3l6 VOYAGE TO MADAGASCAR. 



fcnt fix hundred recruits ever/ year, I 

 ** fhould have raifed in the courfe of tweu- 

 *^ ty years a fiourilhing and formidable co- 

 ** lonv. I obferved to him that tJie couu- 

 ** try was unheal thful ; and that five in fix 

 ** of the people fent thither fell vidims to 

 ** the infalubritv of the climate. In anfwer 

 " to thisj Benyowfki replied, that by clear- 



ing confiderable tracts of land, during the 

 *' favourable feafon, difeafes might be pre- 

 " Tented, and that the Phm of HeaUb was 

 ** a healthful fpot, whatever M. de Bcl- 

 " combe iniglit fay to the contrary. If 

 " I hare loft a great many people, conti- 

 *' nued he ; and if tlie eighty who remain, 

 " are either fick, or in a Hate of convalcf- 

 -* cence, this deplorable fituation, in which 

 " you lind me, is to be afcribed to the war 

 ** 1 was obliged to undertake againft the 

 " iilanders, and ftill more to my refiding at 



Louilhiirgh. Belides, it is always much 

 3 *c eafier 



