1772.
October.
and three hundred others dangerously ill to the hospital. A fact no less deplorable than certain, is, that the small expence and facility with which the ziel-verkoopers actually carry on their infamous trade of supplying the India company with recruits, makes them less attentive to the preservation of health among these poor people. Nothing is more common, in this and other Dutch colonies, than to meet with soldiers in the company's service who, upon enquiry, acknowledge they have been kidnapped in Holland. There is an apothecary's shop belonging to the hospital, where the most necessary remedies are prepared, but no expensive drug is to be found in it, and the method of administering to all the patients indiscriminately out of two or three huge bottles, full of different preparations, suffice to convince us, that the fresh air of the land, and fresh provisions here, contribute much more to the recovery of the sick, than the skill of their physicians. Patients who are able to walk, are ordered to go up and down the streets every fair morning; and all kinds of greens, pot-herbs, sallads, and antiscorbutics are raised for their use in an adjacent garden belonging to the company. Travellers have sometimes praised and sometimes depreciated this garden, according to the different points of view in which it has been considered. It is true, a few regular walks of indifferent oaks, encompassed with elm and myrtle hedges, are not objects engaging enoughto
