[GANONG ] DOCHET (ST. CROIX) ISLAND 169 
all the entire winter. I suppose that is owing to the north and northwest wind 
‘passing over high mountains always covered with snow, which was from three 
to four feet deep up to the end of the month of April; lasting much longer, I 
suppose, than it would if the country were cultivated. 
During the winter, many of our company were attacked by a certain 
malady called the mal de la terre; otherwise scurvy, as I have since heard 
from learned men. There were produced in the mouths of those who had it, 
great pieces of superfluous and drivelling flesh (causing extensive putrefac- 
tion), which got the upper hand to such an extent that scarcely anything but 
liquid could be taken, Their teeth became very loose, and could be pulled out 
with the fingers without its causing them pain. The superfluous flesh was 
often cut out, which caused them to eject much blood through the mouth. 
Afterwards a violent pain seized their arms and legs, which remained swollen 
and very hard, all spotted as if with flea bites; and they could not walk on 
account of the contraction of the muscles so that they were almost without 
strength and suffered intolerable pains. They experienced pain also in the 
loins, stomach end bowels, had a very bad cough and short breath. Ina 
word, they were in such a condition that the majority of them could not rise 
nor move and could not even be raised up on their feet without falling down 
in a swoon. So that out of seventy-nine, who composed our party, thirty-five 
died, and more than twenty were on the point of death. ‘The majority of 
those who remained well also complained of slight pains and short breath. We 
were unable to find any remedy for these maladies. A post-mortem examina- 
tion was made of several to investigate the cause of their malady. 
In the case of many, the interior parts were found mortified, such as the 
lungs, which were so changed that no natural fluid could be perceived in them. 
The spleen was serous and swollen. The liver was legueux”? and spotted, 
without its natural colour. The vena cava, superior and inferior, was filled 
with thick coagulated and black blood. The gall was tainted. Nevertheless, 
many arteries, in the middle as well as lower bowels, were found in very good 
condition. In the case of some, incisions with a razor were made on the thigh 
where they had purple spots, whence there issued a very black clotted blood. 
This is what was observed on the bodies of those infected with this malady.’ 

1 These thirty-five were without doubt buried in the cemetery shown as 
occupying a little knoll on Champlain’s map (Fig. 8). This knoll is now almost 
entirely washed away, though its position is readily recognizable (Fig. 14), 
and its only remnant is the slight rise where the birch trees stand at the north 
entrance to Treats Cove (Fig. 23). It was very probably the exposure of the 
skeletons of these victims of the scurvy by the washing away of the bank 
which gave origin to the former name of the island, Bone Island. The keeper 
of the lighthouse tells me that some years ago he dug up human bones on 
the site of the garden near the north end of the island (the incident mentioned 
in Mrs. Crowninshield’s “All among the Lighthouses,’ compare earlier, page 
152). He thought them remains of the French settlers, but suggests that they 
have been those of a negro said locally to have been buried on the island 
many years ago. 
? There appears to be no such word in French, ancient or modern. I can 
only surmise that it is a misprint for ligneux, meaning woody, or wood-like. 
3 This disease was of course the scurvy, from which Arctic and other 
expeditions, obliged to depend upon salt food, suffered so much until recent 
advances in the regulation of diet have removed all danger from it. 
