i84 TUAVELS IN 
until a supply of blankets and camp utensils of every kind 
could be sent out from England. 
Invalids from India recover very quickly at the Cape. The 
servants of the East India Company are allowed to proceed 
thus far on leave of abfence without prejudice to their rank ; 
and here they generally experience a speedy recovery. The 
two Boy regiments, whom I have already mentioned to have 
suffered severely on the passage from England in ships navi- 
gated by Lascars, and who landed in fact at the height of a 
malignant and contagious disease, rapidly recovered ; and, 
in the course of two years, from being a parcel of weakly 
boys, unable to carry their musquets, became two very fine 
regiments, fit for service in any part of the world. When the 
orders, indeed, for the final evacuation of the Cape were 
countermanded, the 34th regiment, Avhich two years before 
had excited the pity of every one who saw them, enfeebled 
as they were by disease, and unfit, from their tender years, 
for the fatigues of soldiers, was now a very essential part of 
the strength of the garrison. 
It may, therefore, I think, be safely concluded, that the 
climate of the Cape is not only salubrious, but that it is par- 
ticularly favourable for forming young and raw recruits into 
soldiers. And it would appear, moreover, that the salutary 
effects of this climate are not merely local, but that their 
seasoning efficacy is extended beyond the hemisphere of 
Southern Africa, and qualifies, in a very remarkable manner, 
Jthe raw recruit and the seasoned soldier for the climate of 
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