LETTER XXXVI.
The apprehended division of our long associated mess has taken place! It has fallen to my lot to join an expedition under General Whyte, and I am separated from my friends, perhaps soon to meet again, perhaps to meet no more! To what quarter we are bound is held in secrecy. Curaçoa, Demarara, St. Eustatia, and various other destinations have been conjectured, but, from the course we are at present steering, the coast of Guiana seems to be most probable.
We were ordered away at very short notice. On returning to the Lord Sheffield after my visit at the hospital on the morning of the 14th inst. I received instructions to embark on board the Grenada transport before twelve o’clock; and to take the direction of a detachment of the hospital staff, appointed to accompany a division of the army, which was to sail that afternoon, on secret service.
Being advised to carry with me as little baggage as possible, and assured that I might expect soon to return, in order to proceed with General Whyte, to St. Domingo, I made up a soldier’s kit of apparel, and left all my heavier packages, under the care of my late comrades, in the Lord Sheffield.
The Grenada is a very fine vessel, and sails remarkably well. Like the Lord Sheffield, she is a West India trader, engaged as a transport only for the passage out, and as soon as she has completed her voyage is to return to England laden with sugar, cotton, or other colonial produce.
I thought myself fortunate in being appointed to so good a ship; and, hearing that troops were to be thickly stowed on board the different vessels of the expedition, anticipated much of comfort upon the passage, by observing that the Grenada was free from the crowd I had expected to meet. But these self-gratulations proved to be somewhat premature. Upwards of three hundred troops arrived quickly after, and a scene of confusion was introduced surpassing all that even fancy had created.
The lieutenant-colonel commanding the regiment, the commanding officer of artillery, and myself, are the only officers who have the accommodation of separate births: all the others are obliged to lie down together without beds, or mattresses, upon the bare decks of the cabins, and even there, they are compelled to stow closely, in order to make room for them all.
On the upper deck the soldiers are still more thickly spread; they sleep without any other covering than their clothes of the day, using the arm, or the knapsack as a pillow; and so near do they lie to each other, that a foot can scarcely find place between them. Happily the wind is very favorable, and we are led to believe that whithersoever we may be bound the voyage will not be long. Having the steady breeze of the trades on her quarter, the ship is worked almost wholly by the helm, and we seldom have need to shift the sails—occasional bracing being all that is necessary. If the weather had been bad, and the wind against us, you will readily imagine the sad state we must have been in, with such a body of men, sick, and ill, and crowded in every quarter of the vessel. Even as it is, we have much difficulty in keeping them sufficiently clean to preserve them in health. They lie down in their clothes at night, where they have been standing or sitting the whole of the day, and from the deck being their seat, their dinner-board, and their bed, all about them soon grows unwholesome and offensive: pieces of broken food, sloppings of broth, or grog, bits of meat, old bones, crumbs of biscuit, and various other kinds of filth collect under them, and about their clothing; and, from the great heat of climate, and still more unpleasant heat occasioned by the crowd, this dirty commixture soon becomes sour and fetid; and would, in a short time, generate disease, were not the rules of cleanliness strictly enforced.
Besides those who sleep upon the open deck above, there is another multitude in a more confined situation between decks. Observing this place to be very close, and not sufficiently ventilated, I have recommended that the troops should be divided into three watches, and that two of the three divisions should be kept constantly upon the open deck, relieving those below every four hours. Likewise as a further means of prevention I have advised that all the men should bathe every morning, while the decks are thoroughly washed and cleaned. Fortunately I am supported in this by the approbation of Colonel Tilson, who is exceedingly zealous to do every thing that can preserve the health of the soldiers, and has issued his orders accordingly.
We have contrived a method whereby the bathing is effected with less trouble than was at first apprehended. The men are regularly assembled by companies upon the quarter-deck, at an early hour of the morning, and there undressing, two at a time, they go down to the waist of the ship, and remain at the bottom of the step leading from the quarter-deck, until two or three buckets of water have been dashed upon them by some of their comrades standing directly above them upon the edge of the deck, others being stationed at the sides to draw up water for the purpose. After being thus washed, they move on to the forecastle to dress themselves, others following in succession until the whole are bathed.
We find some difficulty in establishing this practice, but I hope in a few days to see it brought to the regularity of a military movement: the benefit of it is not confined merely to cleanliness of person, for, while the bathing is going on, the decks, where the soldiers sleep, are thoroughly swept and washed. Its utility is also further extended, in the general movement it creates, and the refreshing coolness it brings to every one on board. Were the voyage to be long, our experience of the few past days seems to assure us that this daily washing would be our best, and, perhaps, our only preservative against sickness.
The expedition consists of about thirteen hundred men of the 39th, 93d, and 99th regiments commanded by Lieutenant-colonels Tilson, Hislop, and Gammell, and a party of artillery, under the command of Captain Bagot. The squadron of the fleet, employed with us, is under Commodore Parr, and consists of the Malabar of 50 guns, La Pique, Le Babet, and the Undaunted frigates; to which are added, the Grenada armed transport, with several sloops, and schooners.
I must not forget to note that I am now addressing you from the opposite side of the sun. This day, in latitude 9° 27′, we passed immediately under that burning orb, receiving his perpendicular rays directly upon our heads. I have nothing further to tell you on this occasion. His southern face seems neither hotter nor colder, brighter nor darker, than his northern. The only striking circumstance arises from the novelty of looking to the north at noon, to take our meridian; and habit will be required to reconcile this seeming inconsistency. While you at mid-day look south for the sun, I shall look north, and although our noon will be different, this circumstance will often, mentally, place me with you. The effect, I wish to flatter myself, will be reciprocal, and, attracted by his opposite sides, the cheering sun will be frequently the medium of associating us in mutual sympathy.