a r t -s When we,arrived at O-Taheitee in. 1773, we learnt that a
AN D Snanifli fhip had been there a few months before us, which the
s c i e n c e s “ r
natives called Pahee-.no Pipe or Peppe’s fhip. T o whofe comma
n d e r they gave the name of t’Errire; and by this fliip’s crevir
a- difeafe had been introduced among them, -which they called
e-pa-no-peppe, Peppe’s difeafe or fore. A t the Cape o f Good
Hope, we heard from Mr. -Crozet, Captain o f a French Eaft-
■ India fliip, imd from the officers on board the Frigate Juno, in
the Spaniih fervice, under the command o f Don Juan Arraos,
that in the year 17 73, Capt. Don Juan de Langara y Huarte had
been with two Spaniih fhips upon difeoveries in the South Seas,
and had touched' at Taheitee. T h e natives reprefented to us, that
the difeafe of o-Peppe caufed ulcers, difficulty o f breathing, a falling
off of the hair, and daftly death; and that it had -been, communicated
b.y co-habitation with women. We fufpefted this at firft to
be a venereal difeafe, but upon a further confideration, lam apt to
believe, that as this Spaniih ihip came from Lima and Callao,
:where.a great number o f negro Haves are kept,^ who are frequently
and chiefly fubjeft to the.various kinds o f leprafis and elephantiafis,
i t might perhaps have happened that one or more o f the crew
might be infedted with that kind of elephantiafis, which they
communicated to the natives o f thefe ifle s: for it is well known,
that fome fpecies o f leprofy may be communicated by cohabitation,
that
that many lepers are very immoderate in venery, even a few
moments before, they expire, and that eipecially -the elephantiafis
deferibed by Aretsms and Paulus jEgineta, had fome fymptoms
that are perfeftly cor-reiponding with thofe pointed out by the
natives. W e .could fee no perfon at the time o f our arrival
infefted with that diftemper, otherwife we fhould have inquired
more accurately into its particular fymptoms. And I do not intend
to be pofitive that the difeafe was communicated to the natives by
the people in the Spaniih ih ip ; for i f an uncommon diftemper
fhould happen to break out at the time o f the arrival, or flay of
fome ftrangers in a country, the ftrangers have often been accufed
o f having given the infedtion, though they very little deferved
fa«h a charge.
When Captain Cook came in the year 1769, in the Endeavour
to O-Taheitee,- he found that half his crew when he left the
Society-ifles, were infefted with the venereal difeafe, * and it was
then fufpefted that Mr. Bougainville’s fhip’s crew had communicated
this difeafe. Mr. de Bougainville in his turn fufpefts the Englifti
in the Dolphin to have firft introduced i t : f and die gentlemen
in the Dolphin affert they never had one man: infefted With the
leaft venereal fymptom whilft they were at Taheitee or immediately
R r r afterwards,
I
A R T S
AN D
SCIENCES-
* See Hawkefworth, vol. ii. p, 233.
+ See Bougainville’s Voyage, Englilh tranflation, p, a?4> mffl -'S6.