Rosalie Hart Priour Autobiography "Adventures of a Family of Emigrants" with notes and commentary by historian Frank Wagner (indicated in green).
Chapter 10 Three days later [10 May, 1834] we arrived in New Orleans. None of us had ever seen a Negro before, and the children were nearly frightened to death. they were a great curiosity even for the grown people. There was very little to make us feel satisfied. We arrived at a time when the cholera was raging in New Orleans. People were dying so fast that it was impossible to dig graves and the dead were buried in trenches. The emigrants were forbidden to eat vegetables or fruit, as it was supposed that they were dangerous. The majority obeyed orders, but other disregarded the meals set down for them, and they were the only ones who escaped.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - There was a widespread cholera epidemic in the United States, throughout the Mississippi River valley. There was also a cholera epidemic in Wexford and in England in 1834, and possibly some of the infection came with the Heroine on her trans-Atlantic passage. Everything known in that day for medical intervention in cholera is recognized today as worsening the malady. Clerics in New Orleans believed cholera to be an extreme form of diarrhea experienced by newcomers to Louisiana. Since fresh vegetables and fruits were often implicated in such visitor's digestive ailments, they also forbade eating them when cholera was rampant. A general view of the extent of the cholera epidemic is provided by a brief survey in Niles Register, June 1, 1833, page 221. "Epidemic cholera in Texas, 1833-1834" by J. Villasana Haggard, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, vol. 40 no. 3, pages 216-230 (January, 1937) is a definitive study, but now somewhat out of date. Cf. James O. Breeden, Ibid. 80 (4), p 357-98 (April, 1977) and H. Bailey Carroll in "Texas Collection", Ibid., 6 (1), pp. 156-8 (July, 1966). Charles Rosenberg, The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849 and 1866, University of Chicago Press, 1958, and R. J. Morris, Cholera, 1832: Social Response to an Epidemic, Holmes & Meier, 1976, provide illumination of the more widespread epidemics.
A Mexican physician in Monterey, Dr. Ignacio Sendejas, found empirically that atole (a thin porridge made of nixtamal, i.e. limed corn flour used for making tamales) was efficacious in restoring the water balance, nutrition and life of some cholera patients. A small amount of peyote served as a smoothmuscle relaxant. Though published August 13, 1833 in Monclova, his discovery was not available in either the United States or Ireland until nearly a century had passed. Few, if any, of the Power colony could speak or understand Spanish, and English was about equally unknown among the Mexican authorities. A number of Mexican officers were fluent in French, and Col. Power along with a few others in the colony chose to converse in that language. Col. Power and Mertha Cullen seem to have been the only Spanish speaking people among the passengers.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - After remaining in that hothouse of pestilence and death eight or ten days, father saw a steamer lying at the wharf on which he thought one of his cousins named Car was employed as mate. Mother and my little sister Mary Ann, then about a year and a half old, were with him. They boarded the boat and inquired of the captain if Mr. Car was on board.
What do you want with him? inquired the Captain.
Father replied, "He is my cousin, and the last letter I received from him he was on board this vessel."
The Captain said, "Tom, don't you recognize me? If Mr. Car is your cousin, so am I. There were only the three sisters: one married Mr. Griffin, one Mr. Car and the other Mr. Hart." the recognition was instantaneous, and all parties were delighted at the meeting. He then informed father that about three months previous, Mr. Car had gone into the Mexican trade, and he had not seen him since.
Mr. Griffin asked father what his intentions were in coming to America, he replied, "I have come out as an emigrant under the Mexican government with Col. Powers."
He said, "Oh! Tom for God's sake do not take your family to Texas. It is inhabited by savages, and no society, and I will give you any situation on the steamer that you wish if you do not want to stay with me. I will find a plantation for you between here and St. Louis where you will be much happier than in the wild, savage country you intend to go to.
Father then answered, "I cannot consent to do as you wish. I have come this far, and given my word to Col. Powers that I would go, and I will not break the promise I have made. If you stop to reflect, you will not wish me to act so dishonorably."
"Tom", he said, "if you will not take my advice, I want you to grant me a favor. Remain here until I come back from St. Louis, and I will bring you the kind of provisions you will need to keep your family healthy in such a country and climate as the one you are going to. I am well-acquainted with the subject, and know exactly what is necessary."
"I am thankful to you for your kind offer, but I have provisions on board for over a year."
"Yes, but the provisions you brought from Europe will be spoiled before you can land in Texas, and will make your family sick. Let me get such provisions for you as I think necessary. You have had a long voyage and everything you have brought from home will be sour and musty. The steamer has to leave port in an hour, or I would get them now and put them aboard your vessel. Then I would be certain, you could not leave without them, but unfortunately I have no time as the present. I cannot detain the boat."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Griffins's advice to Tom Hart was exceptionally good. There is scarcely any question that Hart could have done better by settling upriver along the Mississippi, rather than going to the wilderness of Texas. His obstinacy was esteemed a virtue at the time.
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