In the month of December, we learnt that the inhabitants of the neighbouring town of Stadacona were infected by a pestilential disease by which above fifty of them had been cut off before we got the intelligence. On this account we strictly enjoined them not to come to our fort or ships, or to have any intercourse with us; notwithstanding which precaution this unknown sickness began to spread among us in the strangest manner that ever was seen or heard of. Some of our men lost their strength so completely that they could not stand, their legs being excessively swelled and quite black, and their sinews shrunk up. Others also had their skins spotted all over with spots of a dark purple or blood colour; which beginning at the ankles, spread up their knees, thighs, shoulders, arms and neck: Their breath did stink most intolerably; their gums became so rotten that the flesh fell off even to the roots of their teeth, most of which fell out[58]. So severely did this infection spread among us, that by the middle of February, out of 110 persons composing the companies of our three ships, there were not _ten_ in perfect health to assist the rest, so that we were in a most pitiable case, considering the place we were in, as the natives came every day to the outside of our fort and saw but few of us. Eight were already dead, and fifty more so extremely ill that we considered them past all hopes of recovery. In consideration of our misery, our captain commanded all the company to prepare by devout prayer in remembrance of Christ our Saviour, and caused his holy image to be set upon a tree about a musquet-shot from the fort, giving us to understand that divine service was to be performed there on the Sunday following, every one who could possibly do so attending in solemn procession, singing the _seven_ psalms of David and other litanies, and praying most heartily to our Lord Christ Jesus to have compassion upon our wretched state. Service being accordingly performed as well as we could, our captain made a vow, if it should please God to permit his return into France, that he would go on pilgrimage to the shrine of our Lady of Rocquemado. [Footnote 58: The author clearly describes the scurvy, long so fatal to mariners on long voyages, now almost unknown in consequence of superior attention to articles of diet and cleanness.--E.]