162 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



than the probability that some one of the number 

 may have brought with him, from his dirty home, 

 the contagion of fever, perhaps of plague, and it 

 will be easy to conceive how great and constant 

 must be the care that can maintain them in toler- 

 able health and comfort a care that must subsist 

 not only in the hospital, but be extended over all 

 arrangements affecting them. 



The healthy and active appearance of the men was 

 the best presumptive evidence of the excellence of 

 their regime. Had we even left Magnesia without 

 positive witness of their barrack economy, we should 

 have felt sure that these men must be ably officered 

 and well looked after. It is, with regiments as with 

 ships, a standing truth that efficiency of condition is 

 compatible only with efficiency and sympathy on the 

 part of the officers. The grand secret of our naval 

 discipline is the recognition of this truth ; and no- 

 where does it find a more full exemplification than 

 on board our ships. There every officer (every good 

 officer) feels for and with his men. Xothing save 

 the positive requirement of the service is allowed to 

 interfere with their comfort. The care of their health 

 is as much the ambition and duty of the captain as 

 is the care of his ship. Few things in the strange 

 world afloat would strike a landsman more than the 

 minute attention habitually paid to men who are 

 hourly liable to the most perilous risks. At the need 

 of the service limb and life are freely ventured, but 



