YELLOW FEVER 



235 



showed how general is the onslaught of an epidemic on 

 its first appearance in a place. At the heels of this 

 plague came the smallpox. The ^^ellow fever had fallen 

 most severely on the whites and mamelucos, the negroes 

 wholly escaping ; but the smallpox attacked more especi- 

 ally the Indians, negroes, and people of mixed colour, 

 sparing th-e whites' almost entirely, and taking off about 

 a twentieth part of the population in the course of the 

 four months of its stay. I heard many strange accounts 

 of the yellow fever. I believe Para was the second port 

 in Brazil attacked by it. The news of its ravages in 

 Bahia, where the epidemic first appeared, arrived some 

 few days before the disease broke out. The government 

 took all the sanitary precautions that could be thought 

 of ; amongst the rest was the singular one of firing cannon 

 at the street corners, to purify the air. Mr. Norris, the 

 American consul, told me, the first cases of fever occurred 

 near the port, and that it spread rapidly aad regularly 

 from house to house, along the streets which run from the 

 waterside to the suburbs, taking about tv/enty-four hours 

 to reach the end. Some persons related that for several 

 successive evenings before the fever broke out the at- 

 mosphere was thick, and that a body of murky vapour 

 accompanied by a strong stench, travelled from street to 

 street. This moving vapour was called the * Mai da 

 peste \ * the mother or spirit of the plague ' ; and it 

 was useless to attempt to reason them out of the belief 

 that this was the forerunner of the pestilence. The pro- 

 gress of the disease was very rapid. It commenced in 

 April, in the middle of the wet season. In a few days, 

 thousands of persons lay sick, dying or dead. The state 

 of the city during the time the fever lasted, may be 

 easily imagined. Towards the end of June it abated, 

 and very few cases occurred during the dry season from 

 July to December. 



As I said before, the yellow fever still lingered in the 

 place when I arrived from the interior in April. I was 

 in hopes I should escape it, but was not so fortunate ; 

 it seemed to spare no new comer. At the time I fell ill, 

 every medical man in the place was worked to the utmost 

 in attending the victims of the other epidemic ; it was 

 quite useless to think of obtaining their aid, so I was 

 obliged to be my own doctor, as I had been in many 

 former smart attacks of fever. I was seized with shivering 



