SHIP FEVER IN 1847. 9 



voyage, but as sickness broke out among the passengers the cap- 

 tain considered it advisable to make for tlie nearest port, which 

 was the Miramichi. Tliere were 800 passengers, of whom abont 

 one-half died, either at sea or after they arrived here The mate, 

 whose name was McCully, was exceedingly kind to the passengers 

 in their distress. He stood at the gangway and handed them 

 down one utter another into the scow that brought them ashore, 

 and after they got ashore gave them jiersonally all the attention 

 he i)ossibly could. He caught the fever himself tin n and died, 

 and was buried on Middle Islar.d. The captain, whose name I do 

 not remember, but who was a native of St. John, N. B., w^as sick 

 himself before we arrived here A pilot spoke us in the Straits, 

 but when he found ther.- were lourteen or fifteen lying dead on 

 deck, and a lot more sick, he made off. The captain then sent all 

 the bodies below, and said the next pilot would know nothing 

 ab'Uit it till he was on board. The pilot that brought us in was a 

 man by the name of Petterson, whose son now lives at Bushville, 

 but he himself is dead Petterson then n.sked the captain where 

 his sailors were. He said ihey were at tlie bottom of the ocean. 

 The pilot said somebody must go aloft and loosen .sail. The cap- 

 tain then, although sick himself, with a handkerchief tied a ound 

 his head, went aloft and let go the .sails. We then came up to 

 Middle Island and lay there in quarantine for about one month. 

 Then the bark whs fumigated and proceeded to St, John, but 

 most of the passengei-s had had enough of her and they proceeded 

 to St. John in schooners. The ca])tain of the Loostock recover- 

 ed. I think there were about 200 or 250 persons died and were 

 bill ied either at sea or oti Middle Island. Drs. Key, Thompson 

 and Voiidy attended the sick there on the Island. Dr. Vondy, 

 who was exceedingly kind to the sick, feeding and moving them 

 into comfortable positions. &c., took the disease himself and died. 

 His body was taken up the river at night in a boat and was buried 

 at St. Paul's p:raveyard, three miles above ('hatham. The 

 Bollivarand the Richard White Avere lying in quarantine with 

 us at the same time, but with different diseases. A man by the 

 name of Evan, and also the steward of the shi]\ juni] ed the quar- 

 antine and swam ashore, and I heard that Ryan died and his body 

 was found in the woods. I was sick all the passage, and all the 

 month on the Island. They had old sheds like barns for the sick, 



