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| Cholera in Quebec City: the sky os black from the smudge pots, burned to drive away the smells that people at the time believed caused disease. |
The disease began in India. It had spread to Russia and the Far East before it hit London and Paris. News from Europe was delayed about six weeks, the time it took for a North Atlantic passage.
London had gone into a sort of lockdown:
CHOLERA AND COMMERCE.—The careful men in the city, who are constantly watching the " signs of the times," profess already to see plain indications of that mischief with which we are threatened, not by the cholera, but by the absurd measures which the belief of its existence here has given rise to. Money has become within these two days comparatively scarce, because merchants perceive that an extensive demand for it must shortly arise, from the mere circumstance that shipments of gods of all kinds for the continent have been generally suspended, and that the owners will be driven to provide payment for them, without any of the usual aid from foreign remittances. The great ports of Europe, now inevitably to be closed against the Lendon trade, as they receive no goods from us, will of course send us no money.--[Morning Chron.]
This ominous note appears at the beginning of May:
EMIGRATION.—The following is copied from the City article of a late number of the Morning Herald. "We understand that the number of vessels preparing to sail for Canada at the opening of the season, both in London and the out ports, is great beyond all precedent. We are very glad that this is the case, because as has been justly intimated by a writer in the last number of the Quarterly Review, to whom we have before referred, the increasing population of the country must find a vent somewhere to escape from the grasp of want, or the nation will be involved in anarchy and confusion. The fact is the land does not raise sufficient food, as at present managed, to give in exchange for manufactured goods, and we know of no better way of remedying the evil than the bringing into cultivation our colonies, more especially the Canadas, whose interests are, or ought to be, identified with our own. At the same time, however, we feel it our duty again to call the attention of the Government to the disgraceful and cruel manner in which so many poor persons were last year huddled together, worse than negroes are in African slave ships, to serve the cupidity of the owners and masters of the vessels that bore them across the Atlantic.”
If my calculations are correct, some of my ancestors came over on one of those ships.
However, Kingston readers were reassured that the pandemic could not reach North America.
[I]t is contagious, but depends mainly for its progress and malignity on the state of the atmosphere. … [T]his state of the atmosphere, whatever it may be, does not exist at any great distance from land, and is at length neutralized on the ocean. When the United States frigate Congress visited Manilla, in the year 1820, on the evening of the 4th day after her arrival a case of Asiatic Cholera occurred, and the ship was immediately ordered to get under way for the purpose of proceeding to the China Seas. While in these narrow seas, a number of cases occurred, the last of which was on the morning preceding that on which she passed through the Straits of Sunda. After this no new cases occurred; those previously ill soon recovered; and the ship has remained from that time perfectly free from any infection of the kind. From these facts we believe it to be utterly impossible, for the disease to be imported in vessels from Europe, and that if it appears here at all, it will originate here, and not be imported.” [N. V. Con., Eng ]
So that was reassuring.
The next week’s issue reported that the illness had spread to Ireland: four dead in Dublin.
On 15 May the first ships of the season arrived at Quebec. One, the Canada, was thought to have cholera on board.
Both had violated a newly-passed quarantine law, that required ships to dock at Grosse-Ile for health inspection rather than docking in Quebec harbour.
FIRST ARRIVALS—HEALTH LAW:-On Friday night last about 10 o'clock, two guns were fired in the Harbour, and in the morning the Canada, from Greenock, and the Intrepid, from Hull, were seen at anchor off The St. Charles. They were the first arrivals from sea this season. They were boarded in the morning by the Harbour Master and Health Officer, and a yellow flag hoisted at the foremast. No communication was allowed with the port, as they bad no certificates of the Health Officer at the Quarantine Station. In the afternoon the Board of Health ordered them back to Grosse Isle, and they set sail, without landing a passenger or even the letter bags, (a step with respect to the bags not altogether necessary, it strikes us,) about 3 o'clock. They arrived at the station yesterday. The Canada had a foul hill of health, the Cholera existing at Greenock; the Intrepid had a clean bill of health. It is understood that prosecutions for violation of the Health Law have been ordered against the Captains and Pilots. The penalty is a sum not more than £100. The pilot of the Intrepid had however, we learn, wintered in England, and was ignorant of the quarantine laws.
The next week, the Rideau Canal opened. My ancestors must have been among the earliest immigrants to come through.
RIDEAU CANAL.—In a late number of the Herald we announced that this magnificent work would he completed in a few weeks, but we were not prepared, at an early a period, for the interesting scene which took place yesterday. At eight o'clock in the morning it was understood that a Steam-boat and several smaller craft would pass through the Locks at Kingston Mills, and of course a large concourse of our inhabitants hastened to the spot, in order to witness so pleasing an event. At thirteen minutes before one o'clock the Dock Yard Cutter Snake, commanded by Lieutenant Holbrook , and accompanied by Mr. Glovers Barge, and a barge belonging to the officers of the 66th Regiment, entered the first Lock, where they remained eleven minutes, —number two was passed in five minutes —number three, in about four minutes—they were in the basin three or four minutes, and entered the broad expanse of water above number four, at thirteen minutes before two o'clock. The delay in the last lock was occasioned by a small piece of drift wood getting between one of the gates and its sill. Had this not occurred, the time occupied in passing through all the locks would not have exceeded thirty minutes. After three hearty cheers, the Cutter, with the British Ensign flying at the main mast head, spread her sails to the breeze, and was soon hid from our sight by the trees that stud the margin of the serpentine channel leading to Brewer's Mills.
By 20 June, the cholera had apparently still not arrived in Kingston.
THE INDIAN CHOLERA—We have a variety of reports respecting this disorder, but the truth of which we are unable to vouch for, therefore it is best not to sound the alarm without a strong foundation, for we well know that fear operates in a frightful manner on the imagination. A person the other day informed us that he took up a book which treated on that disorder, and that he became so affected by the perusal of it as almost to turn sick, and was forced to put it down. We have published the particulars of a meeting in our town upon the subject, where resolutions were passed and a committee of safety appointed to act with the magistrates, to adopt and put in force the most effectual means to prevent the disorder being introduced, and otherwise to endeavour to stop its progress if it should visit us.
CHOLERA. At a meeting of the Inhabitants of Kingston, held at the Court House, on Thursday, June 14th, 1832, "for the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of adopting some measures to prevent the spread of CHOLERA in the Town." THOMAS MARKLAND, Esq. in the Chair. Resolved, That whereas by recent accounts from Quebec, it appears that the disease called Asiatic Spasmodic Cholera has appeared in that city, thus affording indubitable proof that the disorder has been imported from Europe, we cannot close our eyes to the almost tearful certainty that this awful visitation of Almighty God will soon reach this Town. That as every individual is deeply interested in the preservation of the Public Health, it is the bounden duty of all to combine cheerfully in such measures as may serve under the divine blessing to arrest the progress of this scourge.
The newspaper goes on to suggest:
We would seriously ask, whether it would be better to risk a little infringement on public right, by directing the Steam-Boats crammed with passengers for the ports above to pass Kingston, or to let them come to our wharves and run the chance of introducing a pestilence amongst us when it may be avoided by so doing. We are informed that Commodore Barrie (at the request of the Magistrates and Committee of Public Safety) has ordered a boat to be stationed at Point Frederick to prevent Steam-Boats or other craft entering the port of Kingston without being examined.
By the Montreal papers received this morning, we find that the state of that city and also Quebec was truly alarming on account of the ravages of the Cholera, but we are happy to find by an extract from the Gazette that the disease has greatly abated at both places [sic—not true, perhaps inserted to reassure]. The situation of the emigrants is truly distressing, as many of them are without money, or even a temporary shelter, which is enough of itself to bring on disorders of the most afflicting nature from such exposure and privations. It is absolutely necessary to use the utmost caution to prevent the disorder being introduced amongst us. There can be no necessity whatever under the present circumstances, for the steam-boats and vessels bound above to call here, and such as are, should have a distant station appointed for them, which regulations we are informed are this day enforced.
Since writing the above we have received the following.
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL BOARD OF HEALTH. Kingston, 20th June 1832.
Cases, - - 2
Admitted into Hospital, - - 1
Deaths out of Hospital, - - 1
Remaining, - - - 1
JOHN R. FORSYTH, Secretary.
So it had arrived.
Next week the figures for June 20th were republished, and were quite different, without explanation:
Cases 48
Deaths 21
This makes me suspect that the actual number of cases was being suppressed, to prevent panic. The papers from York (Toronto) actually published no news at all of the outbreak there. The Herald laments this.
From the York papers we are unable to collect any satisfactory information respecting the progress of the prevailing disease. It is said that the Physicians refuse to report the cases that come under their notice, and therefore the public are kept in total ignorance in relation to the health of the Town.
People apparently believed at the time that fear caused disease. The paper considered it a civic duty to downplay the dangers.
We have ourselves met numbers of persons in the public streets with their handkerchiefs to their mouths, depression on their countenances, looking the very pictures of despair, afraid that with every inspiration of the air they might inhale pestilence and death!! Can it excite surprise if the amount of mortality is swollen to an horrible magnitude when people thus court disease, and solicit a passport to the tomb?—We repeat, that a careless disregard of the malady, as far as the mind is concerned, is one of the best safeguards against the attack of cholera, just as the shutting up of stores, the closing of shops, and the suspension of any of the everyday pursuits of business or the ordinary occupations of life will be found to provoke its approach.—
But there is a backhanded admission that “the amount of mortality has swollen to an horrible magnitude.”
The public was assured repeatedly that there was really no reason to worry; cures had been discovered, using ingredients close to hand. Every new edition reported a different cure that some doctor or another had found to be effective. This one is my favourite:
The Montreal Herald speaks in high terms of commendation of the "charitable and extraordinary stranger whom Providence seems to have led to our city, at the moment of inflicting the scourge; and who, besides practising gratis, has practised with some success. When we say this, we are prepared to bring forward many and very extraordinary instances of his success, authenticated by respectable individuals, witnesses of the cure. His recipe is as follows.
Two spoonsful of Charcoal, Two do of Lard, Two do of Maple Sugar.
Mix these together, and give them to the patient with a spoonful of sugar, to remove the disagreeable taste from the mouth; should this remain on the stomach one half hour after, the patient may drink a little spruce beer: chocolate may be used after the recovery of the patient with dry bread. If he has the cramps or spasms, he is rubbed over with lye of wood ashes and water, as hot as it can be borne, but not over strong. In the event of its proving ineffectual, if the spasms continue or increase, very hot brandy, of the best kind, is substituted for the lye. If the patient vomit after the first dose of charcoal, the second is administered after the lapse of half an hour. After this treatment has been used, and as soon as the patient is a little recovered, he is to take a plate of bean soup, made with very fat pork, and should drink water in which has been quenched a live coal of maple wood. He may also take a very strong chocolate with little milk, and a wine glass full of leaven or baker's yeast will help in maintaining the functions of the stomach.
As of the first of August, the epidemic had not abated, and the newspaper seems to be speaking more frankly. Perhaps the public had become familiar enough with the disease; more likely suppression was no longer possible, against the evidence of their own eyes.
The Montreal papers received this morning represent the Cholera as raging with unabated violence---The deaths being about twenty daily. The accounts from Quebec are also more unfavourable than they were last week.
The US had closed its ports to all Canadian commerce.
The epidemic raged on for years.
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