Notwithstanding the fatigue and distress that we had endured, and the various climates we had passed through, neither of the ships had yet lost a single man since their sailing from England; but while we lay here two died of fevers, a disease with which many were seized, though we all recovered very fast from the scurvy.  I am indeed of opinion that this is one of the most unhealthy spots in the world, at least during the season in which we were here.  The rains were violent, and almost incessant, and the heat was so great as to threaten us with suffocation.  The thermometer, which was kept on board the ship, generally stood at eighty-six, which is but nine degrees less than the heat of the blood at the heart; and if it had been on shore it would have risen much higher.  I had been upon the coast of Guinea, in the West Indies, and upon the island of Saint Thomas, which is under the Line, but I had never felt any such heat as I felt here.  Besides the inconvenience which we suffered from the weather, we were incessantly tormented by the flies in the day, and by the musquitos in the night.  The island also swarms with centipedes and scorpions, and a large black ant, scarcely inferior to either in the malignity of its bite.  Besides these, there were venomous insects without number, altogether unknown to us, by which many of us suffered so severely, that we were afraid to lie down in our beds; nor were those on board in a much better situation than those on shore, for great numbers of these creatures being carried into the ship with the wood, they took possession of every birth, and left the poor seamen no place of rest either below or upon the deck.

As soon as we were settled in our new habitations, I sent out parties to discover the haunts of the cattle, some of which were found, but at a great distance from the tents, and the beasts were so shy that it was very difficult to get a shot at them.  Some of the parties which, when their haunts had been discovered, were sent out to kill them, were absent three days and nights before they could succeed; and when a bullock had been dragged seven or eight miles through such woods and lawns as have just been described, to the tents, it was generally full of flyblows, and stunk so as to be unfit for use:  Nor was this the worst, for the fatigue of the men in bringing down the carcase, and the intolerable heat they suffered from the climate and the labour, frequently brought on fevers which laid them up.[43] Poultry however we procured upon easier terms:  There was great plenty of birds, and they were easily killed; but the flesh of the best of them was very ill-tasted, and such was the heat of the climate that within an hour after they were killed it was as green as grass, and swarmed with maggots.  Our principal resource for fresh meat was the wild hog, with which the island abounds.  These creatures are very fierce, and some of them so large that a carcase frequently weighed two hundred pounds.  We killed them without much difficulty, but a black belonging to the Tamar contrived a method to snare them, so that we took great numbers of them alive, which was an unspeakable advantage; for it not only ensured our eating the flesh while it was sweet, but enabled us to send a good number of them on board as sea-stores.