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A VOYAGE TO JAMAICA
WHEN our intended Voyage to Jamaica was drawing near, I was desir'd by several who were to go the same Voyage, to give them my Advice what Physick would be best to prevent their being Sick at Sea, and receiving injury thereby, and by the change of the several Climates we were to pass through; to which my Answer was, that I thought the best Counsel I could give, was, to eat and drink what was fitting, and to use Exercise, and the other six non-naturals with that moderation, that their Bodies might be kept in a healthful state, and made strong and able to endure any Disease should through unavoidable contingences attack them; for that when one is well, if Physick be taken; it must either make no alteration at all on the Body, and then it will not deferve the name of Physick, but be a Chip, and fo consequently a needless trouble and good for nothing; or it must make an alteration on those, who being supposed perfectly well in Health, must by it be changed and made Sick. Some of those who would take Phyfick not withdanding this warning, felt this true to their Cost, being by Purges thrown into Gripes, and other troublesome Distempers from which they were not so easily freed. Preventive Physick consider'dThe same Argument might be urg'd against those, who when perfectly well will take preventive Physick, who if they escape Death (which the famous Machiavel did not) or Sickness, will at least by Custom, which will become, at last necessary, make themselves Slaves to bleeding and purging every Fall and Spring to prevent Diseases, which are much rather brought by these means than hindered. And it seems as reasonable to me that a Soldier should before a Fight come to a Chirurgeon to ask a remedy to prevent his being Shot, as when one is altogether Well, to a Physician for a Remedy againd Sickness. And to confirm this necessary Caution a little further, I have seen more than once in Seasons for Epidemical Diseases, as the Small-pox, etc. that those who have been over-wise, in either taking Medicines or Journies to shun the common Distempers, have, by the agitation they put their Bodies into, been taken with what perhaps otherwise they might have avoided.
On Monday the 12. day of September 1687. I went on Board the Assistance Frigat, one of the King's Ships, of forty four Guns, and two hundred Men, Commanded by Captain Laurence Wright, lying at Anchor at Spithead near Portsmouth. She had in Company two large Merchant Ships, and the Dukes Yacht, carrying His Graces Provisions and Servants. We weighed that
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