The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
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At The Beginning Of
1873, It Was Estimated That Nearly 400 Lepers Were Scattered Up And
Down The Islands, Living
Among their families and friends, and the
healthy associated with them in complete apathy or fatalism.
However bloated the face
And glazed the eyes, or however swollen or
decayed the limbs were, the persons so afflicted appeared neither to
scare nor disgust their friends, and, therefore, Hawaii has
absolutely needed the coercive segregation of these living foci of
disease. When the search for lepers was made, the natives hid their
friends away under mats, and in forests and caves, till the peril of
separation was over, and if they sought medical advice, they
rejected foreign educated aid in favour of the highly paid services
of Chinese and native quacks, who professed to work a cure by means
of loathsome ointments and decoctions, and abominable broths worthy
of the witches' cauldron.
However, as the year passed on, lepers were "informed against," and
it became the painful duty of the sheriffs of the islands, on the
statement of a doctor that any individual was truly a leper, to
commit him for life to Molokai. Some, whose swollen faces and
glassy goggle eyes left no room for hope of escape, gave themselves
up; and few, who, like Mr. Ragsdale, might have remained among their
fellows almost without suspicion, surrendered themselves in a way
which reflects much credit upon them. Mr. Park, the Marshal, and
Mr. Wilder, of the Board of Health, went round the islands
repeatedly in the Kilauea, and performed the painful duty of
collecting the victims, with true sympathy and kindness.
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