fresh water, meat, vegetables, and wine were taken on board; wine, fruit, and water being good and cheap, but the meat and poultry, obtained as a favour, were dear.  Two men, a marine and a sailor, received twelve lashes for refusing to eat their allowance of fresh meat.  This appears to be harsh treatment, but it must be remembered that the lash was at that time almost the only recognised method of punishment in the Navy, however trivial the offence might be; and Cook knew from experience how important it was to prevent the scurvy from getting foothold on board, and he already had determined to fight, by every means in his power, this dread scourge, almost his most dangerous foe.  He did conquer it even on this first voyage, and, considering his means, in a most marvellous manner.  He would have claimed the victory had it not been for an untoward event, which will be told hereafter, leading him to postpone his claim till he could give further proof.  It is important to notice how on every possible occasion he obtained, wherever he could, some change of diet and fresh water.

Eden before the fall.

Whilst they were at Funchal, Banks spent five days with the English Consul, and he describes the place as very pretty, but the people as primitive, idle, and uninformed; all their instruments of the rudest make; and he thought that the appliances used in the manufacture of wine must have been similar to those used by Noah, “although it is not impossible that he might have used better if he remembered the methods he had seen before the flood.”  One of the Governors left it on record that, so averse from change were the people, he thought it most fortunate the island was not Eden before the fall, as in that case the inhabitants could never have been induced to wear clothes.  He explored as much of the island as he could, but says he could never get more than three miles away from the town as his time was so much broken up.  The Governor visited them on one of the days he says was so wasted, but relates, with evident glee, how he took his revenge.  There was an electrical machine on board, and His Excellency was most curious on the subject; it was sent for and explained to him, and Banks goes on, “they gave him as many shocks as he cared for; perhaps more.”  A visit was paid to a convent, where the nuns, hearing they were distinguished scientists, plied them with all sorts of questions, and for the half-hour the visit lasted their tongues were going “all the time at an uncommonly nimble rate.”  At a monastery they visited they were well received, and the monks, regretting they were then unprepared, invited them to come the next day and, though it would be Friday, they would have roast turkey for dinner.