CHAPTER XI 



HISTORICAL SURVEY OF YELLOW lEVER. ITS DESTRUC- 

 TIVE SPREAD AND ^MORTALITY DURING THE SEVEN- 

 TEENTH TO EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 



Fascinating as is the study of malaria, both historically 

 and scientifically, nevertheless that of yellow fever is 

 even still more so, as I shall endeavour to show. 



AV^iilst we read how malaria dogged the footsteps 

 of our forces in the Netherlands, so yellow fever was 

 the disease in the days of the buccaneers, and later 

 of our regular troops at a period in our history when 

 we were engaged in conquering in the ^^^est Indies 

 and on tlie Spanish JNIain, which time and time again 

 swept our pioneers and soldiers away just as so many 

 flies. Before we had ventured into these waters the 

 terror of yellow fev^er was well known to the Spanisli, 

 Portuguese, French, and Dutch settlers ; it was recog- 

 nised as the " diHease of the Conquistadores.'' 



How often, in wandering tlu'ougli the \W'st Indies, 

 one meets with an obelisk or an isolated tombstone or 

 a disused churchyard, all telling how our own con- 

 quistadores, our own soldiers, met their death, not 



at the hands of a warlike enemy, but, as we now 



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