In the mean time we were very desirous of procuring some beef in an eatable state, with less risk and labour, and Mr. Gore, one of our Mates, at last, discovered a pleasant spot upon the north west part of the island, where cattle were in great plenty, and whence they might be brought to the tents by sea. To this place therefore I dispatched a party, with a tent for their accommodation, and sent the boats every day to fetch what they should kill; sometimes however there broke such a sea upon the rocks that it was impossible to approach them, and the Tamar’s boat unhappily lost three of her best men by attempting it. We were now, upon the whole, pretty well supplied with provisions, especially as we baked fresh bread every day for the sick; and the fatigue of our people being less, there were fewer ill with the fever: but several of them were so much disordered by eating of a very fine looking fish which we caught here, that their recovery was for a long time doubtful. The Author of the Account of Lord Anson’s Voyage says, that the people on board the Centurion thought it prudent to abstain from fish, as the few which they caught at their first arrival surfeited those who eat of them. But not attending sufficiently to this caution, and too hastily taking the word surfeit in its literal and common acceptation, we imagined that those who tasted the fish when Lord Anson first came hither, were made sick merely by eating too much;

Voyaging Accounts