A VOYAGE TO 
we faw two or three with their feet bent inward ; and fome 
afiiidted with a fort of blindnefs, occafioned by a difeafe of 
the cornea . Neither are they exempt from fome other dif- 
eafes. The moft common of which is the tetter, or ring¬ 
worm, that feems to affedt almoft one half of them, and 
leaves whitifli ferpentine marks, every where, behind it. 
But this is of lefs confequence than another difeafe, which 
is very frequent, and appears on every part of the body, in 
large broad ulcers with thick white edges, difcharging a 
thin, clear matter; fome of which had a very virulent 
appearance, particularly thofe on the face, which were 
Blocking to look at. And yet we met with fome who 
feemed to be cured of it, and others in a fair way of be¬ 
ing cured; but this was not effected without the lofs of 
the nofe, or of the heft part of it. As we know for a cer¬ 
tainty * (and the fadt is acknowledged by themfelves), that 
the people of thefe iftands were fubjedt to this loathfome 
difeafe before the Englifti firft viftted them, notwithftand- 
ing the fimilarity of fymptoms, it cannot be the effedt of 
the venereal contagion ; unlefs we adopt a fuppofttion, 
which I could wifti had fufftcient foundation in truth, that 
the venereal diforder was not introduced here from Eu¬ 
rope, by our ftlips in 1773. It, afluredly, was now found 
to exift amongft them; for we had not been long there, 
before fome of our people received the infedlion; and I 
had the mortification to learn from thence, that all the 
care I took, when I firft vifited thefe iflands, to prevent this 
dreadful difeafe from being communicated to their inha¬ 
bitants, had proved ineffectual. What is extraordinary, 
* See Vol. ii. p. 20. of Captain Cook’s Voyage, where he gives a particular account 
of meeting with a perfon afflicted with this difeafe, at Annamooka, on his landing there 
in 1773. 
they 
