Report of the Special Sanitary Committee of Montreal upon cholera and emigration, for the year 1834.

  • Montréal (Québec). Special Sanitary Committee.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Special Sanitary Committee of Montreal upon cholera and emigration, for the year 1834. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ■which transforms her into a fine fast sailing first class ship of doa- ble her real register measurement.* The poor, who in many parts of Ireland possibly find little in their present condition or future prospects, to bind them to the place of their nativity, and who frequently know little of the nature of a sea voyage, seize upon these opportunities of cheap conveyance and promise of extensive accommodations, to expatriate themselves and join the friends, who report informs them, have risen to a superior station in the land of their adoption. They are assured that it is only necessary to provide the price of a passage and six weeks’ pro- visions, because the vessel never made a longer voyage, and that when once landed in Quebec, if other means fail, there are societies for the express purpose of forwarding them to their places of des- tination. The day fixed for the vessel’s departure arrives, and the unfortunate emigrant comes with his family from the interior, to be in readiness to embark; but the number of passengers engaged is perhaps not sufficient to satisfy the cupidity of the agent of the vessel, or others concerned. Her departure is sometimes delayed for weeks, during all which time the poor emigrant is obliged to subsist upon bis sea-stores, happy if the temptations to extravagance and expense so common in sea-port towns, do not lead him to dissi- pate the little pecuniary means that are still left to him. At last the vessel sails. The passage by these ill-found slow sailers, is frequently seven, eight, nine, or even more weeks; and the unlucky emigrant, who finds himself out of provisions, is forced to buy at a high price from the captain ; but too often his means are so limited, that he can only procure for himself and his family what is absolutely necessary to prevent their dying of hun- ger.j- They then become feeble from exhaustion, and being forced to remain in a place crowded with passengers, and encumbered by berths, in an atmosphere poisonous and corrupted, they are inevit- ably rendered liable to contract, to propagate, and to be sacrificed to any prevailing malady, whether indigenous to the country, or brought to it by themselves.£ • Brigs of about 200 tons are constantly advertised in large placards publicly posted as vessels of 500 tons, and ships of about 400 tons as vessels of from S00 to I00O tons- Many of these leaky old ships make several feet of water on the pas- sage, by which the provisions of the passengers have been in part destroyed. f Complaints about the quality of water were very general. It was often bad, blue and unserviceable, owing probably to having been inconsiderately filled into foul casks. A deficiency of quantity on board often compelled the people to use the river water where it was brackish and unwholesome. The allowance to chil- dren is far too small. Mothers were frequently seen going from berth to berth occupied by grown people to beg a little to stop the cries of their families. f A great number of deaths occur on board of Emigrant vessels on their pas- 13 2