By this time, having been here only three days, we began to feel the fatal effects of the climate and situation. Tupia, after the flow of spirits which the novelties of the place produced upon his first landing, sank on a sadden, and grew every day worse and worse. Tayeto was seized with an inflammation upon his lungs, Mr Banks's two servants became very ill, and himself and Dr Solander were attacked by fevers; in a few days, almost every person both on board and ashore were sick; affected, no doubt, by the low swampy situation of the place, and the numberless dirty canals which intersect the town in all directions. On the 26th, I set up the tent for the reception of the ship's company, of whom there was but a small number able to do duty. Poor Tupia, of whose life we now began to despair, and who till this time had continued ashore with Mr Banks, desired to be removed to the ship, where, he said, he should breathe a freer air than among the numerous houses which obstructed it ashore: On board the ship, however, he could not go, for she was unrigged, and preparing to be laid down at the careening-place; but on the 28th, Mr Banks went with him to Cooper's Island, or, as it is called here, Kuypor, where she lay, and as he seemed pleased with the spot, a tent was there pitched for him: At this place both the sea-breeze and the land-breeze blew directly over him, and he expressed great satisfaction in his situation. Mr Banks, whose humanity kept him two days with this poor Indian, returned to the town on the 30th, and the fits of his intermittent, which was now become a regular tertian, were so violent as to deprive him of his senses while they lasted, and leave him so weak that he was scarcely able to crawl down stairs: At this time, Dr Solander's disorder also increased, and Mr Monkhouse, the surgeon, was confined to his bed.
On the 5th of November, after many delays in consequence of the Dutch ships coming alongside the wharfs to load pepper, the ship was laid down, and the same day, Mr Monkhouse, our surgeon, a sensible skilful man, fell the first sacrifice to this fatal country, a loss which was greatly aggravated by our situation. Dr Solander was just able to attend his funeral, but Mr Banks was confined to his bed. Our distress was now very great, and the prospect before us discouraging in the highest degree: Our danger was not such as we could surmount by any efforts of our own; courage, skill, and diligence were all equally ineffectual, and death was every day making advances upon us, where we could neither resist nor fly. Malay servants were hired to attend the sick, but they had so little sense either of duty or humanity, that they could not be kept within call, and the patient was frequently obliged to get out of bed to seek them.[122] On the 9th, we lost our poor Indian boy, Tayeto, and Tupia was so much affected, that it was doubted whether he would survive till the next day.
[Footnote 122: The Malays are not indebted to the representations of any author who has ever been at the pains to paint their character. What every body says, is at least likely to be true; and if so, they are a compound of every thing that is terrific in the rudest of the species, and of every thing that is odious in human nature, when corrupted to the extreme. Desperadoes in courage, and gluttons in revenge, they have also the low cunning and the treacherous plausibility with all the licentious propensities of the most designing and profligate of mankind. Their advancement in the arts which render life comfortable, and sometimes, too, embellish even vice, cannot in any measure redeem them into favourable estimation. They are in most points inferior (perhaps in every respect, save navigation,) to all the nations that inhabit the vast peninsula of Eastern India.--E.]
In the mean time, the bottom of the ship being examined, was found to be in a worse condition than we apprehended: The false keel was all gone to within twenty feet of the stern-post; the main keel was considerably injured in many places; and a great quantity of the sheathing was torn off, and several planks were much damaged; two of them, and the half of a third, under the main channel near the keel, were, for the length of six feet, so worn, that they were not above an eighth part of an inch thick, and here the worms had made their way quite into the timbers; yet in this condition she had sailed many hundred leagues, where navigation is as dangerous as in any part of the world: How much misery did we escape by being ignorant that so considerable a part of the bottom of the vessel was thinner than the sole of a shoe, and that every life on board depended upon so slight and fragile a barrier between us and the unfathomable ocean! It seemed, however, that we had been preserved only to perish here; Mr Banks and Dr Solander were so bad that the physician declared they had no chance for recovery but by removing into the country; a house was therefore hired for them at the distance of about two miles from the town, which belonged to the master of the hotel, who engaged to furnish them with provisions, and the use of slaves. As they had already experienced their want of influence over slaves that had other masters, and the unfeeling inattention of these fellows to the sick, they bought each of them a Malay woman, which removed both the causes of their being so ill served; the women were their own property, and the tenderness of the sex, even here, made them good nurses.[123] While these preparations were making, they received an account of the death of Tupia, who sunk at once after the loss of the boy, whom he loved with the tenderness of a parent.[124]
[Footnote 123: Dr Hawkesworth seems to have forgotten here the superiority of a simple diet over the tribe of nurses; it would seem, too, as if nature did not possess in this climate any considerable skill in surgery or medicine.--E.]
[Footnote 124: Tupia merited some eulogium; and it is singular that Dr Hawkesworth did not bestow it. This, however, has been done by Mr Forster, in his account of Cook's second voyage.--E.]
By the 14th, the bottom of the ship was thoroughly repaired, and very much to my satisfaction: It would, indeed, be injustice to the officers and workmen of this yard, not to declare, that, in my opinion, there is not a marine yard in the world where a ship can be laid down with more convenience, safety, and dispatch, nor repaired with more diligence and skill. At this place they heave down by two masts, a method which we do not now practise; it is, however, unquestionably more safe and expeditious to heave down with two masts than one, and he must have a good share of bigotry to old customs, and an equal want of common sense, who will not allow this, after seeing with what facility the Dutch heave down their largest ships at this place.
Mr Banks and Dr Solander recovered slowly at their country-house, which was not only open to the sea breeze, but situated upon a running stream, which greatly contributed to the circulation of the air: But I was now taken ill myself; Mr Sporing, and a seaman who had attended Mr Banks, were also seized with intermittents; and, indeed, there were not more than ten of the whole ship's company that were able to do duty.
We proceeded however in rigging the ship, and getting water and stores aboard: The water we were obliged to procure from Batavia, at the rate of six shillings and eight-pence a leager, or one hundred and fifty gallons.
About the 26th, the westerly monsoon set in, which generally blows here in the night from the S.W., and in the day from the N.W. or N. For some nights before this, we had very heavy rain, with much thunder; and in the night between the 25th and 26th, such rain as we had seldom seen, for near four hours without intermission. Mr Banks's house admitted the water in every part like a sieve, and it ran through the lower rooms in a stream that would have turned a mill: He was by this time sufficiently recovered to go out, and upon his entering Batavia the next morning, he was much surprised to see the bedding every where hung out to dry.