Yellow fever killed French reinforcements faster than battle could

Evidence

As 1802 wore on, the reinforcements that arrived to shore up Leclerc’s mission were rapidly reduced by the plague. In mid-1803 two regiments of Polish troops disembarked in the town of Tiburon; ten days later more than half were dead of fever. “They fell down as they walked,” a planter noted, “the blood rushing out of their nostrils, mouths, eyes.” By late 1802, “an average of one hundred men a day died.” The disease killed the entire crew of a Swedish ship harbored in Le Cap, with the single exception of a young cabin boy, and the empty ship was put up for sale. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 992

Categorization

• CANDY: The Swedish ship whose entire crew died leaving one cabin boy—put up for sale—is a gripping small tale.