frontier of the Cape, where this class of troops is principally employed; and they are
occasionally without vegetable or farinaceous food for several weeks, at which times they
often consume from two to three pounds of meat daily ; and their usual meat-ration is at
all times as great as that of the European soldier. Intoxication, with ardent and fermented
spirits, or by smoking large quantities of a ooarse description of hemp, is also by no means
unoommon among them; yet has this corps proved as healthy as the Maltese Fenoibles, and
still more so than the^ native army of the East Indies, whoso comparative exemption from
disease bas by some been attributed to the simplicity of their diet, and their general
abstinence from every species of intoxication. Facts like these show with what caution
deductions should be drawn, when the returns of only one class of men are before us; and
how necessary it is in this, as in every other species of statistical inquiry, to extend the
sphere of observation, with a view to accurate results.
I shall next advert to a class of troops who, though born within the Tropics, and
serving in tropical colonies, are not natives o f the climate in which they are stationed.
First of these, in number and importance, are the three West India corps, recruited principally
from negroes captured in slave-ships, or inhabitants of the west ooast of Africa.
These men are distributed throughout Jamaica and the West India islands ; and take the
duty of those stations which long experience has shown to be inimical to the health of
Europeans.
“ The strength and mortality of this class, for the same two‘years as were before referrod
to, have been as follows:
Jarhaica.
STRENGTH. DEATHS.
Tear ending 31st March, 1845........................ 17
“ 1846........................ ■ 36
Average of these two years.................... 26Ï
West Indies.
STRENGTH. - DEATHS.
Tear ending 31st March, 1845........ ........... 23
“ 1846......................... 32
Average of these two years.................... 27J
« These troops being frequently removed from island to island, there would be no utility
in stating the separate mortality in each, as, in most instances, the calculation would
involve broken periods of a year; but, on the whol<Ut appears that, in Jamaica, the mortality
has been at the rate of about 81, and in the West Indies 26 per 1000 of the force
annually; while the mortality of the same class of troops, at the same stations, during the
twenty years antecedent to 1836, was respectively 30 per 1000 in Jamaica, and 40 per 1000
in the West Indies—thus showing a marked reduotron in the mortality at the latter, during
the last two years.
“ On referring to the preceding results, a very material difference will be found between
the mortality of this class of troops, and that of the Cape corps and Maltese Fencibles,
who are serving in their native climate: the former being nearly four times as high as
either of-the latter. Though the climate of the West Indies is probably as warm as that
of the interior of Africa” [in which the author is mistaken], “ whence the negroes ore
generally drawn, yet their constitutions never have, and probably never will, become assimilated
to it. The high rate of mortality among them can, in no respect, be attributed
either to the habits or the duties of the negro .soldier; for others of the same rate, who
are not in the army, suffer in a corresponding proportion” [as we shall take occasion to
show, on a large scale J. C. N.]
“ By a very extensive investigation, into which I entered when engagedrin the preparation
of the West-India Statistical Report, about seven years ago” [already referred to], “ I
found that the mortality among the negro slave-population, even including families who
had been for several generations in these colonies, amounted to about 30 per 1000 annually,
of all ages. Very little of this mortality occurred among infant life : it fell principally on
persons of mature age; among which class it was nearly double the proportion usually
observed among the civil population in this country. That, under such a mortality the
negro race can ever increase or even keep up their numbers, in the West Indies, uppers a
physical ^possibility; and there is good reason to believe, that the want of labor, so much
complained of, and the demand for immigration from other countries, so much insisted on
arises more from the waste of life, than from the increasing cu ltiv a te of the soil; and
that a careful investigation into the mortality of the negro population, at different ages
would show that the period is not far distant, at which that race would become entirely
S o l t t o n r WeSt lDdieS* bHt fOT ■ nuinbera by fresh
“ The results on which these observations, as to the mortality of the negro population
were founded, extended, it is true, over a period when slavery prevailed in the island • 1 and
it would be interesting to those philanthropists who then attributed the high rate of mortality
to tha cause, now to trace, from the returns of each island, whether any diminution
has taken place since freedom was established among our sable brethren; but when it is
shown by these resul s, that negro soldiers, in the prime of life, with every advantage in
pom of income, Clothing, comfort, and medical, attendance, which the British soldier enjoys
-w ith precisely the same diet (if that can be considered an advantage), and with much
^eater regularity of habits than he can boast of, are subject to an annual mortality of from
W m H P«r.oent->.th<™ ijj M e reason to hope that, whether bond or free, the negro race
will ever thrive or increase in the West Indies.
“ The same remarks, as regards the unsuitableness of the climate, will, in a great measure,
apply to the next class of troops to which I have to advert, viz., the Ceylon Rifle
Regiment composed of Malays, brought principally from the Straits of Malacca, for the
purpose of serving m Ceylon.; where the climate, though equally warm, does not appear by
r e g a r r r th T r n Z m y : e°nStitUti°n’ ** * * fr°m « " * ■
„ STRENGTH. DEATHS.
Tear ending 31st March, 1845......................... 1952 46 '
1846........ 1930 36
Average of these two years 1941 “JT
H 7 nUa! m°rtf ty/ 21 POT10005 K f fte ™ ti0 amon8 for the twenty years antecedent to 1836, was 27 per 1000 annually.the «’ass of troops,
In ,Z h0^ h this,mortality is considerably lower than that of the negro froops in the West
SeTonti 18 T r r 9 1 T S I “ that WU0h °C0Ura amon8 the nat!™ serving on
tinent of India adjacent—a sufficient proof that the Malay race is never likely to
th ~ r at6d 1 mate °f Ceyl°n: indeed’ H has i l been a object of remark,
in o rd i t °U en enC0Uraged t0 “ to- thc service at a very early age
im■nnpoorrttraftio°nr oTf rUelctrtubietfs0 frrCome’ tthhea tM eaxlpayed cioeanstt .has Pr0Ted insufficient, without the constant
S uh„ lm0rta,ity am0“g tWS 01483 °f tr00pS’ as amon8 eTefy °*ber which I have adverted
twenty v- 1*0 I co”slderable''re'luction within the last two years, as compared with the
in the condRion of ^ 1836- ° wi“s ’ no donbt> to lata improvements and ameliorations
i M m ° K 7 9 I « m -18 KttIe h°Pe’ 6ither “ th6 °ase of the Malay or
pect Of th e t reduction will be sufficiently progressive to hold out a reasonable prosas8im!
iated 40 the °f m * «
°D’ 1 1 slaverV a»tMng to do with this result.
2 5 Pa ln™rlaWy (in Americrt baa increased the ratio of mortality.