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Show 274 PERSONAL ADVENTURES all, even to the extent of refusing to sanction the adoption of certain remedies to stay the progress of the disease amongst the1n, although urgently recommended to do so by one of their number, who had received a medical education, and who, if his advice had been followed, might have succeeded in partially arresting it. By the corpse stood a well-dressed, gentlemanly individual, w·ho, upon ascertaining our business, desired us to seat ourselves on the boxes, which served in lieu of chairs ; and going away, returned preseutly with several other persons, who fully confirmed his state· ments, and gave us additional and harrowing details of their sufferings. This young man had himself been a sufferer. He was by profession a dentist· and in proof of his assertions ' ' as to the extent to which they bad all been afflicted by the scourge, showed us his gums, which were in a sad state of irritation, and hor· ribly disfigured. At his request, as of that of the men whom he had fetched in, we went to see several of the other passengers, who were lying in adjacent tents. We visited some eight or IN CALIFORNIA. 275 ten men in all, and found them in the most horrifying condition, their bodies being discoloured and hideously swollen, and many of them nearly rotten, so fearful had been the ravages of the disease. We signed a paper, recording, as our verdict, that the deceased had died of scurvy, and that his death had been accelerated by neglect on the part of the captain, who, a few days after, was brought to trial. As, however, it turned out that the passengers had engaged to supply themselves with provisions, and had neglected to provide them in sufficient quantities, he escaped punishment. This, then, was the "Happy Valley;" a term no doubt applied to it in derision, taking into consideration the squalor, the discomfort, the filth, the n1isery, and the distress that were rife there. |