OF MEASLES, SMALL-POX, AND THE MURRAIN IN CATTLE.
The physician Roderigo Fonseca observes, "The plague was never seen
either in the East or West Indies, but we know that in America a million
Indians were destroyed by the small-pox not many years back, when no
Spaniard took the infection. This disease was introduced amongst them by
a Negro." I say nothing of the East Indies, being an utter stranger to
them, but every one agrees that no plague ever raged in America: if you
have read the contrary in any historian, remember that catarrh, ague,
and diarrhea, if long and widely prevalent, are called the plague by the
lower orders of Spaniards. The small-pox and measles too are not
improperly denominated the plague by the Indians. We have also
frequently experienced a murrain in cattle fatal to horses, oxen, and
above all to mules; a disease induced not by the pestilence of the air,
but by the badness of the pastures, or the scarcity of water. This sort
of disorder may be truly called contagious, the mere contact with sick
or dead bodies being infectious. Swelling of the head, and blood
trickling from the nostrils were symptoms of the reigning disorder; the
same signs too indicated the bites of serpents in animals. Mutilating
the ear, and cutting the vein of the fore foot, were admirable remedies
against the poison of that disease in mules, especially if salt were
given them to lick. The paunches of the oxen slain to feed the Indians
are daily thrown out, along with the bowels, into an open place, where
all the horses and mules eagerly crowd to lick the garbage, because a
sort of salt and nitre is created by the blood of which they are
excessively fond. Therefore, whilst this dreadful murrain raged in our
territories we daily sprinkled those entrails with salt, the salubrity
of which is proved by the circumstance, that whilst numbers died in the
neighbouring estates, very few sickened, and many recovered with us in
the town of St. Joachim.
It is beyond all controversy, that small-pox is the true plague of the
Americans, and that it has been lately introduced into America, either
by Europeans or Negroes. Hence the just complaint of the Indians. "The
Europeans are fine people, truly! They have made liberal compensation
for the infinity of gold and silver they have taken from us, by leaving
us the plague of the small-pox." Indeed it is a well known fact that the
number of Indians who have died of this disease during the two last
centuries, defy all calculation. In the thirty Guarany towns some thirty
thousand persons died of the small-pox in the year 1734.
It is not true that the Spaniards and other Europeans in America are
exempted from small-pox; but it cannot be doubted that the Indians take
it sooner, and more frequently die of it. I am of opinion that their
habit of body has less strength to repel or overcome that poison. They
generally eat half-raw and unsalted meat; they always go with their
heads and feet bare; they drink nothing but water, and that not of the
best kind, except at a few festive drinking parties in the course of the
year; all which tend to weaken the stomach. The heat of the sun, and the
constant use of maize, cause a ferment in their blood which, on the
accession of small-pox, very frequently proves fatal. This must be
understood of the pedestrian Indians only, for the Abipones, and other
equestrian Indians, who do not labour under those miseries to which the
pedestrians are subject, generally have the small-pox in a milder form.
In the year 1765 this plague carried off great numbers in the Spanish
colonies. Having swept away about twelve thousand persons in the thirty
Guarany towns, it spread to the distant hordes of the savages scattered
throughout Chaco, and though almost all took the infection, yet few died
in proportion to the number of the sick. I speak of the equestrians, who
were saved by the strength of their constitutions. In the town which I
founded for the Abipones, one woman only escaped the contagion, yet out
of the many hundreds that took the disease, twenty alone fell victims to
it.
Often no mention is made of the small-pox for many years amongst the
Indians; but this calm is the sure forerunner of an approaching storm.
We have always found the small-pox break out first in the colonies of
the Spaniards, and spread from thence to the farthest hordes of the
Indians; who, having learnt from the experience of their ancestors, to
dread this disease as their death, separate from their hordesmen as soon
as ever they have the least suspicion of its approach, and fly, some one
way, some another, in precipitate haste. Upon this occasion they travel
not in a straight line, but by various meanders and windings. That this
method is superstitiously observed by the Lules, Isistines, Vilelas,
Homoampas, and Chunipies, I was told by Fathers who had resided long
amongst them. Through fear of the contagion, fathers desert their sick
sons, and sons their fathers. They leave a pitcher of water, and some
roasted maize at the sick man's bed, and consult their own safety by
flight. I should wrong the Abipones were I to say that they imitate them
in these particulars. They do indeed turn their backs on the spot where
the pestilence prevails, and crowd to their lurking-places in the woods;
but on these occasions, they travel straight onwards, as usual, nor ever
neglect their sick friends and relations, studiously performing the
duties of humanity. Their endurance of pain and inconvenience at such
times is likewise deserving of commendation. Even whilst the disorder
rages with malignant heats I never heard them womanishly crying or
complaining. They account the least groan a dishonour, and, to maintain
the character for fortitude, endeavour to endure the bitterness of
disease in silence.
I generally found this disorder most fatal to persons of a melancholy,
choleric habit, or of advanced age, and to women in a state of
pregnancy. To those upon whom, after a feverish heat, the small-pox
slowly broke out, in whom it was blackish, thick, depressed, and spotted
in the middle, or mixed with red and confluent, I presaged great danger
and speedy death;—a prediction generally verified by the event. When the
small-pox and swelling quickly disappear, all hope of the patient's
recovery disappears likewise. I generally observed that persons of a
cheerful disposition, fair complexion, and less advanced period of life,
underwent little trouble and danger from this disease. The burning of
the throat, occasioned by the small-pox breaking out there, together
with the cough and sort of quinsy it produces, are highly dangerous, and
frequently fatal to the Indians. Water, mixed with sugar and
citron-juice, is very refreshing to persons afflicted in this manner; a
decoction of plantane leaves is also of use to rinse the throat, and
sometimes for the purpose of washing the eyes. The old physicians
advised persons in the small-pox to stay within doors, and keep
themselves well covered, lest the spots which are ready to come out
should be repressed to the inward parts. The Abipones, on the contrary,
after taking the small-pox, passed days and nights in the open air, or
in huts half closed, and admitting the air on every side. Whilst flying
to the recesses of the woods they received the cold air into their whole
bodies: might not this be the reason why, out of so great a number of
sick persons, so very few died of the small-pox? For I have since learnt
that modern physicians think the open air wholesomer for persons in the
small-pox than the heat of a room; therefore I now no longer wonder at
this disease proving fatal to so many thousands of Guaranies, who, after
being seized with it, always lie near the fire in a close room, almost
smothered with blankets, and would have thought it fatally dangerous to
breathe the fresh air even for a moment. The habits of the Abipones, in
time of small-pox, were totally opposite, and it seldom proved fatal to
them. To corroborate this assertion I will relate an event worthy the
consideration and wonder of physicians.
One of my Abipones, who was burning with feverish heat, the forerunner
of small-pox, secretly procured a horn full of brandy which he drank to
the last drop. Mounting his horse, in a state of complete intoxication,
he swam across a river in the night, and arrived in safety at a plain,
three miles and a half distant, where his fellow-hordesmen were
dwelling, for fear of the contagion. When informed of these things, I
was in great apprehension of the immediate death of the imprudent
savage, and flew to succour both his soul and body. Unexpectedly good
news were announced: that same night the small-pox broke out upon him,
neither thick nor malignant. In a very few days he recovered, and was at
liberty to ride where he liked. He was about thirty years old, of a
lively temper, strong constitution, and high fame amongst his
countrymen, for the number of Spaniards he had slain. Here it may be
observed that the Americans, who have had the genuine small-pox, do not
fear the return of it. At five years of age I had the small-pox so
slightly, that I was marked in ten places only, and was ill but two
days. Yet that this short sickness is, by the law of nature, sufficient,
I was fully persuaded, after living many months, day and night, with
Indians who had the disorder, without taking the infection.
Almost the same observations may be made on measles as on small-pox. It
rages at intervals, spreads, and cuts off vast numbers in America.
Whilst I resided in the town of St. Joachim, out of two thousand Indians
so many were laid up with this disorder, that often none were left to
supply the sick with food, water, wood and medicines. The offices due to
the minds and bodies of the sick kept Father Joseph Fleischauer and
myself occupied day and night for some months. That pestilence carried
off two hundred persons, out of which number there were very few
infants, and no old men, most of them being persons in the flower of
their age. The tertian ague sometimes spreads like a contagion amongst
the Indians, but is more troublesome than dangerous, and prevails only
in those places where stinking ditch water is in constant use. For the
same reason tertian ague is very prevalent in many Spanish towns,
especially in Tucuman. In the colony of Concepcion, on the banks of the
river Inespin, which supplied the inhabitants with sweet and very
wholesome water, no person was ever seized with the tertian ague. In the
colonies of St. Ferdinand and the Rosary, which were surrounded with
marshes and lakes, the Abipones were destitute of river water, and
consequently hardly ever free from agues. In the colony of the Rosary
the fever prevailed so much for the space of some months, that no one
escaped it, not even myself, though at other times secure amidst persons
infected with this disorder. That none of the savages might die suddenly
without receiving baptism, I daily visited all the sick, and at length
caught the quotidian ague, though the Indians only laboured under the
tertian. The fever daily increased at sun-set, and did not leave me till
morning. This feverish agitation, at the end of seven and twenty days,
was succeeded by the tertian, after two fits of which I happily
recovered. What I suffered, in my utter want of all necessaries, and
what danger I underwent, need not be told here.
Just as I am about to conclude my discourse on contagious disorders, a
circumstance occurs to my mind worthy the critical examination of
physicians. Whilst I was at the Cordoban estate of St. Catharine
belonging to the Jesuits, at the approach of night, we beheld a fiery
meteor, which bore the appearance of a very wide beam, and rolled
sparkling through the midst of heaven to the opposite horizon. The
Spanish strangers afterwards declared that it was visible to the whole
province, and judged it portentous. We, who had learnt a sounder
philosophy, gazed at that sudden splendour as calmly as at a firework,
though it did in reality prove calamitous, being either the cause or the
sign, or, at any rate, the concomitant of a deadly catarrh which
prevailed over the whole of Tucuman, and in two years carried off a
great number of Spaniards and Negroes. Almost at the same time when the
fiery exhalation was seen, this epidemic disease, as they say, began.
Though this dangerous pestilence visited all the cities without
distinction, yet I think it raged with particular violence in the
estates. Travelling from Cordoba to Sta. Fè, I met crowds of Spaniards
carrying horns filled with the urine of sick persons for the inspection
of the Cordoba empirics; for there are no real physicians in the whole
provinces. You would hardly believe what faith the lower orders of
Spaniards place in the inspection of urine, and how much they are
deceived in this matter.