o 



82 A VOYAGE TO 



1.777- black nitioiis ; but, I appiehend, that their colour is ra- 

 ■— /' ^ ther a difeafe, than a natural phsenomenon. 



There are, neverthelefs, upon the whole, few natural 

 defeats or cleformities to be found amongft them ; though 

 we faw two or three with their feet bent inward ; and fome 

 afflicTied wirh a fort of blindncfs, occafioned by a difeafe of 

 the cornea. Neither are they exempt from fome other dif- 

 eafes. The mofi: common of which is the tetter, or ring- 

 worm, that fecms to afFe(5l almoft one half of them, and 

 leaves whitifii ferpentine marks, every whc:re, behind it. 

 But this is of Icfs confequence than another difeafe, which 

 is very frequent, and appears on every part of the body, in 

 large broad ulcers with thick white edges, difcharging a 

 thin, clear matter ; fome of which had a very virulent ap- 

 pearance, particularly thofe on the face, winch were 

 fliocking to look at. And yet we met with fome who 

 feemed to be cured of *it, and others in a fair way of being 

 cured ; but this was not affeded without the lofs of the n>fe, 

 or of the beft part of it. As we know for a certainty * (and 

 the fa61; is acknowledged by themfelves}, that the people of 

 tliefe iflands were fubjedf to this loathfome difeafe before the 

 Englifli firfl vifued them, notwithflanding the fimilarity of 

 fymptoms, it cannot be the effecSf of the' venereal contagion ; 

 unlefs we adopt a fuppoficion, which I could wifli had 

 fufficient foundation in truth, that the venereal diforder was 

 not introduced. here from Europe, by our fliips in 1773. It, 

 afluredly, was now found to exiit amongft them ; for we 

 had not been long there, before fome of our people received 



* See Vol. ii, p. 20. of Captain Cook's Voyage, where he gives a particular ac- 

 count of meeting with a perlbn afflicted witli this difeafe, at Annamooka, on his 

 landing there in 1773. 



the 



