[438] See the case of Lillingston's regiment in Antigua, Cal. Treas. Papers, 18th November 1707: for the Mediterranean garrisons and Peninsula, S. P., Dom. (December 1705), vol. vii.; (19th June 1709), vol. xiv.
[439] E.g. Secretary's Common Letter Book, 22nd December 1710.
[440] Ibid., 22nd December 1708.
[441] Despatches, vol. v. pp. 21, 241. This colonel, Bennett by name, was an admirable officer at his work, and had done excellent service at Gibraltar.
[442] Cal. Treas. Papers, 18th November 1710, 6th January 1711. Recruits were practically bought and sold at from £2 to £3 a head at ordinary times, colonels receiving so much a man when they furnished drafts. In strictness one officer took a recruit from another, and paid to him the expenses of raising a substitute. See Commons Journals, 8th May 1711.
[443] See Humours of a Coffee House (a dialogue), 26th December 1707. Guzzle.—How go on your recruits this winter? Levy (an officer).—Very poorly. I am almost broke; they cost us so much to raise them, and run away so fast afterwards that, without the Government will consider us, we shall be undone, and the service will suffer into the bargain.... Some of us were forced to live on five shillings weekly; the rest was stopped by the Colonel for the charge we had been at in raising recruits; and after all they deserted from us and the service wanted what the nation paid for.... What recruits stayed with us, we were no better, for being most of them boys, they fell sick as soon as we got into the field.... If our regiments were only complete as they ought to be, you would hear something to surprise you in a campaign.
See also Secretary's Common Letter Book, 23rd April 1711, wherein the Generals report that under the present system of mustering, recruiting is impossible, and recommend that if any men die, desert, or are discharged, their names may be kept on the rolls for the next two musters; and see Coxe's Marlborough, vol. vi. pp. 232, 233.
[444] Miscellaneous Orders (Guards and Garrisons), 17th May 1707.
[445] Ibid. (Forces Abroad), 5th March 1706.
[446] Conyngham's regiment (8th Hussars) lost on passage to Portugal 27 chargers out of 70, and 141 troop horses out of 216, owing to the use of two such transports. The animals were beaten to pieces and stifled for want of room.