The scene that Mary Seacole describes at Chagres is brief but compelling. She states that she had "never seen a more luckless, dreary spot" (18). The climate of the area was extremely damp and putrid, causing most of the inhabitants of Navy Bay to be under constat seige from viruses and other sicknesses. Seacole only spent a single night in Chagres, and yet her expertise and medical supplies were used on the men in hopes of treating them. She noted that nothing in her medicine chest could help these men; what they needed was warmth, nourishment, and fresh air.