Ch.V. south AMERICA. 4^ 



and fo confirmed a ftate of health as even to reach 

 their 80th year and upwards j this is common among 

 ail the clafies of inhabitants. 



The fnigularity of the climate, in all procability, 

 occafions the fmgularity of feme of the diflempers 

 which here affedl the human race; and thefe may be 

 confidered in tv/o different lights; one, as only attack- 

 ing the Europeans newly landed, and the other, as 

 common both to Creoles and Chapitones. 



Those of the firft kind are, in the country, com- 

 monly called Chapetonadas, alluding to the name 

 given there to the Europeans. Thefe diRempers are 

 io very deleterious, that they carry off a multitude of 

 people, and extremely thin the crews of European 

 Ihips ; but they feldom laft above three or four days, 

 in which time the patient is either dead or out of dan- 

 ger. The nature of this diftemper is but little known, 

 being caufed in fome perfons by cold, and in others 

 by indigeftions ; it foon brings on the vomito prieto, or 

 black vomit, which is the fatal lymptom; very few 

 being ever known to recover. Some, when the vomit 

 attacks them, are feized v^^ith fuch a delirium, that, were 

 they not tied down, they would tear themfelves to pieces, 

 and thus expire in the midft of their furious paroxyfms. 

 It is remarkable, that only the new comers from Eu- 

 rope are fubjedl to this diftemper, and that the natives 

 and thofe who have lived fome time here are never af- 

 feded by it ; but enjoy an uninterrupted iiate of health, 

 amidil the dreadful havock it makes among others. 

 It is alfo obftrved to rage more among the common 

 feamen, than thofe vvho have been able to live on more 

 wholefome food ; from whence, fait meat has been 

 confidered as pernicious in bringing on this diftemperj 

 ^nd that the humours it produces, together with- the 

 labour and hardihips of the feamen^ incline their blood 

 to putrefadion, and from this putrefaction the vomito 

 prieto is fuppofed to have its origin. Not that the 

 failors ^re its only yidims, for even paffengers, who 



