120 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



Mexico, in the "reduction'' of the natives. Dampier, describing the 

 natives of Guam in 1686, says: 



The ivatiyesof this Island are strong-hodied, laige-limb'd, and well-shap'd. They 

 are Copper-coloured, like other Indians: their hair is black and long, their eyes 

 meanly proportioned; they have pretty high Xoses; their lips are pretty full, and 

 their teeth indifferent white. They are long visaged, and stern of countenance; yet 

 we found them to be affable and courteous. They are many of them troubled with 

 a kind of Licprosie. This distemper is very common at Mindanao: therefore I shall 

 speak more of it in my next Chapter. They of Guam are otherwise very healthy, 

 especially in the dry season : but in the wet season, \Yhich comes in June, and holds 

 till October, the air is more thick and unwholsome; which occasions Fevers: but the 

 Rains are not violent nor lasting. For the Island lies so far Westerly from the PkU- 

 ippine Islands, or any other Land, that the Westerly Winds do seldom blow so far; 

 and when they do, they do not last long: but the Easterlj- Winds do constantly blow 

 here, which are dry and healthy; and this island is found to be very healthful, as 

 w^e were informed while we lay by it.« 



In his description of the "sort of Leprosie" observed on the island 

 of Guam and in Mindanao, Dampier says: 



This Distemper runs with a dry Scurf all over their Bodies, and causeth great itch- 

 ing in those that have it, making them frequently scratch and scrub themselves, 

 which raiseth the outer skin in small whitish flakes, like the scales of little Fish, 

 when they are raised on end with a Knife. This makes their skin extraordinary 

 rough, and in some you shall see broad white spots in several parts of their Body. 

 I judge such have had it, but are cured; for their skins were smooth, and I did not 

 jwrcei ve them to scrub themselves : yet I have learnt from their own mouths that these 

 spots were from this Distemper. Whether they use anj- means to cure themselves, 

 or whether it goes away of it self, I know not: but I did not perceive that they 

 made any great matter of it, for they did never refrain [from] any company for it; 

 none of our People caught it of them, for we were afraid of it, and kept off. 6 



The disease described by Dampier, though possibly one of the forms 

 knowns as '"lepra," was certainly not Lepra anaesthesiaca, a later 

 introduction, which is characterized by absence of sensibility of the 

 surface, comparative smoothness of the skin, and ulceration and loss of 

 the fingers and toes. The latter disease is not nearly so prevalent on 

 the island as it was at the time of the visit of Freycinet, and it is 

 constantly decreasing. One reason for this may be the change from a 

 fish diet to one almost entirely vegetable, with occasional indulgence 

 of beef, venison, pork, and fowls; as it is a well-known fact that a fish 

 diet renders every symptom of the disease worse. During the inter- 

 regniun which followed the seizure of the island by the United States, 

 all but one of the patients in the leper hospital at Asan escaped and 

 were cared for by relatives in various parts of the island. A leper 

 colony was established by Governor Seaton Schroeder on the shore of 

 Tumhum Bay, and the few natives suffering from leprosj^ have been 

 segregated there. The}- are attended by nurses and are treated by the 

 naval medical officers stationed on the island. 



"Dampier, New Voyage, 6th ed., vol. 1, pp. 297-298, 1717. 

 6 Idem., p. 334. 



