SOUTHERN AFRICA. 179 
practice before they will play -with their usual freedom in 
the chest. And these effects, adverse to prompt and ener- 
getic action, will generally be proportioned to the length 
of the voyage, and the privations to which men must neces- 
sarily submit. 
The very able and intelligent writer of the Precis des evene- 
mens miUtaires^ or Epitome of military events, seems to ascribe 
the defeat of the Russian column, commanded by General 
Hermann, in the affair at Bergen where it was almost cut to 
pieces, to their marching against the enemy immediately after 
landing from a sea-voyage, although it had not been very 
long. He observes that, " by being crowded on board 
" transports, and other inconveniencies experienced at sea, 
" not only a considerable number of individuals are weak- 
" ened to such a degree that they are incapable of any ser- 
" vice, but whole corps sometimes present the same disad- 
" vantages — the extreme inequality of strength that, in such 
" cases, prevails between the individuals or constituent parts 
*' of corps, is, at once, destructive of their aggregated and 
" combined impulse." 
If then such be the effects produced on seasoned troops, 
on a sea-voyage of a moderate length only, they must be 
doubl_y felt by young recruits unaccustomed to the necessary 
precautions for preserving their health. In fact, a raw re- 
cruit, put on board a ship in England, totally unformed and 
undisciplined, will be much farther from being a soldier, 
when he arrives in India, than when he first stepped on board. 
The odds are great that he dies upon the passage, or that he 
