Jan. 1836. extinction of aborigines. 



521 



prevailed to so extraordinary a degree^ has ceased^ and the 

 murderous wars have become less frequent. 



The Rev. J. Williams^ in his interesting work,* says, that 

 the first intercourse between natives and Europeans, " is in- 

 variably attended with the introduction of fever, dysentery, 

 or some other disease, which carries off numbers of the peo- 

 ple.^^ Again he affirms, " It is certainly a fact, which can- 

 not be controverted, that most of the diseases which have 

 raged in the islands during my residence there, have been 

 introduced by ships ;t and what renders this fact remarkable 

 is, that there might be no appearance of disease among the 

 crew of the ship, which conveyed this destructive importa- 

 tion.^^ This statement is not quite so extraordinary as it at 

 first appears; for several cases are on record of the most 

 malignant fevers having broken out, although the parties 

 themselves, who were the cause, were not affected. In the 

 early part of the reign of George III., a prisoner who had 

 been confined in a dungeon, was taken in a coach with 

 four constables before a magistrate ; and, although the man 

 himself was not ill, the four constables died from a short 

 putrid fever ; but the contagion extended to no others. 



* Narrative of Missionary Enterprise, p. 282. 



t Captain Beechey (chap, iv., vol. i.) states that the inhabitants of 

 Pitcairn Island, are firmly convinced that after the arrival of every ship 

 they suffer cutaneous and other disorders. Captain Beechey attributes 

 this to the change of diet during the time of the visit. Dr. Macculloch 

 (Western Isles, vol. ii., p. 32) says, " It is asserted, that on the arrival of 

 a stranger (at St. Kilda) all the inhabitants, in the common phraseology, 

 catch a cold." Dr. Macculloch considers the whole case, although often 

 previously affirmed, as ludicrous. He adds, however, that " the question 

 was put by us to the inhabitants who unanimously agreed in the story." 

 In Vancouver's Voyage, there is a somewhat similar statement with respect 

 to Otaheite : nor are these (as I believe) the only instances. Humboldt 

 (Polit. Essay on King, of New Spain, vol. iv.) says, that the great epidemics 

 at Panama and Callao are " marked" by the arrival of ships from Chile> be- 

 cause the people from that temperate region, first experience the fatal 

 effects of the torrid zones. I may add, that I have heard it stated in 

 Shropshire, that sheep, which have been imported from vessels, although 

 themselves in a healthy condition, if placed in the same fold with others, 

 frequently produce sickness in the flock. 



