was appointed to succeed him, who, owing to the desperate nature of the service he was to be employed in, received a salary of one guinea per diem. Both before and after this period, the accounts were greatly exaggerated, and, in some respects, incorrect; the unhealthiness of the settlement being generally, but very erroneously, ascribed to the insalubrity of the climate.
The disease which, either by itself, or aggravating other maladies, naturally mild, caused such alarm, was scurvy, which, it is well known, is not endemial; indeed, it is more prevalent, caeteris paribus, in a cold, than in a warm climate. Its rise and progress is, therefore, to be attributed to the operation of the usual causes; several of which, in this instance, conspired to produce it.
This disease, therefore, not caused by climate, might have been checked, if not entirely prevented, by means within the reach of the sufferers; and, by a prophylactic attention to dietetics, without requiring much aid from medicine.
It is admitted, that the supply of salt provisions was bad; but, then, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea, might have been obtained in abundance, by very moderate exertions: and, until the various vegetables (with the seeds and roots of which they were amply supplied from Sydney) grew fit for use, they had, within their reach, plenty of native roots and vegetables, which, either from ignorance or carelessness, they failed to profit by.
