296 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 



ance during the time they were occupied in pushing civilization into the then 

 newly discovered continent. 



" In Cuba yellow fever was probahly known as the Pest or Epidemic of 

 Havana as early as 1620. The first authentic description of the black vomit in 

 Havana was furnished by Dr. Thomas Eomay in the year 1761. 



" In the beginning of the eighteenth century the disease, from its appearance 

 in various parts of Spanish America under the name of vomito prieto, attracted 

 much attention, and it is particularly referred to by the historian Ulloa, who 

 resided for some years in that country. The word prieto appears to be the Portu- 

 guese or nearly obsolete Spanish term for black. In Spanish the word negro 

 is now universally substituted. A small pamphlet of sixty-two pages by a Dr. 

 Gastelbondo, written at Carthagena (S. A.) in 1753 and printed at Madrid in 

 1755, was probably the first work ex professo on the black vomit as it appeared 

 in South America. He gives his experience of the disease during forty years. 

 He says on the title page that he is about to write about a disease of frequent oc- 

 currence in that part of the world, mentions change of climate and mode of living 

 among some of the causes of the disease in new-comers, and says that the natives 

 of Carthagena, Vera Cruz, etc., were not subject to attacks of the true black 

 vomit fever, though liable to the ' Cliapetonada,' a disease resembling it in some 

 respects." 



It has been claimed by some that yellow fever is of African origin and was 

 imported into America through the slave trade. The most comprehensive argu- 

 ment in favor of the African origin of the yellow-fever mosquito is given by 

 Goeldi and on that account we give it here in full. 



" I am well acquainted with the arguments of those authors who claim that 

 stegomyia is of American origin. They are based chiefly on the story of the 

 voyage of Christopher Columbus. Without disputing whether the disease which 

 killed a part of the crew of the caravels of the conquerors was indeed identical 

 with yellow fever, does this in itself amount to a positive proof that this dis- 

 ease did not previously exist on the coast of Africa ? Most certainly not. At 

 most it might be objected that no historical documents exist relating to the 

 existence of stegomyia in Africa before Columbus. Further, from the absence 

 of any historic document about any given fact there never can be deduced the 

 non-existence of this fact. There are evidently many things which happened in 

 this sublunary world of which no human historian has left us a story and which 

 nevertheless are most certainly true. 



" Let us examine this question a little more closely. Stegomyia fasciata is, 

 as we know, a mosquito which affects great cities, populous centers of the shore 

 and neighboring regions. Now, I ask where were these great cities which the 

 European invaders should have found along the Atlantic coast from the Antilles 

 even down to the Rio de la Plata ? Where are those points where the indigenous 

 Americans were found in populous permanent residences? There were none, 

 and this in no wise surprises us, considering the habits and customs of the 

 Indians. The indigenous American was at all times that which he is today ; 

 endowed with the love of liberty, he never had the habit or even the tendency 

 to group and concentrate himself in really considerable collective residences. 

 His village consisted of a few dozen houses — in most cases not even one hundred 

 being found in a limited area. They were peasants rather than townspeople; 

 as with ants and bees, an increase of numbers always produced for them as a 

 consequence migration of groups, dismemberment — a new village was formed, 

 half a day, a day, or two days further up the river, further down the river, 

 further in the forest, and this in turn became disintegrated in view of the rest- 



