I suppose that some speculation about the rat introduction and their infestation in the ships in XV-XVI Century are published?
Crosby books dont talk about the topic.
Buenas, Rafael: have you read "Cartas de pasajeros a Indias"? I think that book could be an interesting first step.
Best R.
Hola Carlos, Thank you for the information. I will try to find in web. I was thinking in this type of papers or something for the Indies archives. Is it free in web?
Hola Rafael,
Thomas Gage has a detailed account of his 1625 crossing from Spain to Nueva Espana in his "The English-American, his travail by sea and land, or, A new survey of the West-India's containing a journal of three thousand and three hundred miles within the main land of America ... : also, a new and exact discovery of the Spanish navigation to those parts ... " [published in 1648].
He talks quite explicitly about the troubles of shipboard life and I seem to remember rats and other "animal life" figure prominently in it.
I think you can get his account on the web free as it is so old, but if not I can check the relevant passages for you - I need to re-read it anyway.
Saludos, Michael
Hi Michael and Carlos, good references, I will try to check in web, any way if you have it or a parts in pdf you could send me to my email [email protected]. I hope found more information. saludos rafael
Hola,
Usted puede consultar, entre otros, al Inca Garcilaso de la Vega en sus Comentarios Reales (1609), libro IX, capítulo 22.
Cordiales saludos.
Rudy
Hola Rudy, gracias por la info, Sabes si esta disponible en internet como pdf?
Sí, hay una buena edición que se puede descargar aquí:
http://shemer.mslib.huji.ac.il/lib/W/ebooks/001531300.pdf
Rafael,
this is perhaps the most detailed description of a traveler in the Carrera de Indias - including graphic accounts of the plagues of rats on the ships:
Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa, Tratado verdadero del viaje y navegación de este año de 1622 que hizo la flota de Nueva España y Honduras.
Google it; you should be able to get the relevant passages. If not, I have the book - just let me know if you need the rat info copied out.
This one may lead you to more sources:
Sergio M. Rodríguez Lorenzo, El mar se mueve: la experiencia del viaje trasatlántico entre los pasajeros de la carrera de Indias (siglos XVI y XVII). Communication and Culture Online, Special Issue 1, 2013.
Saludos, Michael
Hola Rafael:
Quizás en:
Pérez-Mallaína, P. E. (1992). Los hombres del Océano: vida cotidiana de los tripulantes de las flotas de Indias, siglo XVI. Diputación de Sevilla.
encuentres algo. Este mismo autor tiene algunos trabajos relacionados. Quizá te interese contactar con él:
https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=Mfjw4VYAAAAJ&hl=es&oi=ao&cstart=0&pagesize=20
Salud y mucha suerte.
Roberto
Source - History of Epidemics and Plagues
Rats aboard docked quarantined ships had easy egress, because they could climb down the mooring ropes and onto the docks. Plague predated the Middle Ages by more than 1000 years. The first recorded epidemic erupted in Mongolia in 46 CE. Before it burned itself out, it had taken about two-thirds of the population with it. China was next to play host in 312. Its northern and western provinces were decimated; more than 90% of the population was lost to the disease. 468 bore witness to another major epidemic in China.
Today, Plague is endemic in various parts of the globe; Madagascar, Tanzania, Brazil, Peru, Burma, and Vietnam have experienced cases almost every year since the start of the last pandemic in 1880. Rodents in the southwestern United States carry fleas infected with these bacteria to this very day
http://uhavax.hartford.edu/bugl/histepi.pdf
Dear Roberto, Machael and Krishnan, thank you for your references. I will try to get it in internet, but as some are books..., I will check the Cuban National library.
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