The moans of the sick were drowned by the blasphemy and ribaldry of their comrades.
Sometimes, seated on the body of a wretch who had died in the morning, might be seen a wretch destined to die before night, cursing, singing loose songs, and swallowing usquebaugh to the health of the devil.

When the corpses were taken away to be buried the survivors grumbled.

A dead man, they said, was a good screen and a good stool.

Why, when there was so abundant a supply of such useful articles of furniture, were people to be exposed to the cold air and forced to crouch on the moist ground?
[445] Many of the sick were sent by the English vessels which lay off the coast to Belfast, where a great hospital had been prepared.

But scarce half of them lived to the end of the voyage.