Notes on the West Indies

George Pinckard (1768–1835) was an army surgeon who arrived in the West Indies in 1796. His letters to a friend were published as Notes on the West Indies in 1806; a second edition came out in 1816. In Volume 3 he continues his description of Dutch Guiana, which had been captured by the British. He gives detailed descriptions of illness among the troops, comparing the Dutch and British medical practices. As several of the medical staff had died, Pinckard was kept extremely busy, while continuing to make observations on all he saw. Surviving an attack of yellow fever, he describes his own symptoms at length. In Guiana he witnessed exceptional cruelty towards slaves, concerning which he gives graphic details, and also the unequal treatment of mulattos. He ends the book with the arrival of his long-delayed orders to proceed to St Domingo (Haiti).