Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 636

1841.

Progress of the Expedition to China.

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potentiary sir H. Pottinger, and rear-admiral sir W. Parker. Prepa- rations were then immediately made for the expedition to the north.

Sickness had in the meantime prostrated many in the navy and army. Death had numbered some of their best men among its victims, Though inhaling the poisonous miasma during the seven days' 80- journ on the heights above the city of Canton, still the men continu- ed free from disease. Excitement and hard work seemed to steel them against it. On the passage down the river they first began to suffer. Our gallant and respected commodore, sir H. Le Fleming Senhouse, was the first to sink under the disease. He carried with him to the grave the regrets of all. From him the military derived, at all times, every possible assistance. To coöperate with them seemed to afford him pleasure. He was buried at Macao, and a monument erected over his remains by a joint subscription from the army and navy. The health of the troops on board ship soon began to improve. Those on shore, however, continued to suffer much. They consisted of the 37th Madras native infantry, sappers and mi- ners, recruits of the 18th Royal Irish, and the detachment of Bengal Volunteers.

On the increase of sickness, 100 men of the 37th regiment, and the whole of the other troops on shore, were reëmbarked. In them a rapid and decided improvement speedily took place. The head quarters of the 37th regiment, about 500 strong, were left on shore, and unfortunately housed in barracks very ill adapted for this change- able climate. Disease in them rapidly increased to an alarming ex- tent: hospital gangrene made its appearance; and the slightest abrad- ed surface degenerated into a foul malignant ulcer. Sores which had been cicatrized for days and days again broke out. Men, who had been wounded at Chuenpe and elsewhere, and who, poor fel- lows, proud of their wounds, and rendered by them disqualified for further active service, looked forward with pleasure and anxiety to the period of return to their homes in India, where they would be enabled to spend the rest of their days in ease and comfort with their families on the bountiful pension of their honorable masters, were now cut off. Out of 600 men, barely 100 were fit for duty. Two of the officers of the regiment had died, and of the remaining sixteen, one only was off the sick list. The corps was exactly in this state, with a hospital crowded to overflowing, when the tyfoon of the 21st July came on. It was during the surgeon's visit on the morning of that day, that the hospital came down, crushing under its ruins the miserable bed-ridden patients. Though many sustained injuries,

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