1811. 
MEASLES. — SMALL-POX. — 
HOTTENTOT-SORE. 
371 
water. The missionaries suffered from its attacks ; but I had the 
good fortune always to continue free from even the shghtest 
symptoms. 
About two years ago the measles found its way here from out of 
the colony, and made much havoc. It is, perhaps, the first time of 
its spreading so far into the interior. 
The small-pox had made its appearance in this part of the Interior, 
a little more than three years before, and raged from November till 
June at Klaarwater, where, although every individual was infected, 
not more than thirteen died under it ; while, at the same time, with 
a more unsparing hand, it thinned the numbers of the Bushmen 
and Koras. Of the latter it swept off half the inhabitants of a large 
kraal bordering upon the country of the Bachapins. Amongst these 
tribes, I saw many individuals whose faces were left deeply pitted by 
that disease ; but this was not the first time it had made itself known 
to them. 
The vaccine matter which I brought with me, proved, on trial, to 
have lost all its power. This was occasioned by the great length of 
time consumed in the journey, added to the excessive dryness of the ' 
weather. 
Young children frequently die of convulsions ; a disorder very 
general at that age. Cases of jaundice sometimes occur ; but the 
most dangerous malady is a kind of cancerous sore or ulcer, called in 
the colony the Hottentots Zeer (Hottentot Sore), which spreads wide, 
and corrodes so deeply as often to prove fatal. It is said to be com- 
municated by contact, and seems, in most instances, to attack the head 
and upper parts of the body. The remedy chiefly relied on at Klaar- 
water, and in some parts of the colony, is onions ; the juice of which 
must be applied to the sore as soon as the existence of it is ascertained. 
Whenever the patient is so fortunate as to get cured, he bears the 
marks of it about with him for the rest of his life ; a large scar always 
remaining behind. 
The whole catalogue of their disorders, including some ailments 
too trifling to be enumerated, is not great ; and from this it may 
justly be inferred, that the climate of the Interior is healthy. Judg- 
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