SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
nlfhmg no fuch materials, the men v/ere obliged to fleep on 
the bare flag-ftones in the great barrack, until a fupply of 
blankets and camp utenfils of every kind could be fent out from 
England. 
Invalids from India recover very quickly at the Cape. The 
fervants of the Eaft India Company are allowed to proceed thus 
far on leave of abfence without prejudice to their rank ; and 
here they generally experience a fpeedy recovery. The two 
Boy regiments, whom I have already mentioned to have fuf- 
fered feverely on the paflage from England in fhips navigated 
by Lafcars, and who landed in fail on the height of a malig- 
nant and contagious difeafe, rapidly recovered ; and, in the 
courfe of two years, from being a parcel of weakly boys, un- 
able to carry a mufquet, became two very fine regiments, fit 
for fervice in any part of the world. When the orders, indeed, 
for the final evacuation of the Cape were countermanded, the 
34th regiment, which two years before had excited the pity of 
every one who faw them, enfeebled as they were by difeafe, 
and unfit, from their tender years, for the fatigues of foldiers, 
was now a very eflential part of the ftrength of the garrifon. 
It may, therefore, I think, be fafely concluded, that the cli- 
mate of the Cape is not only falubrious, but that it is particu- 
larly favourable for forming young and raw recruits into 
foldiers. And it would appear, moreover, that the falutary ef- 
fects of this climate are not merely local, but that their feafoning 
efficacy is extended beyond the hemifphere of Southern Africa, 
and qualifies, in a very remarkable manner, the raw recruit 
and 
