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CHAPTER I
EPIDEMICS

Influenza first invaded Samoan shores in the early eighteen thirties, and, from that time on, influenza epidemics became almost an annual curse of the Group. The eighteen thirties also saw the blazing introduction of the papalagi Jehovah. Perhaps, to the new Samoan converts, the epidemics were the fearful expression of the wrath of their new God. However, as the century progressed and the people suffered, their accusing attention shifted from Jehovah (as the cause) to the men, who had brought Him. Epidemics were no longer the just punishment meted out by Jehovah for sins committed, but scourges introduced by other men, by foreigners.

The missionary Turner reported an ‘unusually severe and fatal attack’ of influenza in 1837. Another severe outbreak occurred in 1847. Other foreign diseases, such as whooping cough and mumps, first made their presence felt in the late eighteen forties. In 1849, Erskine reported an epidemic of whooping cough, which did not discr