Description:

THE TRAGIC IMPACT OF SMALL POX: THE LONDON CHRONICLE

February 22-24, 1791: An edition carrying good and bad news; the first being a report on the exemplary behavoiur of two convicts, Richard Pugh and Elizabeth Morgan, who "....are stationed at Norfolk Island....Pugh has discovered great ingenuity in covering houses with shingles, and turns out to be a valuable member of the colony." The very bad news is introduced by the following statement: "The native inhabitants of the country have caught the small-pox from the English, and died in great numbers: a little girl named Abaroo, almost 11 years of age, was brought into the colony with several others, who were in a terrible state from this disorder. They all died except this girl, and a boy who was under the care of the Surgeon-general."