A Woman's Journey Round The World, From Vienna To Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia, And Asia Minor By Ida Pfeiffer
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I
Did Not Take Any Medicine (I Carried None With Me), But Trusted To
Providence And My Good Constitution.
A much more dangerous malady than mine was discovered on board on
the third day of the voyage.
The small-pox was in the large cabin.
Eighteen women and seven children were crammed in there. They had
much less room than the negroes in a slave-ship; the air was in the
highest degree infected, and they were not allowed to go on the
deck, filled as it was with men; even we deck passengers were in
great anxiety lest the bad air might spread itself over the whole
ship through the opened windows. The disease had already broken out
on the children before they were brought on board; but no one could
suspect it, as the women came late at night, thickly veiled, and
enveloped in large mantles, under which they carried the children.
It was only on the third day, when one of the children died, that we
discovered our danger.
The child was wrapped in a white cloth, fastened upon a plank, which
was weighted by some pieces of coal or stone, and lowered into the
sea. At the moment that it touched the water, the waves closed over
it, and it was lost to our sight.
I do not know whether a relation was present at this sad event; I
saw no tears flow. The poor mother might, indeed, have sorrowed,
but she dare not accompany her child; custom forbade it.
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