The ship Asa Eldridge arrived from Shanghae last Saturday, with the passage of about 43 days. By her we learn that the Cholea was prevailing very extensively at that port, and that there had been over 30,000 deaths from the plague in the city and its vicinity. So rapid was the disease that within twelve hours, and frequently within four hours, after it attacked persons, they were corpses. Of course no physicians or medicines could have provided for such an emergency, and the plague had its own way. It was found impossible to take care of the dead in the whole city and vicinity were one vast sepulchre. Dead bodies were daily seen floating down the river past the city, the same river from which the inhabitants obtained their drinking water. What will our Honolulu people think of this when talking of the unhealthiness of our city? So hot was it in Shanghae that foreigners could not venture out in the sun after 9 o’clock A.M., and business of almost every kind was suspended. Many of the merchants and foreign residents were leaving the city either temporarily or permanently, and we heard a gentleman say that ten thousand dollars a year would not tempt him to return and live there. This account may be too highly colored, and when the cool season returns, the plague will doubtless disappear and Shanghae regain its usual state of healthiness and trade. Over two hundred foreign vessels were in port when the A.E. left.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Notes of the Week: From China (Cholera Epidemic in Shanghai, 1863)
Source: The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu: October 15, 1863.
The ship Asa Eldridge arrived from Shanghae last Saturday, with the passage of about 43 days. By her we learn that the Cholea was prevailing very extensively at that port, and that there had been over 30,000 deaths from the plague in the city and its vicinity. So rapid was the disease that within twelve hours, and frequently within four hours, after it attacked persons, they were corpses. Of course no physicians or medicines could have provided for such an emergency, and the plague had its own way. It was found impossible to take care of the dead in the whole city and vicinity were one vast sepulchre. Dead bodies were daily seen floating down the river past the city, the same river from which the inhabitants obtained their drinking water. What will our Honolulu people think of this when talking of the unhealthiness of our city? So hot was it in Shanghae that foreigners could not venture out in the sun after 9 o’clock A.M., and business of almost every kind was suspended. Many of the merchants and foreign residents were leaving the city either temporarily or permanently, and we heard a gentleman say that ten thousand dollars a year would not tempt him to return and live there. This account may be too highly colored, and when the cool season returns, the plague will doubtless disappear and Shanghae regain its usual state of healthiness and trade. Over two hundred foreign vessels were in port when the A.E. left.
The ship Asa Eldridge arrived from Shanghae last Saturday, with the passage of about 43 days. By her we learn that the Cholea was prevailing very extensively at that port, and that there had been over 30,000 deaths from the plague in the city and its vicinity. So rapid was the disease that within twelve hours, and frequently within four hours, after it attacked persons, they were corpses. Of course no physicians or medicines could have provided for such an emergency, and the plague had its own way. It was found impossible to take care of the dead in the whole city and vicinity were one vast sepulchre. Dead bodies were daily seen floating down the river past the city, the same river from which the inhabitants obtained their drinking water. What will our Honolulu people think of this when talking of the unhealthiness of our city? So hot was it in Shanghae that foreigners could not venture out in the sun after 9 o’clock A.M., and business of almost every kind was suspended. Many of the merchants and foreign residents were leaving the city either temporarily or permanently, and we heard a gentleman say that ten thousand dollars a year would not tempt him to return and live there. This account may be too highly colored, and when the cool season returns, the plague will doubtless disappear and Shanghae regain its usual state of healthiness and trade. Over two hundred foreign vessels were in port when the A.E. left.
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