EARLY QUARANTINE ARRANGEMENTS OF SALEM. 19 



In April, 1705, the Sloop Sterling brings the Small-Pox 

 from Barbadoes and her crew are put ashore on Misery 

 Island [an island about five miles down the harbor] . 



In the summer of 1711, the small pox was again brought 

 in from Barbadoes in a brig commanded by Capt. Eben. 

 Hathorne. 



In 1716-17 the Province built a Hospital on Spectacle 

 Island in Boston Harbor and all infected persons and mer- 

 chandise which could "without great inconveniency and 

 damage " be sent there, were so ordered. This was the 

 first quarantine establishment in Massachusetts. 



April 22, 1721, it was agreed with Malachie Foot and 

 Matthew Barton to keep watch and ward at Winter Island 

 until all vessels due "from Barbadoes and Tortudas are 

 arrived, to prevent the infection of the Small Pox^' 

 [We then cleared eighty sail per year for foreign ports.] 

 " An house was appointed for those who should take the 

 disease." It was raging also in Boston and " threatened 

 the land," having been brought to that port by the " Saltor- 

 tugas fleet." Dr. Boylston and Rev. Cotton Mather urged 

 inoculation. 



In 1721-2 a new Provincial act was passed for protection 

 against the plague then raging in France and the Mediter- 

 ranean ports, which required vessels from those parts to 

 perform quarantine for forty days at least at some ap- 

 pointed place, on penalty of death to every master or com- 

 mander who should after notice " presume to unlade any 

 part of his goods or cargo before he have perform'd such 

 quarentine." The operation of this act was limited to 

 three years and it was not extended. It covered also ves- 

 sels from Newfoundland, Cape Breton and Canso, which 

 had within six months been in any port of France or other 

 infected place, or taken on board goods from such ports. 

 A resolve of the same year, 1722, declared that the orig- 



