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exceffive labour impofed on men, moft of whom had been actually confined fix months on fhip-board, without frefh provi sions or exercife, co-operating with the malignancy of the air, produced its natural confequences. They dropt like the leaves in autumn, until at length the garrifon became fo diminifhed and enfeebled, that deficiencies of the guards were oftentimes made up from convalefcents, who were fcarcely able to stand under their arms (b). I T is true, that a reinforcement came from the Windward Iflands, foon after the furrender of the town ;—but, by a mourn ful fatality, this apparent augmentation of the ftrength of the garrifon, contributed in an eminent degree to the rapid encreafe and aggravation of its miferies. On the 8th of June, eight flank companies belonging to the 22d, 23d, 35th, and 41ft regiments, arrived at Port au Prince, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Lenox. They confifted, on their embarka tion, of about feventy men each, but the aggregate number, when landed, was not quite three hundred. T h e four grena dier companies, in particular, were nearly annihilated. T h e frigate in which they were conveyed, became a houfe of pestiknee. Upwards of one hundred of their number were buried in the deep, in the fhort paffage between Guadaloupe and J a maica, and one hundred and fifty more were left in a dying ftate at Port Royal. T h e wretched remains of the whole de-
(b) It was fortunate for the Britifh army, mat the French troops fuffered by ficknefs almoft as much as our o w n : Port au Prince would otherwife have been but a fhort time in our poffeffion.
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CHAP. XL