Title
A Voyage to the East Indies: Page 60
Description
The Day after we came to an Anchor in Madras Roads, a Cutter from the Asia Man of War, with a Lieutenant, came on board and took twenty of our Hands out. At Madras I had an Oportunity of seeing how injudicious a Step it is to send young Highlanders to India. They say they endure hardships better than other english Soldiers, that they would follow their leaders to the End of the World without Murmur, that Vicissitude of Climate and all the disadvantages of Life have no Effect on them. I believe that if the Will alone was sufficient all this would be done but why better than English or Irishmen? Can it be suppos’d that Men born in a high Northern Latitude, expos’d from their Infancy to the Inclemency of cold weather, whose Exercise has been always little and Diet exceedingly scanty, should be fit Persons to resist the burning Heat of India, where the coldest day is hotter perhaps than they ever felt it? A Melancholy Instance of the Contrary we had in the Passage when the air was cool’d by Breezes, & where tho the Mortality amongst the Highlanders was so great, the English or Irish Soldiers scarcely suffer’d. On their Landing in India they fell away like rotten Sheep. Men apparently in Health were dead in a few Hours, & what could this be attributed to but the Climate. In Fact the Heat here is almost intolerable to the Natives at Particular Times of the Day, how then must it be for those poor wretches, who have been wading in snow from their Infancy … [end page 60]
