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Samuel Hickson who was in India 1777-1785 wrote in his Diary about the fact that very few soldiers of the East India Company Armies returned to Britain, and lists the reasons: disease, the good provisions made by the Company relating to age and incapacity, the bounty paid on renewal of service, and family ties.

<blockquote>"I know that in England an opinion prevails of this country being extremely unhealthy this takes foundation in a great measure from the very few of those that enter into the Company’s service that ever return to England, but this must not be attributed to the climate alone, many other reasons concern to prevent the return of the majority of soldiers. I shall name the principal. The climate must be acknowledged as one reason as most people after their arrival are attacked with the bloody flux, after their recovery from which, I don’t see but people who do not destroy their constitution by intemperance generally enjoy their health as well as in Europe. But intemperance in a variety of ways destroys thousands of its unhappy votaries; first Drinking is carried to such an excess as is hardly credible… The fatal effects of venereal disorders are only to be conceived by those who have been in hot climates and seen the many wretched spectacles it occasions;…