Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume 1 (of 2): A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present dayLanaghan, Mrs.
History
Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume 1 (of 2): A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present day
Lanaghan, Mrs.
Antigua -- Description and travel; Antigua -- History
As leprosy is a frequent disease among the negroes, and, from its
contagious character, doubts had arisen upon the propriety of
admitting persons suffering from that dreadful complaint into the
asylum, it was determined in 1836 to open a subscription list for
the purpose of erecting another building for their reception.
That they might have the benefit of sea-air and sea-bathing, the
site chosen for it was by the sea-side. This building was
commenced in 1837, and “although, from want of funds, scarcely
one of the two wings could be completed, admission was given to
five leprous persons on the 25th of April in that year.” The
society, however, “was compelled to declare that, without
parochial allowances, the institution must fall to the ground.
The claim to such help was at once seen to be most reasonable and
highly needful, and the desired combination of _parochial_ with
_voluntary_ relief was speedily effected. The legislature
granting 600l. currency the following year, the debts were paid
off, and the building finished and publicly opened under the
title of the Lazaretto, on the 20th June, 1838.”
The Lazaretto consists of “six rooms for females and six for
males, capable of accommodating three in each, besides one small
room for one person only. The enclosed yard has been, for the
most part, converted into plots for provisions, and for keeping
poultry in. Some bamboos have been planted, which will in time
afford materials for making baskets, about which one of the men
is industriously employed, and by the sale of his work contrives
to purchase clothes for himself, at half-price, from the Ladies
Clothing Society. All the inmates appear thankful and contented,
and some have shewn a readiness to receive scriptural instruction
that is very pleasing.” Poor creatures! some of them are, indeed,
objects for the deepest commiseration, but their sufferings are
alleviated as far as possible. Their residence is a delightful
situation; the sea-breeze comes so pure from off the bosom of the
ocean, that one would suppose disease must fly before it. From
the farthest point of the land runs a causeway over to Rat
Island, (the promontory already mentioned as being the site of
one of the forts,) made about the year 1748, and which is
passable at ebb-tide. Upon this promontory, which rises in the
form of a steep mount, a lunatic asylum has been built during the
past year, (1841,) the legislature having voted a sum for that
purpose, for the use of such inmates of the institution as have
shewn symptoms of aberration of mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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