Without delaying to explore the geography of Kingston, we started about eleven for the barracks at Up Park Camp, in a sort of gig or cabriolet peculiar to the island, and arrived about twelve o'clock.—Here we found the 50th stationed, under the command of Lieut Colonel John Bacon Harrison, to whom having duly reported, we were handed over to the apartments allotted for our reception. The troops then in Jamaica were the 50th Colonel Harrison; 58th Colonel D. Walker; 61st Colonel Ryal; and the 92nd Colonel ——; the 50th and 92nd, the latest comers, whose ranks diminished by the sickness of the last year were almost reduced to skeletons, were little better than the shadow of what they were at the time of landing.
Of the old 50th but few remained.—Completed before they sailed, to the full establishment, by a fine set of young men from the North of Ireland, they departed from that country in the highest state of order and equipment for this island, where they had not been stationed for many months when the most sickly season set in that for many years had been remembered.
Full of strength, and the vigour of youth, the new soldiers soon became the victims of disease; indulging immoderately perhaps in the pernicious rum, and ignorant of its baneful effects, they lay prostrate in dreadful numbers beneath the dreadful pestilence. So great a sacrifice of human life had not taken place in all our hardest battles combined together, and the oldest inhabitants here tried in vain to recollect a more severe and afflictive dispensation.—With regard to the officers, from the Colonel to the youngest Ensign, including staff, the greater number were carried away.[36]
Among the 50th, the fever broke out in July 1819. The 92nd Highlanders did not arrive until the early part of the summer in that year, and were therefore badly seasoned. Being a long time companions in the same brigade, the meeting between these corps was consequently joyous, and in order to celebrate the happy event they dined together in the camp. Sobriety of course was not a member of the party; and, as might well be expected, the hospital was not without its portion of the company on the ensuing day. Predisposed as the men in general were by former habits, as well as by frequent exposure to the nightly dews, the malady broke out with violence unparalleled among both regiments; from that period it raged throughout the island, sweeping all before it, and even among the civilians the mortality was unbounded.
In some localities the ravages were far more dreadful than in others; Up Park camp, Spanish town, Fort Augusta, and Stony hill were among the fatal number, and at a small place on Kingston harbour, called Greenwich, no human being could exist. In a fort erected there, upon a low and swampy piece of ground, a party of artillery had been posted, the whole of whom soon died; another was sent, but they followed their companions; and so rapidly did each in succession fall under the pernicious exhalations arising from this deadly spot that it was, at length, abandoned altogether.
On the list of those who perished was Colonel Charles Hill of the 50th, who, after beholding with grief the loss of nearly all his officers, was himself attacked while stationed at Fort Augusta. His mind and body were thoroughly exhausted, and the sufferings he underwent were, in themselves, enough to bear down a stronger man, but when the fatal illness came, he was indeed badly able to withstand its violent effects.
Alone as it were in the midst of pestilence and death, his fortitude was well nigh overcome by the affliction he was doomed to suffer, in following to the silent tomb, one after another, his friends and faithful companions in arms. It was, indeed, a trial too hard for the firmest mind to bear, and affected this estimable man so much, that, afterwards, he never held up his head.
Few were then remaining to pay the last and mournful tribute to his memory, but those few, with heartfelt sorrow, witnessed his interment, where so many of his soldiers had previously been laid. To perpetuate the worth of the excellent and gallant officer, a monument was erected, in the church at Kingston, where, although upon the marble was inscribed abundant testimony of his fame, an inscription far less perishable is deeply engraven on the hearts of all who had ever been under his command.
Colonel Hill was above forty years in the 50th, serving with them in every clime, and during every time of peril. Possessed of independence, he might long since have retired to the enjoyment of private life, but no,—the regiment was his home, the officers and soldiers were his family; with them he passed the flower of his life, with them he passed to an honorable tomb. An earnest desire for the welfare of his country, together with an ardent zeal in the service of his king, were the actuating motives by which he was influenced to the latest hour of his existence.
Up Park Camp is beautifully situated on an extensive piece of level ground, at the base of the Liguana mountains, enclosed by the prickly pear, and a great variety of flowering shrubs. The verdant plain is interspersed with numerous rich and valuable trees, whose luxuriant foliage has a brilliant and enlivening effect. The spacious esplanade, upon which the barracks stand, is ornamented and embellished with all the taste displayed in the park of some noble mansion, while the magnificent hills, in the back ground, clothed to their summits with impenetrable wood, serve to heighten the grandeur of a scenery that stands unsurpassed by any thing to be met with in this habitable globe.