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up by this optical machine, and were of opinion that nothing short of witchcraft could have produced so curious an instrument. They are also astonished at the means by which the Europeans can find their way to remote countries, such as Africa, &c. and guide their vessels through trackless oceans with as much certainty as they can travel over a few miles of well known country.— In short, they say that they require no greater proof, that the Almighty chose the whites as his favoured people, than that he has thus taught them every curious and useful invention, that he has taught them the use of books, that he has taught them how to make gun-powder to defend themselves, or to assail others; that he has taught them the way to make all kinds of merchandize, and pointed out to them the country were slaves were to be bought for such merchandize;-in short, that he has taught them the method of sailing thither to fetch these slaves, for the purpose of cultivating sugar in their islands, a task which they themselves could never have performed. Such are the opinions which the poor negroes have of European invention, arts, learning, and dominion.

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CHAPTER XXIII.

Different diseases, &c. to which the negroes are subject.--Infantile disorders.-Various causes to which may be attributed the decrease of negro population in the West Indies.-Polygamy among the negroes, &c.

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IT is not a little remarkable, that many of the diseases to which the white people in this island are subject, seldom or never affect the negroes; while the former are totally exempt from most of the disorders peculiar to the negroes, unless communicated by infection. But there are diseases, also, which are common to both, as pulmonary complaints, diseases of the liver, bowel disorders, dropsy, common intermittent fever, &c. The negro is, however, exempt from the ravages and epidemic influence of the yellow fever; nor is he subject often to consumptions, nor to the gout, and some other chronic disorders known to the Europeans. He is, however, peculiarly subject to rheumatic affections, and to a disorder of the bones, which seems peculiar to him, called the bone ache, appearing in round swellings about the joints. He is also more often subject to obstructions and inflammations of the bowels than the whites. Formerly there was a terrible dis

ease of the bowel kind, called the dry bellyache in this country, which was wont to sweep off great numbers of the whites, with a violence of pain and rapidity of execution which was truly terrible; but this scourge of the white people is now totally unknown. It would be a curious subject of inquiry to discover to what cause was to be attributed this disappearance of so formidable an enemy. The author has never heard any other hypothesis advanced on the subject than that it was owing to the atmosphere being less humid and better ventilated, from the country - being now generally cleared of wood. Neither the small-pox nor the measles are native diseases of that part of Africa inhabited by the negroes, nor are some other diseases to which they are subject in the West Indies. But there are diseases peculiar to the Africans, which are of a more terrible nature. One of these is called the cocabay; a distemper the most horrible and revolting in its nature, and the more so as it is peculiarly infectious, and utterly incurable. The unhappy patient who is infected with it becomes soon changed in appearance, different parts of his body swell, he is covered over with a leprous scurf, his spirits sink into deep dejection, he loathes his food, and yet his miserable existence is prolonged for years, though he continually invokes death to come and put a period to it, and to his hopeless sufferings; at least, this is the

melancholy and forlorn situation to which it reduces the unhappy white man who becomes a martyr to it by infection. Even his friends and acquaintances dare not come near to sooth and console him in this miserable situation. The negroes, who are often seized with this merciless disorder, are removed, on the first appearance of its symptoms, to some sequestered spot, where a hut is built for them, and the rest of the negroes are strictly interdicted from all intercourse with them. Some have assimilated this disease to. the leprosy mentioned in scripture. Another loathsome disease to which the negroes are subject, is the yaws. This, however, is curable in a negro in eight or ten months, with proper care. But if a white man is seized with it by infection, it is seldom that he recovers; it is too severe and dreadful a trial for him to endure. It however. seldom happens that the whites are attacked with either of these shocking disorders. Another culiar disorder which is common among the negroes, is called the elephantiasis; it consists in a monstrous swelling of the feet and legs, which continues, and is seldom cured. Negroes affected. thereby are rendered unfit for much labour. Hernia, hydrocele, &c. are very common among. the negroes. It has been remarked that there are few of the Barbadians that are exempt from the former of these affections. This is doubtless. a curious circumstance, the cause of which it

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would not be an incurious inquiry to investigate. The other disorders that are generally most fatal among the negroes are pleurisies, inflammations of the bowels, dysenteries, and influenza: sometimes, too, violent fevers, proceeding from colds, are the cause of much mortality among them. The dysentery and influenza make their appearance periodically. Some years ago the latter swept of, in the course of a few months, the tenth part of the population of many of the estates; and there were few that escaped considerable loss. This disease was attended with a most violent and rapid fever, with a strong tendency to the head in forty-eight hours the patient's strength was completely prostrated, and unless a favourable turn took place, he seldom survived long beyond that time. In the rapidity of its operation, it resembled the yellow or malignant bilious fever among the whites: but as the negroes are exempt from the attacks of this latter disorder, so are the whites not at all liable to the influenza during its prevalence among the negroes. The appearance of dysentery among the negroes most to be apprehended in the latter end of summer, when the new yams are begun to be got in, and the avagata pear (a favourite article in the negroes' meals) still remains unripe, but which they will yet use. Both of these diseases are reputed epidemical. The treatment of the influenza was in some measure similar to that of the

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