THE WALCHEREN EXPEDITION. 59 



The objective point, in this instance, was no pestilen- 

 tial African jungle, sweltering under the rays of a 

 vertical sun ; but some fortresses within a short sail 

 of the English coasts, on the mouth of the Scheldt, 

 upon the Dutch shores. This expedition was one of 

 the most powerful and admirably disciplined forces 

 that has ever sailed from the shores of this country, 



" consisting of 35 ships of the line, with 200 smaller ships, 

 and 40,000 men under the Earl of Chatham. The fleet, 

 which was commanded by Sir Richard Strachan, with troopships 

 under its protection, sailed from England July 28, 1809"* 

 "landed July 3ist and August ist, and by the loth of Octo- 

 ber, 587 per 1000 men had fallen sick, and 142 per 1000 

 had died." f 



The moment chosen for embarking this force was 

 during the most unhealthy period of the year, to a 

 place which, though situated in Europe, was of well- 

 known malarious reputation, where a Scotch regiment 

 in the Dutch service had been known to bury their 

 whole number in three years, and where the French 

 army lost annually one third of those employed, thus 

 justifying the exclamation of Napoleon, on hearing that 

 the English had occupied the island of Walcheren, 

 " Only keep them in check, and the bad air and fevers 

 will soon destroy their armies. " And so in fact it 

 did, for, 



" from a Parliamentary return it appears that 7000 had been 

 lost in the expedition, and that nearly half the troops en- 

 gaged in it brought home with them the seeds of a distemper, 



* Haydn's Dictionary of Dates. 



j Sir James R. Martin, The Influence of Tropical Climates in the 

 Production of Disease, 2nd Edition, 1861, p. 275. 

 Ibid., p. 275. 



