Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/174

150 "All through the Feejees people died by the thousand; in some instances whole villages were struck down, and there were not enough well people to care for the sick or bury the dead. Medical directions were published and sent abroad as soon as possible, but the superstitious people had been told by some of the beach-combers and other scoundrels infesting the islands that the disease had been imported in order to kill them off and get their lands, and that the medicines of the white men were intended to spread rather than check it. The medical directions were ignored; some tribes who had become Christian renounced the new religion and drove out their teachers. In one instance where a teacher died of measles his Christian disciples concluded that it was best to follow the old custom and bury his wife and children with him, in order to propitiate the demon of the scourge."

"Why was the disease so fatal here when it is not so in our own country?" one of the youths inquired.

"You are aware, I presume," the Doctor answered, "that care should be exercised in measles against taking cold, and thus driving the disease to the lungs. These people are continually bathing, and it was the most natural thing in the world for them to rush to the cooling streams as soon as the fever came on them. In this way thousands doomed themselves to death, and besides, there came an unusual rainfall that converted great areas of country into swamps, and rendered it impossible for the people to keep dry even if they had tried to do so.

"As an illustration of the effect of bathing, I may mention the case of the native police at Levuka. A hundred and fifty men were seized with measles, and the officer in charge, an Englishman, immediately established a hospital and ordered those who were least affected to care for the rest. They were forbidden to bathe or allow any one else to do so; all the patients recovered except ten, and of these every man was found to have disobeyed orders and indulged in a bath in the tempting sea which was close by.

"An English resident says that whole villages were swept away by the scourge, the dead were buried in their own houses, and to this day many of the platforms on which the Feejeean houses are built are simply family tombs. The coast towns suffered more than those of the interior, probably in consequence of their being in more swampy ground, and thus more affected by the dampness. The measles were afterwards carried to other groups, where the effect was severe, but not so fatal in proportion to the population as in the Feejees."

With this explanation Frank put down the number of native