[From The Leavenworth Medical (Herald for October, 1867.] 
CONVEYANCE OF CHOLERA 
FROM IRELAND TO CANADA AND THE UNITED 
STATES INDIAN TERRITORY, IN 1832. 
John C. Peters, M.D., of New York. 
From Dr. R. Nelson's account we select the following : Early 
in the spring of 1832 the following infected vessels arrived at 
Quebec, Canada : The ship Robert sailed from Cork on May 14th, 
and had 10 deaths from cholera ; the Constantia, April 28th, from 
Limerick, with 29 deaths ; the Elizabeth, May 28th, from Dublin, 
with 17 deaths: the Garrick, from Dublin, June 3d, with 42 
deaths; ship Brubus, May 18th, from Liverpool,with 81 deaths. 
All these ships and their passengers were quarantined at 
Crosse Isle, a few miles below Quebec. On June 7th the St. 
Lawrence steamer Yoyageur conveyed a load of these emigrants 
and their baggage, some to Quebec and the majority to Mon- 
treal on the 10th. 
The first cases of cholera in America occurred in emigrant 
boarding houses in Quebec on the Bth, and the same pest steam- 
boat, the Yoyageur, landed persons dead and dying of cholera 
at Montreal, a distance of 200 miles, in less than 80 hours; and 
over this long distance, thickly inhabited on both shores of the 
O 7 */ 
St. Lawrence, cholera made a single leap, Avithout infecting a 
single village, or a single house between the two cities, with the 
following exceptions : A man picked up a mattress .thrown from 
the Yoyageur, and he and his wife died of cholera ; another man 
fishing on the St. Lawrence was requested to bury a dead man from the Yoyageur, and he, his wife and nephew died. The 
captain of a passing boat recpiested an Indian to bury a man 
from on board; this and five other Indians were attacked and 
died. 
The town of Three Rivers, half way between Quebec and 
Montreal, forbid steamers to land and escaped for a long time. 
From Montreal the great influx of emigrants was forwarded 
away, by the Emigrant Society, as fast as they arrived, and by 
them the pestilence was sown at each stopping place. Kingston, 
Toronto and Niagara soon became affected. In the end over 
4000 persons died of cholera in Montreal, and more than an 
equal number in Quebec. 
The epidemic quickly reached Detroitin the same way. From 
the United States Army Report for 1832, page 81, we learn :It 
was at this period (June, 1832,) that Asiatic cholera made its 
first appearance on the northeast coast of America, and spread 
with fatal rapidity along the great water courses on our northern 
frontier, and continued tvest along the great lakes until in Sep- 
tember it reached some of our military posts on the upper Mis- 
sissippi. As the Sac and Fox Indians, headed by Black Hawk, 
wTere at this time in open hostility, our troops marching towards 
the theatre of war became exposed to the influence of the 
epidemic. Speaking of this event, Major General Macomb, in 
his annual report, says; Unfortunately, however, the cholera 
was just at this time making its way into the United States from 
Canada, and infected our troops while on board the steamboats 
in their passage up the lakes; and such was the rapidity with 
which this disease spread among them that, in a few days, the 
whole force sent by the lakes was rendered incapable of taking 
the field. Some were landed, but the principal reached Chicago 
in a most deplorable condition. Six companies of artillery left 
Fortress Monroe, Virginia, in perfect health, contracted the 
cholera at Detroit, and reached Chicago with a loss of one out 
of every three men. 
On page 86 we read; Fort Dearborn, near Chicago, was tem- 
porarily re-occupied during the campaign against Black Hawk 
in 1832, and it was here that epidemic cholera displayed its most fatal effects among our troops. Out of 1000 men over 200 
cases were admitted into hospitals in the course of 7 or 8 days. 
Surgeon DeCamp inclined to the opinion of its contagiousness, 
because previous to the arrival of the steamboat which brought 
the disease to Fort Dearborn,'there had not been a case of dis- 
ease of this kind at the fort or in the village. When these troops 
again marched for the Mississippi they appeared in perfect health, 
yet it broke out again on the way, and when the command 
reached the Mississippi it became as fatal as it had been at Fort 
Dearborn. 
On page 90 we read : The garrison at Fort Niagara also suf- 
fered from epidemic cholera in 1882, when on its march towards 
the theatre of Indian hostilities. Having reached Detroit on the 
30th of June, 1882, the troops were mustered and inspected, no 
man being on the sick list. On the 6th of July the first case 
occurred, and by the 20th 47 men, out of a company of 78, had 
been attacked. As regards the cause of the sudden appear- 
ance of this disease at Detroit, leaving an intermediate country 
of considerable extent unaffected, it was generally believed at the 
time that the principle of infection existed in the steamboat in 
which the troops were conveyed from Buffalo to Detroit, this 
vessel having been employed in transporting crowds of filthy 
foreign emigrants westward from Montreal and Quebec. The 
“ Henry Clay,” among the troops on board of which the disease 
also appeared, had been engaged in the same kind of service. 
On page 159 wre read, that it also reached Fort Crawford, on 
the Mississippi, twro miles above the mouth of the Wisconsin ; 
and Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri river, about 500 miles 
above its confluence with the Mississippi; also, Jefferson Bar- 
racks, 10 miles below St. Louis ; and Fort Gibson, on the Neosho 
or Grand river, in Arkansas. Our troops handed the disease 
over to the Indians.