10 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. I. 



very lately, most melancholy and alarming. General 

 D'Aguilar, when commander-in-chief in the colony, 

 predicted the loss, in three years, of a number equal 

 to the strength of one regiment, and his prediction 

 has been almost verified. This sacrifice of human 

 life is fearful to contemplate. The merchant may 

 complain of the dulness of trade in the colony, the 

 political economist may cry out about its expensive- 

 ness, but these matters sink into insignificance when 

 compared with such loss of human life. 



The question " Why do soldiers suffer more than 

 other men ? " naturally presents itself, and I humbly 

 think it is not difficult to answer. They have not 

 the same occupation for the mind as tradesmen, mer- 

 chants, and others ; of excitement they have little or 

 none ; day after day the same dull routine of duty 

 has to be got through, and, in addition to this, they 

 are often exposed to the night air. When some of 

 them get an attack of fever, others who look on 

 become nervous and predisposed to disease, and are 

 soon laid up in hospital with their comrades. And 

 add to all these things the effects of the Chinese 

 spirit called "Samshoo," which drives men mad, 

 and, as Captain Massie, of the "Cleopatra," so justly 

 observed in the Supreme Court, "makes bad men of 

 the best in the ship." 



If these are the main causes of fever and death 

 amongst the troops, it surely is not difficult to point 

 out a remedv. The editor of the ' China Mail ' 

 justly remarks that "the climate was blamed for 

 much that arose from a blind adherence to regulations 



