Henry Alfred Alford Nicholls diary
Page 63
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Transcription
St Vincent. 3 June, 1891 beautifully turned, and having some degree of ornamentation. The buildings and aqueduct must have cost large sums of money, but then they were built in the old slavery day, when negroes (sic) cost a ton, and now it is worth about a canel ra. It is called, [illegible] fourth of that price. The main aqueduct, is several miles long, and, owing to the configuration of the country, it must have been very costly in construction. After leaving Furena we came to Orwell Village, where there is a considerable population. On making inquiries I was told that there were no yaws people cases, but on making a house to house visitation I discovered several children and grown up persons with the disease. One woman said that a year or so ago nearly all the people had yaws in the place, and now persons were carefully bathing in sea water, and only drinking some of the water. Also a decotion of a plant very common in these islands called 'Mervin' or 'Veryvain' was administered to the patients. The seaside grape, Crecoba unfera, is very plentiful along the coast, and even for some distance in the interior, as in most of the islands. For the last days past, the trade wind has been blowing very hard, and a good deal of the sea spray is blown for some distance inland. Thus an awful destruction to me for my spectacles got encrusted with the