Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat: In the U. S. Sloop-of-war Peacock, David Geisinger, Commander, During the Years 1832-3-4Roberts, Edmund
History
Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat: In the U. S. Sloop-of-war Peacock, David Geisinger, Commander, During the Years 1832-3-4
Roberts, Edmund
Southeast Asia -- Commerce; Southeast Asia -- Description and travel
DEPARTURE FROM MANILA--CHOLERA--CAPE BOLINA--CHINESE
VESSELS--PILOT--MACAO--LINTING--VILLAGE--WHAMPOA--JOS
HOUSES--SACRIFICE--ARRIVAL AT CANTON--RIVER AND BOATS--DESCRIPTION
OF CANTON--GREAT IDOL TEMPLE--LEGEND OF THE JOS HOUSE--RELIGIOUS
CEREMONIES--MINOR TEMPLES.
We had spent a fortnight most pleasantly at Manila, when the painful
intelligence was received, that the Asiatic or spasmodic cholera had
suddenly made its appearance on board the Peacock. It has been already
stated that the diarrhœa and dysentery were prevalent among the crew,
on the passage from Angier to Manila. These diseases were ascribed,
among other causes, to the want of bread and the substitution of yams,
&c. The cholera could not have arisen from any want of cleanliness,
for our ship, from her keelson to her royal truck, was kept thoroughly
clean and in the finest order, both at sea and in port. The united
causes which produced this malady were, probably, change of food,
the great quantities of fruit used by the crew, and the arrival of
the season of the year, (about the change of the monsoons in the
bay,) which is generally unhealthy. The first case was in a sailor,
named Peterson, sixty-three years old. He had made a hearty meal on
bean soup, with pork, and about an hour afterward the first symptoms
made their appearance; the evacuations became copious, coldness and
insensibility supervened; the pulse became scarcely perceptible; the
countenance livid, ghastly, and sunken; spasms attacked the lower
extremities; and the surface was covered with a cold, clammy sweat. The
surgeon administered six grains of opium, in three doses; bad symptoms
increasing, fifteen drops of cajeput oil were given in brandy and
water, and repeated in half an hour. After the last dose of opium there
were no evacuations, but the spasms had increased, extended to the
abdominal muscles, and caused such extreme distress, that it required
three or four men to hold the sufferer in his hammock; his groanings
and screamings were violent and frightful. In three or four hours
the spasms ceased. Notwithstanding the internal and external use of
the most powerful stimulants, the prostration increased, and, at four
o’clock in the morning, he was happily relieved from all the pains and
troubles of this life. Another case, was that of a seaman, named North;
he was found at eight o’clock in the evening, lying on deck, totally
unable to rise, from extreme prostration. Death had, apparently,
struck an instantaneous and a heavy blow; the victim was already
clutched in its most loathsome and terrific embraces; the evacuations
were of the usual character; in a few minutes, the pulse was scarce
perceptible; the surface, cold and covered with a viscid perspiration;
the countenance, dreadfully sunken, livid, and cadaverous; respiration
became laborious, and the sufferer was tortured with severe spasms, in
all his limbs and the abdominal muscles, which caused indescribable
distress.
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