SOUTHERN AFRICA. iS; 
Jong and fatiguing marches, notwithstanding the heat of the 
chmate, the heaviness of the ground, and the scarcity of 
water. The 6lst Regiment, Sir Robert Wilson observes, 
landed at Cossir after having been near sixteen weeks on 
board, without having one sick man, though the strength of 
the reo-iment exceeded nine hundred men. 
o 
A thousand difficulties, it appears, were started in Eng- 
land with regard to the sailing of tiiis expedition, by people 
who derive their information onlj- from defective books, and 
not from local knowledge. The season of the Monsoon was 
stated to be unfavorable for the navigation of the Red Sea, 
and the deserts by which it was bordered were held to be 
totally impassable. But to vigorous and determined minds 
few things are insurmountable. The man (Lord Melville) 
" who projected, and persevered in, the expedition to Egypt," 
saw very clearly that the expedition to the Red Sea could 
not fail under proper caution and management, and the event 
proved that he was right. 
Having thus sufficiently shewn, as I conceive, the import- 
ance of the Cape as a military station, or depositary of troops, 
as far as regards the healthiness of the climate, and the effects 
produced on the constitution of soldiers, by being seasoned 
and exercised a short time there, I shall now proceed to state 
the comparatively small expence at which the soldier can be 
subsisted on this station, and the saving that must necessarily 
ensue both to Government and the East India Company, by 
sending their recruits to the Cape to be trained for service 
cither in the East or the West Indies. And as some of his 
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