218 



be gathered; that after the epidemic had ceased they had a period of six- 

 teen good years, during which their quarrels and dissensions were renewed, 

 so that one hundred and fifty thousand men were killed in wars, after 

 which they were quieted, made peace, and rested during twenty years, 

 when they were attacked by a pestilence of large boils, which rotted their 

 bodies with great fetidness, 1) so that their limbs would drop off in pieces 

 in the course of four or five days." (Landa, Relación de las cosas de Yuca- 

 tán. — Año de 1566.) 



"The same account is given by Herrera (Decada IV., Libro X., Cap. 

 III.) and other historians, and it must be particularly remembered that 

 the Rev. Bishop Landa had at his disposal a great number of "Maya ma- 

 nuscripts", painted skins, and other historical relics of the Yucatan people; 

 a notorious fact, which is attested both by his important work, just quoted, 

 and by the accusation brought against him of having burned such docu- 

 ments in the auto de fé that took place at Maní. 



"I hold, therefore, as sufficiently proven and for a certain and un- 

 questionable fact, that the Indians of Yucatan suffered from the "vomito 

 negro" as an epidemic, before the discovery, and consequently that yellow 

 fever is a disease properly belonging to America. 



"There is another statement, though only of an accessory character, 

 in the "Maya manuscripts," which I find in the "Precription Books of 

 the Indians," of which I possess several ancient copies, in the Maya lang- 

 uage. In almost all the following prescription appears : — 



'"U cacal xékik;' that is, 'medicine for the vomiting of blood:' and 

 there is one that seems expressly written in terms that leave no doubt as 

 to whether it applies to any kind of vomiting of blood distinct from the 

 black vomit peculiar to yellow fever. It says: — 



"U cacal xékik ti unic, ma hach chaci, maix kiki bay u kab yabacná, 

 which means "medicine for the vomiting of blood for persons who discharge 

 it ; not properly of a red color, nor resembling real blood, but like a liquid 

 mixed with soot. 



"If you will notice the last word, "yabacná," and consult the dic- 

 tionary of Don Juan Pio Peres, you will find that it is rendered by 

 "Hollin," which in Spanish signifies "a black substance, thick and oily, 

 which the smoke leaves in chimneys." So that "kik bay u kab yabacná" 

 mean "black blood like an infusion of soot." 



Thanks, therefore, to this unexpected application of the Rev. Bishop 

 Carrillo 's extensive philological and bibliographical learning, the vexed 

 question of the origin of yellow fever and the true nature of the early 

 epidemics experienced by the Spaniards, on their arrival in these parts 



1 ) "As these boils could not be attributted to smallpox, which is known to have 

 been introduced by a negro who came with the Spaniards, it is credible that they were 

 the consequence of the epidemic fever or yellow fever ' '. 



