BOOK III. C II A P. VI. ^c 



South American continent the torments they InfliiTtcd were fo Intolc- 

 fable, that many houfes, and even whole villages, were obliged to be 

 deferted by the Spaniards and Indians ; of which UUoa gives an ac- 

 count, who, in his paflage from Guayaquil to Caracol, fuff'ered inex- 

 preflibly from the multitudes which infeftcd the marfhy banks of the 

 river of Guayaquil, infomuch that their ftings penetrated througli all 

 his cloathing, and would not permit him to take one moment's repofe. 

 Such places in Jamaica are to be deemed undt for refidcnce ; but, in fo 

 extenlive an iOand, we meet with few of them in proportion, nor does 

 it abound with fituations that can be juftly rtigmatizcd for a natural 

 infalubrity. 



There are various reafons to be affigned, why the inhabitants of 

 this ifland were formerly affli6ted with frequent vifitations of epide- 

 mic licknefs. When Europeans reforted hither in great numbers, they 

 were crowded into two towns, and inconveniently accommodated. A 

 buccaneering intercourfe fubfifted with the baleful coafts about Cartha- 

 gena and Porto Bello. In 1671, when the fleet commanded by Sir 

 Henry Morgan returned from that coaft, his crews brought with them 

 the malignant fever of Porto Bello, and the greater part of them died of 

 it ; the contagion fpread to thofe on fhore, v/here it produced a terri- 

 ble mortality. In 1741, a very great ficknefs prevailed here from a 

 fimilar diforder, imported by the troops, on their return from the 

 Carthagena expedition ; and the like had happened before in 1 704, 

 when admiral Neville's fquadron was on this ftation. The houfes 

 were inconveniently built, the difeafes of the Weft Indies were very 

 little underftood, and fuch contagious diftempers were often fatal, for 

 want of thofe remedies which were afterwards invented. Many lives 

 mud have been loft, by thefe putrid fevers, before the Jcfuits bark 

 was brought into general ufe, or copious bleeding exploded ; hundreds 

 periflied by the ravages of the fmall pox, before the art of inocula- 

 tion grew into pradllce ; multitudes have been formerly ftifled to death 

 in this climate, by confinement in clofe hot rooms, under loads of 

 bed-cloaths, and poUbned with their own atmofphere, while the frefli 

 air, which was their beft remedy, was moft induftrioullv excluded. 

 Nor is Jamaica fingular in having fuffered great depopulations by pefti- 

 lential maladies, imported into it from other parts. In 1 69 r, the ifland 

 of Barbadoes was invaded with a contagion, brought by an Englifh 



T t t 2 fleet. 



