314 JAMAICA. 



remark may be applied likewife, to fome other barracks in the iflatid, 

 which require more windows for admitting the air, proper remedies 

 for damp walls, the draining away of ftagnant water, and removal 

 of the fick wards and offenfive fmells, to a quarter where they 

 may not incommode the men who are in health. 



Reafon and experience point out, that men, coming from a cold 

 into a hot climate, fliould make the change at that feafon of the 

 year, when the degree of heat is leaft at the place of their de- 

 itination ; by which means, the tranfition will be more gradual, 

 and therefore produdive of a lefs violent fhock to the conflitution. 

 On their firft arrival, the change of climate moft commonly brings 

 on a diarrhoea. If the men at this time, and during tlie fucceeding 

 twelve months, are not hindered from befotting thcmfelves with 

 new rum, or from dieting too conflantly upon lalt fifh, fait beef or 

 pork, and rancid butter ; they will probably be feized with violent 

 fevers of the putrid clafs, and it may be expelled that many of them 

 will die. 



The mofl: wholefome beverage for them would be fugar and 



water, with or without a moderate allowance of old rum; what is 



ftill preferable, is the cool drink, prepared here by many of the free 



Negroe and Mulatta women, who vend it cheap to the foldiers. It 



is made with a mixture of fugar, guaicum chips, and ginger, infufed 



together in hot water, and afterwards worked into a ferment with 



a piece of frefh gathered chaw-flick ; which, by the quantity of 



fixed air contained in it, foon excites a confiderable froth, and 



imparts a flight bitter, of a very agreeable flavour. This drink, 



when cool and depurated, is racy and pleafant, extremely whoJe- 



Ibme, and, if taken in too large quantities, intoxicates in fome 



degree, but without caufing any ill effedl to the conflitution. 



This liquor might eafily be brewed twice or oftener in the week, 



at the barracks, and drank by way of a change. The plantains, 



yams, and caflava bread, are nutritious, wholefome, and, after 



a little ufe, preferred by moft of the foldiers to flour bread or 



bifcuit at their principal meal, and are far cheaper. The potatoes and 



cocos are not lefs nourifhing. Haifa pound of what is called in 



England make-iveight beef, confifling of the coarfer parts, with 



iome of thefe roots, the efculent herte of the country, fuch as the 



colalu, 



