108 MEMOIR OF UR WRIGHT. 



Whilst the ranks of the armament were thus rapid- 

 ly extenuated by disease and death, the skill of the 

 medical practitioners was insufficient for the protection 

 of their own number from the ravages of mortality. Five 

 physicians, four surgeons, and twenty hospital mates, 

 had already fallen victims to the climate. Originally, 

 there were eleven physicians on the staff of the arma- 

 ment. Of these five had died, four had returned to Eng- 

 land in bad health, and in eighteen months after their 

 arrival in the West Indies, Dr Wright had found 

 himself with only a single coadjutor : So true it is that 

 the cottage and the palace, the patient and the physi- 

 cian, are equally amenable to the visits of mortality. 



Sir Ralph Abercrombie, after the conquest of 

 Trinidad, returned again to England in September 

 1797. Soon afterwards, Dr Wright applied for 

 leave to return. His health had happily remained 

 unimpaired ; and in other respects his situation was 

 as favourable as could be consistent with the scene of 

 death and desolation by which he was surrounded* 

 His emoluments appear to have been considerable. 

 He indulged a good deal in exercise on horseback ; 

 and after defraying the expences of an establishment, 

 in which there were three men servants, and as many 

 horses, his annual savings amounted to L. 500. That, 

 however, was not a consideration sufficient to counter- 

 balance, in the mind of Dr Wkight, the want of that 

 society which in Edinburgh had been his chief source 

 of enjoyment. It was under these circumstances, and 

 before the period had elapsed within which it was 

 possible to receive an answer to his application, that a 



