BOOK II. CHAP. XIII. 305 



and therefore mofl likely, either to make fots of thofe men who 

 were not fuch before, or to confirm others more inveterately, in 

 their drunken habits ; and, laftly, that money and a demand are 

 the only things rcquifitc to procure a regular aiid well-ilipplied 

 niaikct in a country which abounds with provifion. There is, 

 moreover, a very great diiference in the air and fituation of the 

 dillbrent barracks; lb that, in fome of them, a diet on fait pro - 

 vifioi), concurring with any local depravity of the atmofphere, 

 may difpofethc body to very malignant diftempers; while, in other 

 barracks, the fame diet may prove much lefs injurious to a foklier's 

 hcaltii. Thus, of fifty uni'eafoned men, quartered at an inland 

 barrack for three years, not one died of any diftemper; though 

 otber companies of the fame regiment, quartered on unhealthy 

 fpots near the coail, were (ickly, and buried feveral of their men. 

 I would not mean to infinuate any thing to the difadvantage of fo 

 refpedtable a body as the officers in general are ; but fome among 

 them are not immaculate; nor is it to be fuppofed but they are 

 fubjeft, like other men, to human frailties. The worthier part of 

 them, I am convinced, upon a due confi deration of the fubjed, 

 might fall on Ibme plan of regulation, to the end that thefe bene- 

 volent aids, which the inhabitants grant to the poor foldiers and 

 their families, may not be mifapplicd ; that their health fliould be 

 effectually confulted, as well by feeding them with wholefome pro- 

 vifions, as by reftraining them from the immoderate ufe of fpi- 

 rituous liquors. 



An officer, who attends flri(51:ly to the health of his men in botli 

 cafes, certainly renders the molt eflential ferviceto the king and to 

 the public, and makes the beft return to the good intentions of the 

 people, by thus fupporting the ability of the troops, to give that 

 protection in time of needy which, I conceive, is the chief delign of 

 their being Rationed in this ifland. 



By the encouragements given to the troops, the fervice here is 

 become far lefs difagreeable than in mofl other parts of the Wefl-1 

 Indies. The private men, who are married, are, by living in a 

 regular manner, more healthy than the unmarried. The children 

 are very little burthenfome to their parents; and, when a woman 

 has the misfortune of lofing her hufband, (he continues but a fliort 

 Vol. II. Rr time 



