Volume 1

Yellow fever : an epidemiological and historical study of its place of origin / by Henry Rose Carter ; edited by Laura Armistead Carter and Wade Hampton Frost.

  • Carter, Henry Rose, 1852-1925.
Date:
1931
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Yellow fever : an epidemiological and historical study of its place of origin / by Henry Rose Carter ; edited by Laura Armistead Carter and Wade Hampton Frost. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    men sent out. Guadeloupe and Martinique were colonized by the French in 1635, in June and July respectively. The colonists for the former, numbering about 550, came direct from France—“pauvres engagez” raised in Dieppe—and arrived with insufficient provisions to sustain them until they could establish themselves. After two months, the supplies brought from France being consumed, a famine—charac¬ terized as “horrible”—began. This, says du Tertre (vol. i, pp. 78-81), was followed by a heavy mortality due (1) to the famine; (2) to sickness —the “coup de barre,” and (3) to the cruelty of the overseers of the work, who forced the colonists “by blows and by severity to work in clearing the woods and in all weathers.” To this last, indeed, he ascribes the greater part of the mortality—“because the French were much en¬ feebled and were treated worse than slaves in Barbary.” Martinique was settled by d’Enambuc, who had been long in the West Indies, with 100 men—note the small number, who could therefore live off the country—“old inhabitants of the island of St. Christophe,” “tous gens de main,” “accustomed to the climate, to the work and the fatigues of the country.” They were “very skilful in clearing land, planting and cultivating provision, and very adroit in building houses.” They brought with them, “as provision and to plant, all things neces¬ sary,” among which are mentioned manioc, yams, peas, beans, and other grains—probably Indian corn. It is expressly stated that the Guade¬ loupe colonists made no provision for future crops, being obliged later to send to St. Christophe for seed to plant, and in the meantime depend¬ ing entirely on supplies from France that never came (du Tertre, 1667, vol. i). No special mortality was reported at Martinique until the “mat de Siam” of 1690, and it may be claimed that the men from St. Kitts, some of whom were quite certainly buccaneers, were immune to yellow fever. Yet the fact that both they and d’Enambuc were used to tropical conditions and were “men of their hands” cannot be left out of considera¬ tion in accounting for this. It is common enough, then, to have much sickness and many deaths in a newly planted colony, due simply to ignorance, lack of good admin¬ istration, and personnel unsuited to pioneer conditions. This should not continue, however, without some pathogenic reason. When, after some years, Plymouth had been well organized, the disproportionate mortality ceased. This lasted longer with Virginia, partly at least on account of the prevalence of malaria; yet, as the colony became self- supporting and prosperous, it disappeared, although “agues, epidemicals