Writing on October 13, 1625, from Batavia to the East India Company in London, Governor Hawley says that the ‘London’ had arrived out on August 23, with loss of 36 men, and 80 sick. She reported the ‘Discovery’ to have left the Cape for St Helena, having lost 21 men; two other ships, the ‘Moon’ and ‘Ruby’ had their crews “in remarkable health.” On September 14, the ‘Swallow’ arrived out, having lost only 3 men. Of 46 men shipped in the ‘Abigail’ out of England, all were dead but 5, in her coasting voyages upon Sumatra. Most of the workmen and soldiers sent in the ‘London’ had arrived; “but since, by disorders, are dead, as are those in the ‘Swallow.’ The smiths are all dead; of the armourers, only John Speed and a boy alive. Most other workmen dead or incapable. This is not remissness of government, but the newcomers, dreaming of nothing but sack and sugar-plums in India, are with much difficulty brought to obedience.” A Dutch ship, the ‘Leyden’ arrived out in 1626, with loss of 22 men, having been twelve months on the passage.

In the end of October, 1628, the ‘Morris’ reached the mouth of the Channel from Bantam, “which was most happily met with near Scilly by Captain Bickly, who was sent out to relieve any ship from the Indies, she being in a very weak state by reason of an infectious disease.” She reached the Downs safely with two other East Indiamen; but having been driven from her anchors in a great storm, was wrecked on the coast of Holland previous to November 19. Next year, about October 28, 1629, the ‘Mary’ of the East India Company was reported to have put into Scilly having lost most of her men by sickness. Therefore, Sir H. Mervyn, of H.M.S. ‘Lyon,’ in the Downs, having got early word of the ‘Mary’s’ distress, writes to E. Nicholas, to say that if the Company desire a convoy for the ‘Mary’ from their lordships of the Admiralty, “she being rich,” he (Mervyn) hopes that Nicholas will remember him.

But, although it was not unusual for ships to come home with crews weakened by scurvy, it was not invariable. The ‘William’ returned to England in 1628, as rich a ship as the Company ever had from the East Indies, with not a sick man in her, nor any dead on the way; her lading was computed to be worth £170,000[1151].

In a despatch of February 6, 1626, Hawley gives an account of a truly disastrous sickness in the factory and among the Company’s ships at Batavia during the previous year, which illustrates another risk than that of scurvy or flux, and an experience in the East Indies not altogether exceptional[1152].

“On March 12, I dispeeded the ‘Diamond’ for Japan to fetch boards, planks, etc. [to repair the ‘Bull’ with]; but hardly had fourteen days passed when the ‘Bull’s’ men fell sick and died daily; then the ‘Reformation’s’ men died by five, six or more in a day; in a short time the ‘Bull’s’ men all died but the master and one more, who were dangerously sick, and in the ‘Reformation’ the master and all the men lay at God’s mercy. We were forced to relieve them by blacks, and hale the ships to the open bay [they would seem to have been careened] where they rode like wrecks without other help than some few to comfort their sick, for more from the other ships might not be spared. The contagion was so pestilent that their blood, being licked by dog or cat, caused them to swell, burst and die. It was more moderate on shore, and was least on the ships in the open bay, though they also were daily visited.... The ‘Diamond’ returned on April 11, with planks etc.; also slaves and 44 Chinamen, which were with no small charge procured, and who all fell sick, and 10 or 12 died.... Thinking the mortality was occasioned, not by pestiferous air or soil, nor by any noxious tree, but by surfeit and the wet monsoon, I enacted orders for government building, and cleansing the trees to get more air. Wanted no provisions of fresh victual; could at pleasure command neighbours to fish and fetch anything needed, and the island itself furnished deer. On April 12, took general view of all people, as follows:

English
in health		 English
sick		 Portuguese
sick
On shore 40 58 5
In the‘Charles’ 32 10
"‘Roebuck’ 16 2
"‘Bull’ 2 8
"‘Reformation’ 23 14 12
"‘Abigail’ 8 3
"‘Rose’ 7 2 5
128 97 22

—leaving, of course, an immense proportion dead.

These are instances from the records of the East India Company during the first thirty years of its existence. It would be tedious, even if it were practicable, to follow the history continuously. But meanwhile to show that its experiences, good and bad, remained much the same until long after, let us take two voyages in the year 1682. Governor William Hedges, passenger on board one of the Company’s ships, enters in his diary the 25th of May, 1682, being then off the Cape of Good Hope: “Not lost a man (except Mr Richards) either by sickness or any other accident, since we left England, which wants but three days of four months, and is just two months since we passed the Equinoctial Line,” nothing being said of sickness in the rest of the voyage. But another of the Company’s ships the same year fared worse: “December 9, 1682, ship ‘Society’ arrived at Balasore. She left the Downs on May 30, and, not touching at any place by the way, lost seventeen men of the scurvy[1153].”

Sickness in the Colonizing of Virginia and New England.

Leaving now the long voyages of the English beyond the Line, and their factories in the East, let us see how they fared as regards health when they merely crossed the Atlantic in their own latitudes. The earliest series of voyages to Virginia, at Raleigh’s instigation, from 1585 to 1590, have been already referred to. The continuous history of Atlantic voyages, and of the North American colonies, begins with the expedition of 1609 under Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers[1154].