il90 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



would quarter four thousand men with the greatest ease, and 

 regard to health. These buildings and improvements were 

 projected by the Dutch government, contracted for by an 

 English mercantile house, the plan Improved by the engineers 

 under General Grinfield, and finally paid for by the colony. 

 They are certainly a very great acquisition to the troops, and 

 afford an opportunity in case of sickness, of removing them 

 to different situations for change of air, which is very neces- 

 sary, and so often proves salutary. 



Some little time after the first arrival of troops, which 

 amounted to fifteen hundred, a reinforcement of five hundred 

 more arrived, equally in as bad a plight as the former, with 

 regard to provisions and accommodation on board ship ; the 

 preparations and arrangements made for their reception were 

 not in the least calculated to benefit their situation. A more 

 ill-digested plan for the reception of two thousand men into a 

 tropical climate, I suppose never was witnessed ; if they had 

 had no time for making the necessary arrangements, something 

 might have been urged in apology; but as upwards of fourteen 

 months had elapsed from the signing of the preliminaries of 

 peace to their arrival in the colony to take possession, surely 

 more might have been done to render their situation com- 

 fortable, and approaching to that of civilized human beings. 

 Not to put a worse construction on the conduct of the Bata- 



vian government in this particular instance that it deserved, it 



