第8章

Transactions of the Colony in April and May,1789.

An extraordinary calamity was now observed among the natives.Repeated accounts brought by our boats of finding bodies of the Indians in all the coves and inlets of the harbour,caused the gentlemen of our hospital to procure some of them for the purposes of examination and anatomy.On inspection,it appeared that all the parties had died a natural death:pustules,similar to those occasioned by the small pox,were thickly spread on the bodies;but how a disease,to which our former observations had led us to suppose them strangers,could at once have introduced itself,and have spread so widely,seemed inexplicable.Whatever might be the cause,the existence of the malady could no longer be doubted.Intelligence was brought that an Indian family lay sick in a neighbouring cove:

The governor,attended by Arabanoo,and a surgeon,went in a boat immediately to the spot.Here they found an old man stretched before a few lighted sticks,and a boy of nine or ten years old pouring water on his head,from a shell which he held in his hand:near them lay a female child dead,and a little farther off,its unfortunate mother:the body of the woman shewed that famine,superadded to disease,had occasioned her death:

Eruptions covered the poor boy from head to foot;and the old man was so reduced,that he was with difficulty got into the boat.Their situation rendered them incapable of escape,and they quietly submitted to be led away.

Arabanoo,contrary to his usual character,seemed at first unwilling to render them any assistance;but his shyness soon wore off,and he treated them with the kindest attention.Nor would he leave the place until he had buried the corpse of the child:that of the woman he did not see from its situation;and as his countrymen did not point it out,the governor ordered that it should not be shown to him.He scooped a grave in the sand with his hands,of no peculiarity of shape,which he lined completely with grass,and put the body into it,covering it also with grass;

and then he filled up the hole,and raised over it a small mound with the earth which had been removed.Here the ceremony ended,unaccompanied by any invocation to a superior being,or any attendant circumstance whence an inference of their religious opinions could be deduced.

[No solution of this difficulty had been given when I left the country,in December,1791.I can,therefore,only propose queries for the ingenuity of others to exercise itself upon:is it a disease indigenous to the country?

Did the French ships under Monsieur de Peyrouse introduce it?Let it be remembered that they had now been departed more than a year;and we had never heard of its existence on board of them.Had it travelled across the continent from its western shore,where Dampier and other European voyagers had formerly landed?Was it introduced by Mr.Cook?Did we give it birth here?No person among us had been afflicted with the disorder since we had quitted the Cape of Good Hope,seventeen months before.

It is true,that our surgeons had brought out variolous matter in bottles;

but to infer that it was produced from this cause were a supposition so wild as to be unworthy of consideration.]

An uninhabited house,near the hospital,was allotted for their reception,and a cradle prepared for each of them.By the encouragement of Arabanoo,who assured them of protection,and the soothing behaviour of our medical gentlemen,they became at once reconciled to us,and looked happy and grateful at the change of their situation.Sickness and hunger had,however,so much exhausted the old man,that little hope was entertained of his recovery.As he pointed frequently to his throat,at the instance of Arabanoo,he tried to wash it with a gargle which was given to him;

but the obstructed,tender state of the part rendered it impracticable.

'Bado,bado'(water),was his cry:when brought to him,he drank largely at intervals of it.He was equally importunate for fire,being seized with shivering fits;and one was kindled.Fish were produced,to tempt him to eat;but he turned away his head,with signs of loathing.

Nanbaree (the boy),on the contrary,no sooner saw them than he leaped from his cradle,and eagerly seizing them,began to cook them.A warm bath being prepared,they were immersed in it;and after being thoroughly cleansed,they had clean shirts put on them,and were again laid in bed.

The old man lived but a few hours.He bore the pangs of dissolution with patient composure;and though he was sensible to the last moment,expired almost without a groan.Nanbaree appeared quite unmoved at the event;

and surveyed the corpse of his father without emotion,simply exclaiming,'boee'(dead).This surprised us;as the tenderness and anxiety of the old man about the boy had been very moving.Although barely able to raise his head,while so much strength was left to him,he kept looking into his child's cradle;he patted him gently on the bosom;and,with dying eyes,seemed to recommend him to our humanity and protection.Nanbaree was adopted by Mr.White,surgeon-general of the settlement,and became henceforth one of his family.

Arabanoo had no sooner heard of the death of his countryman,than he hastened to inter him.I was present at the ceremony,in company with the governor,captain Ball,and two or three other persons.It differed,by the accounts of those who were present at the funeral of the girl,in no respect from what had passed there in the morning,except that the grave was dug by a convict.But I was informed,that when intelligence of the death reached Arabanoo,he expressed himself with doubt whether he should bury,or burn the body;and seemed solicitous to ascertain which ceremony would be most gratifying to the governor.