106 THE NEW SOUTH WALES CORPS. 1791 December, 1791,* shows that on the latter date the strength Corps of the Corps then present in the colony had been increaeed on various from One hundred and three to two hundred and seventy- tnoBpoits* three, including seventy-six stationed atNorf oik Island. The transports nuist therefore have brought out about one hun- dred and seventy of all ranks, including Captain Paterson and several of the subalterns. The rest of the officers remained in England with Major Grose until the Pitt sailed. This vessel took on board one company of the Corps, com- manded by Captain Hill. The sixth company came out after- wards in detachments as guards for the convict ships. The voyage of the Pitt was marked by misfortune. After leaving St. Jago,t where the vessel put in for refreshments, DisastrouB the troops were attacked by a malignant fever, which carried of the Pitt, off a large number. The commander. Captain Manning, in a letter to Alderman Macaulay, the head of the firm from which the transport was hired, describes the misfortune in forcible language : — " For a considerable time our scene was truly melancholy. la fourteen days we buried twenty-seven seamen, soldiers, their wives and children. Scarcely a person escaped death who was watering on shore at that d place, St. Jago."t From a return sent by Grose to the Admiralty, from Rio de Janeiro, it appears that thirteen soldiers were carried off ^tomente ^^ *^® fover. He attributed the outbreak to the defective of tevwi^ arrangements on board. Captain Manning, on the other hand, regarded it as due to climatic causes, the time of the year at which the island was visited being notoriously unhealthy ; this theory is upheld by the fact that while the soldiers and sailors, who had liberty on shore, suffered severely, the convicts, who were confined to the ships, escaped the fever altogether. Grose lost on the voyage
- Historical Becords, yoI, i, part 2>pp- 863 and 568.
t St. Jago, the largest of the Cape Verd islands : this form of the name has disappeared from the maps. The island is now known as Santiago. { Historical Becords, toI. i, part 2, p. 527. Captain Manning's letter was published in the FuhUe Advertiser (London) of date 9th Februaiy, 1793.
