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Home , Leprosy, Tropical disease, Yaws

SYPHILIS, GONORRHOEA, biased in favour of the nineteenth and AND IN twentieth centuries.

THE INDONESIAN We are, therefore, not well-informed about ARCHIPELAGO, 1500-1950 the new that might have accompanied the Europeans who came to 1 the region in ever increasing numbers Peter Boomgaard from around 1500. Thus, Southeast is hardly mentioned in the ‘Columbian Abstract exchange’ stories in which other areas of the globe figure so prominently. I am referring to the Americas in the sixteenth This paper dexamines the history of and seventeenth centuries and the Pacific sexually transmitted diseases in Southeast in the eighteenth century, where ‘new’ Asia and explores the origins of venereal diseases, arriving with the European , specifically and conquerors or explorers, led to a dramatic gonorrhoea, in the region. The arrival of drop in population numbers. Although this new diseases that accompanied Europeans view is now generally accepted, the new from about 1500, is a subject that scholars orthodoxy is of a relatively recent date have largely ignored in favour of the 19th (e.g. Crosby 1972). and 20th centuries. While concentrating on

the Indonesian archipelago, the paper also In this paper, I explore the question of considers to other parts of whether there are indications that to investigate the impact of syphilis and something similar happened in the area we gonorrhoea on the rate of population now call , but I cast my net a bit growth in the region. Unlike gonorrhoea, wider and occasionally refer to other parts which was present before the arrival of of Asia as well. I also look at the debate on Europeans, syphilis was a new disease the origins of syphilis in , in order whose introduction by the Portuguese had to see whether can shed some light on lethal consequences. Possibly, the what happened in Asia, and, the other way propagation of Islam and Christianity in around, whether the Asian story has some island Southeast Asia after 1500 and of bearing on current thought about the Buddhism in mainland Southeast Asia, origins of ‘venereal’ syphilis. were important mitigating factors in

checking the spread of syphilis. In this story, syphilis, gonorrhoea, leprosy and yaws, some of them rather unlikely Introduction bedfellows, all play a role, but my main arguments gravitate around syphilis and Southeast Asia is not well represented in yaws. the international medical historical literature of the last two decades. Some of these diseases are well-known to Moreover, the existing literature is heavily the general public, infamous even, although now less so than, say, a century ago, but other ones might need an 1 Professor, Royal Netherlands Institute of introduction. Syphilis (‘pox’) and Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies at gonorrhoea (‘clap’) are worldwide known Leiden (KITLV) and University of Amsterdam

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sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), present contribution, therefore, had to be although they are now largely relegated to based almost entirely on information about an existence in the shadow of HIV/AIDS.2 STDs found in collections of pre-World Leprosy, sometimes called Hansen’s War Two books and articles. disease, is an illness now only to be found in tropical countries, although not so long In 1941, roughly between 10 to 15% of the ago it was also encountered in the population of Java, Indonesia’s most temperate zone. It is not an STD, but it populous island then and now, was shares some of their symptoms. Yaws, not thought to be suffering from venereal an STD either, is probably the least known diseases (VD), an estimated figure that of the illnesses mentioned here. It is also a was believed to be increasing (Simons , and has probably always 1941). been one. It shares many symptoms with syphilis, and the two diseases have What is unclear, however, is the sometimes been confused. However, in proportion of the various individual STDs historical times in Indonesia, yaws was within the total group that was affected often just a mild disease, something with these illnesses. In 1920, of the 3,722 that children caught from each other, after patients of the Burgerlijk Ziekenhuis which they were immune for life. (civilian hospital) in Bandung, 427 or 11.5%, had STDs. This was more or less equally divided between syphilis, STDs in Indonesian history gonorrhoea, and what was then called ulcus molle (soft ; ) (Tio We have not been spoiled with recent 1941: 30). It is perhaps not permissible to studies on STDs in Indonesian history. In generalize these hospital findings over the fact, beside a short article on mythical total population of Java at that time, stories about Indonesian rulers of times although I am inclined to believe that past with STDs or other skin diseases given such proportions no single disease (Josselin de Jong 1986), and an article on was strongly dominant. Thus, these STDs in Indonesia since 1811 (Sterren et statistics might be assumed to give us a al. 1997), there is, to my knowledge, rough idea of the situation in Java at the nothing written on this topic after c. 1940. end of the period we are dealing with in But even then, monographs specifically this paper. dedicated to the history of STDs in Indonesia were absent, and we have to However, I would not be willing to extend make do with more or less extended this generalization over the whole of the passages in general medical histories of Indonesian Archipelago, given the the Indonesian Archipelago, or in general enormous differences between the various studies on syphilis or yaws in Indonesia regions in terms of culture, religion, (Mulder 1923, Hermans 1928, Schoute economic development (including 1929, Schoute 1935, Tio 1941). The urbanization and industrialization), and accessibility to outsiders.

2 In the older sources, the term ‘pox’ (also Soft were not recognized as a French pox or Italian pox) almost always refers disease separate from syphilis (with its to syphilis, the ‘big pox’, as opposed to indurated chancres) until the 1850s, and .

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there is not much information to be found likely that the disease also came to the about this illness in the historical record region via the overland route, through regarding Indonesia. Therefore, in this Turkey and Persia. In 1498 it had reached contribution they can play no further role, Azerbaijan, where it has spread in 1501. even if they probably represented a We know that the Turks called it the considerable proportion of all STDs, at Christian disease, and the Persians called it least in Java, around 1920. the Turkish disease, so it is clear whence it came and where it went. Neither will this study deal with what the Dutch sources called venerisch granuloom The people of coastal called it ( venereum), nowadays known phirangi roga (or firanga roga), the as inguinal granuloma or Donovanosis. disease of the Franks, a term often The disease led to a drop in certain referring to Europeans in general, but at populations in southern New Guinea, later this early stage mainly to the Portuguese, called Irian and now Papua. It was treated the first Europeans to come to Asia in successfully by Dutch physicians in the large numbers. The same term was used 1920s and 30s, but was apparently by the people of the nearby Maldives, and unknown outside the region, even in the the Portuguese were also held responsible adjacent Moluccas. After the War in the for the arrival of syphilis in . Pacific, soldiers serving in New Guinea must have introduced it in Java The arrival of syphilis on the Malay (Jaarverslag 1922: 27-9, Kopstein 1926: Peninsula is mentioned but not dated, but 59, Meulen 1950). It is of course an it is also associated with the Portuguese, interesting question how such a disease who conquered Malacca in 1511. could have continued to exist in isolation However, syphilis was by then spreading for so long, although there had been more quickly than the Portuguese frequent contacts between New Guinea presence: the disease arrived in Canton and the Indonesian Archipelago for (hence the term Canton or Canton centuries, a point to which I return shortly. ulcers) between 1504 and 1506, about 15 To my knowledge, nothing is known about years before the Portuguese. Syphilis the disease prior to 1900. therefore, could very well have reached Malacca before 1511 too. In 1505, or, Therefore, the only STDs to be dealt with according to another source, 1512, syphilis in this paper are gonorrhoea and syphilis. landed in Japan, where the disease was The reason for the inclusion of two non- called Chinese ulcers, but also Portuguese STDs – leprosy and yaws – will become disease (Gray and Bell 1887-90, I: 182, clear presently. Jeanselme 1934, Huard 1956, Sigerist 1961: 132, Temple 1970: 63, McNeill 1979: 218, Uragoda 1987: 55, Quétel Syphilis in Asia 1992: 51-2, Nikiforuk 1993: 91, Kohn 2001: 186).

That syphilis was a new disease in Asia European observers who came to the around 1500 appears to be undisputed. It region about a century later were struck by may have reached India already with the the fact that having syphilis “is no mark of first Portuguese fleet, in 1498, and by shame there, nor any disgrace to have had 1504/5 it had already spread. It seems

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it several times: they even make boast of which, as we saw earlier, was attributed to it.” It was cured with radix china or chinae a merciful . Therefore, syphilis, which (the China root – Smilax china), which, according to contemporary medical according to Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, opinion came from the West Indies, should who came to India in the 1580s, had not be cured with drugs from the same region. been introduced in India from China until Soon, gaiac was also employed in Asia as 1535. He added that ‘the pox’ was so a treatment for the disease of the Franks, common in China, that God had sent them in India as early as the 1560s, while the radix china. In India it was also an China root, in turn, came to be used in everyday disease according to Van Europe. This shows clearly that medicine Linschoten. Garcia Da Orta stated around was an international discipline at a very 1560 that syphilis was common among the early stage. Indian lower classes. François Pyrard de Laval, in India after 1601, stated that in Finally mention should be made of Goa the pox only prevailed among the , which was used as a cure both in Christians, who may not all have belonged Europe and in Asia, a ‘solution’ that may to the lower classes (although a large have originated independently in these two proportion probably did). However, it was regions. It was used internally and in certainly not only the lower classes (or the salves and fumigations, and was regarded Christians) who had the disease, because as quite successful, although medics were Ludovico di Varthema reported already in aware of the fierce (Gray and 1505 that the King of Calicut had the Bell 1887-90, I: 182, Kern 1910, I: 159- disease of the Franks (in his throat) (The 60, II: 41, Schoute 1929: 52, Jeanselme quote is from Gray and Bell 1887-90, II 1934: 218, Huard 1956: 11, Quétel 1992). (1): 13, Kern 1910, I: 159-60, II: 41, Jeanselme 1934: 217, Temple 1970: 63). Syphilis in Indonesia Returning to the attempts at curing people from the pox, it would appear that the It does not appear to be possible to date China root had sudorific (sweat inducing) the arrival of syphilis in the Indonesian properties. It seems to have been used in Archipelago (or, for that matter, in the Asia as a panacea for a great number of Philippine Archipelago) with any illnesses, including , leprosy and precision. The earliest fairly certain date many other skin diseases. On the fleet of known to me is 1521/2, when Antonio the VOC (Dutch East India Company), it Pigafetta, who took part in the first was reportedly used as a cure for beri-beri. circumnavigation by Ferdinand Magellan, arrived in the region of what are now Sudorifics, often doubling as laxatives, eastern Indonesia and the southern were also used in Europe against syphilis Philippines. He stated that in “all the from a very early stage, the best known of islands that we found in that archipelago” which was gaiac, introduced from the the disease of St prevailed, which the West Indies, in addition to sarsaparilla, inhabitants called the Portuguese disease, from the same region. It was generally in other words, syphilis. accepted in those days that cures for a disease were to be found in the same It is not clear what Pigafetta meant by region as where the disease came from, ‘that archipelago’. The remark follows

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immediately after a description of the Datable information about syphilis in island of Timor, one of the lesser Sundas Indonesia is available at the end of the [now Nusa Tenggara Timur], a place of sixteenth century, at a time that the disease interest to the Portuguese at an early stage, had been present there for three quarters of but it is also possible that he refers to the a century or more. Sir Francis Drake, on entire region, including the Moluccas, call in a port of eastern Java in 1580, where the Portuguese had been trading for stated that “(T)he French pocks is here spices. very common to all, and they help themselves, sitting naked from ten to two There are two other stories, both of a in the sunne, whereby the venomous rather mythical character, and both humour is drawn out.” Interestingly purporting to date from around 1500, enough, he called the Javanese ‘a loving which might refer to the arrival of syphilis people’, and one wonders whether this is in the Indonesian Archipelago, but that is akin to a similar remark made by far from certain. One story, to be found in Columbus, who seems to have come home the Sejarah Melayu, is about a new, with and died from syphilis himself, about foreign, ruler of Palembang (Sumatra), the Amerindians. who married a local woman. After the wedding-night, the woman showed signs When the first Dutch fleet arrived in of an STD, which is what also happened to Banten in 1597, it was recorded in the the 39 other local women to whom the travelogue that the river water of Banten ruler married. The other story, from the was very unhealthy, because everyone, Babad Tanah Jawi, is about a Javanese including people with the pox, was bathing ruler, king Wijaya, the last monarch of there the whole day long. (The quote is Majapahit, who suffered from a disease from Hakluyt 1904: 132, Rouffaer and called raja singa, or syphilis. The monarch IJzerman 1915-29, II: 28, Nikiforuk 1993: was cured when he slept with an alien 89). ‘yellow’ woman,3 from Champa, now Vietnam (Crawfurd 1820, I: 33, De There is a mythical story about Sultan Josselin de Jong 1986: 219-20, Olthof Iskandar Muda of Acheh (r. 1607-36). 1987: 24, Pigafetta 1994: 141). Local oral tradition around 1890 had it that he suffered from an STD – but which one? These stories, which cannot be dated more In order to rid himself of it, he had sex precisely, do not necessarily reflect events with a black slave woman. He was cured, that actually took place as described to the but the woman contracted the disease. persons named, but they might represent However, she got pregnant and the son she somehow the arrival of a new disease that bore the Sultan became the founder of a must have made quite an impression on noble Achehnese dynasty (Snouck the local population. Evidently, syphilis Hurgronje 1893-4, I: 139-40). was associated with ruling families in these stories. The story shows obvious similarities with the one about the Javanese king Wijaya, as in both cases, sex with an alien woman cured the king from his STD.

3 The word ‘yellow’ here probably means ‘Chinese.’

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Later in the seventeenth century there are of syphilis in pre-1492 Europe might have several more reliable and datable been leprosy, as there are similarities in references to syphilis in the Archipelago. some of their dermatological manifest- A German traveller, Johann Jacob Saar, in ations (Huard & Wong 1967: 27, McNeill the area between 1644 and 1660, states 1979: 179, Uragoda 1987: 233, Wills that one should not become too intimate 1996: 193, Bynum and Porter 1997, I: 366, with the inhabitants of the city of Banten, 564, II: 1263). western Java, because many of them had the Mal de Naples (disease of Naples), yet Leprosy – Hansen’s disease – whether or another name Europeans gave to syphilis.4 not it is partly identical with biblical In 1682, the High Government of the VOC ‘leprosy’, is an old Eurasian disease, in Batavia undertook a rather drastic reported at an early date from Europe, action. They gave orders to round up all India, and China, and it is likely that it had the people who were inflicted with leprosy also been present in the Indonesian in order to send them to the leper colony. Archipelago for a long time. In fact, the At the same time, other disfigured people disease that the king of Palembang gave were also to be rounded up, among whom his consorts around 1500, according to the various syphilitics. Sejarah Melayu, was called kedal, or leprosy, but as it was also described as an Leprosy in Indonesia STD, I have suggested earlier that it may be a report on early syphilis, for which the term of an older disease was used. At this point in the narrative, a digression on leprosy is necessary. It was a disease, Be that as it may, leprosy was clearly very much dreaded by Europeans, present in the Philippines when the although in Europe itself, where it was Spaniards arrived, and, as early as 1578, present at least from the sixth century, it the Franciscan friars had established a had been receding since the middle of the leprosy hospital. The first Dutch physician fourteenth century, possibly because who – in passing – mentioned the presence people were better fed and clothed than of leprosy in the Indonesian Archipelago they used to be. It was and is a disease appears to have been Jacobus Bontius, abhorred by everyone around the world, who died in 1631 in Batavia.5 He called it but it may have installed fear particularly lepra arabus – Arabian leprosy or the in protestant and catholic Europeans as it leprosy of the Arabs. According to him, had always been associated, probably kurap (herpes and/or ) could turn erroneously, with the biblical disease of into leprosy, or, even worse, elephantiasis, Lazarus. two diseases that have been frequently confused (Bontius 1931: 174-5). Recent research has suggested that biblical Apparently, at that moment, it was not a ‘leprosy’ covered more than one ailment, disease that impressed Bontius much, including STDs, while alleged descriptions otherwise he would have dedicated more space to it. 4 Saar 1930: 29. The conquest of Naples by French King Charles VIII in 1495 is seen by many as the beginning of the spread of syphilis over Europe, because he disbanded his pan- 5 Batavia, now Jakarta, was the place where the European mercenaries right after this event. Asian headquarters of the VOC were located.

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It seems likely that leprosy in Indonesia Generale Missiven (GM for short) III: 576, did not increase until a few decades later. I 599, IV: 421, V: 71, 185, Schoute 1929: have not found it mentioned in the usual 164-6, 180, 219, 288, Newson 1999: VOC sources until 1666, when it was 1839). explicitly stated that the incidence of leprosy was increasing in Batavia. It was According to a report, dated 1682, it was recorded that Dutch, as well as Chinese not only lepers who were put into an persons and people from other ethnic asylum. In that year a search was called groups were infected by the disease, but in for all those infected with leprosy (in 1682 it was stated that it prevailed mainly Batavia), but also other “infected, among the ‘indigenous’ population, which, disfigured and hideous people who are as is shown presently, does not necessarily found begging” (Daghregister 1682: 27) refer to ‘Indonesians’. Therefore, the VOC had to be rounded up, inspected, and sent decided to build a leper asylum at Angke, to the leper asylum. The motive given for just outside the town walls of Batavia. In this action was that pregnant women 1677, the regents of the asylum should be spared from seeing lepers complained that their income was because it was believed lepers had a bad insufficient owing to the daily increasing effect on the foetus. number of lepers. Growing numbers were still mentioned in 1679, when it was The report lists 20 people, of which many decided to transfer the leper asylum to the were afflicted with the ‘Venus disease’, island of Purmerend, in the Bay of which was also called the Spanish pox, Batavia, perhaps because Angke was still people to whom the term ‘vuijlpockig’ too close for comfort. (with dirty pox) was applied, in other words, syphilitics. Apparently, it was Increasing numbers of lepers in Batavia syphilis in its tertiary stage, when nose and are for the last time mentioned in 1688, palate had been affected, sometimes but in Ambon, in the Moluccas, around combined with blindness, which is 1700 their numbers were still growing. described in various cases. Sometimes we Somewhere during the eighteenth century have names of individuals, probably the numbers would drop gradually, slaves, such as Sara of Taiwan and probably throughout the Archipelago. Laotang of Banda.

According to the official correspondence After inspection by the physicians Andries of the VOC, the increase in the number of Cleyer and Willem ten Rhyne, some of the leprosy patients was linked at the time to people rounded up were sent to the the manumission of slaves – often from asylum, while others were not, but the India, but also from places within the criteria for this selection were not Archipelago – without means of support, revealed. In the end, some 165 people who then became beggars. Did the drop in became inmates of the leper asylum. One the number of lepers during the eighteenth Dutchman, a surgeon, Pieter van Campen, century – of which the second half was not was diagnosed with leprosy. He was a prosperous period for the slave-owners – permitted to continue his work in the leper then reflect decreasing numbers of colony on Purmerend until the next ship to slaves?(Daghregister 1666, 58, D 1677, the Netherlands took him and his family 182, D 1679, 179, D 1682: 58-60, home, albeit in isolation.

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Based on this and similar experiences, Gonorrhoea in Indonesia Willem ten Rhyne would write a treatise on Asian leprosy in 1687. In it, he Now that syphilis was firmly established mentioned that leprosy was sometimes in the Archipelago, and with the possible confused with yaws, and how Spanish pox with leprosy explained, it is (syphilis), Amboinese pox (yaws) and time to track down that other important even smallpox could sometimes become STD in the Indonesian Archipelago, ‘bastardized’ into leprosy, or could gonorrhoea. accompany it. He thought the disease was transmitted particularly, but not Of the names of these two diseases, exclusively, by sexual intercourse, gonorrhoea (‘running semen’) was the although he also thought plain contact oldest, dating back to Galen (c. 200 A.D.). could be sufficient. The term syphilis was coined by Girolamo Fracastoro, in his famous treatise Syphilis Failure to distinguish leprosy from yaws sive Morbus Gallicus, dated 1530 has also been suggested for the Spanish (although the name was rarely used before Philippines (Daghregister 1682: 27-8, 58- the nineteenth century). These dates alone 60, 121-5, 188-9, 475, Rhyne 1937: 58-61, suggest that the Old World had been Newson 1999: 1839). familiar much longer with gonorrhoea than with syphilis. In sum, although leprosy was increasing in importance between c. 1660 and 1700, (in There is much more historical literature on all likelihood partly due of the import of syphilis than on gonorrhoea, and the slaves), and greatly feared during those antiquity of gonorrhoea is seldom years, it does not appear to have been a discussed (Morton 1972: 22). But insofar numerically important illness. If the it is discussed it seems to be assumed that disease showed some similarities with gonorrhoea was of an ancient pedigree syphilis and yaws, and may occasionally throughout Eurasia (Baker and Armelagos have been confused, a differential 1988: 717). diagnosis was probably not a big problem for most physicians at the time. However, If the general literature on the history of it is also quite likely that some syphilitics gonorrhoea is disappointing, there is ended up in a leper colony for social virtually nothing on gonorrhoea in reasons. Indonesia. The historiographical silence on the disease is partly caused by the fact that As a final note on the link between leprosy gonorrhoea was for a long time regarded and syphilis in the minds of Europeans as one of the symptoms of syphilis, which before and after 1500, it should be means that differences between the two mentioned that leprosy was called St Job’s diseases were usually not distinguishable. disease during the Middle Ages, a term This state of affairs came to an end in which, as we have seen, was transmitted to 1879, when Albert Neisser discovered the syphilis after 1500 (Baker and Armelagos gonococcus, the causative agent of 1988: 718). gonorrhoea.

There are three pieces of evidence for the presence and importance of gonorrhoea in

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Indonesia, some of which has parallels in the Indonesian Archipelago that has come other Asian countries. The first one is to light so far.6 based on post-1879 statistics, the second one on references to STDs prior to 1500, The third piece of evidence is also fairly and the third one on the occasional meagre. Although gonorrhoea was reference to the term between 1500 and generally thought to be just one of the 1879. many syndromes of what was then usually called the French or Spanish pox, The first piece of evidence is that in physicians certainly knew how to almost all Asian countries for which we recognize the gonorrhoeal ‘phase’ – the have data on this point, gonorrhoea was dripping penis. Thus, the well-known always much more prevalent than syphilis. Dutch herbalist Rumphius wrote around Such data are, for instance, available for 1680 about herbs, growing on the island of India c. 1950, Thailand 1973, Vietnam Ambon and elsewhere in the Indonesian 1902-4, the Philippines c. 1900, Sabah Archipelago, that could be used as a cure (Eastern Malaysia) around 1930 and for for gonorrhoea. Around the same time the island of Sumba in Eastern Indonesia (1684), doctor Willem ten Rhyne wrote in c. 1960. about moxa burning or moxibustion, a Chinese and Japanese medical method In the Philippines, the ratio between applied against gonorrhoea, among many syphilis and gonorrhoea was usually other ailments (Rhyne 1684: 281, around 1 to 10. In the areas mentioned for Rumphius 1741-55, II: 45, IV: 107-8. On Malaysia and Indonesia, between 80 and moxibustion, see Boomgaard 1996: 49- 90% of the total population of the groups 50). where research was carried out were found to have gonorrhoea, while the incidence of Summing up, it can be said that, although syphilis was fairly unimportant. The direct evidence for the presence of people concerned were rather isolated gonorrhoea in the Indonesian Archipelago tribal groups, whose contacts with and other areas in Asia prior to 1500 or outsiders were even then rather restricted. even to 1879 is rather meagre, there does Thus, gonorrhoea was still visibly the not seem to be any doubt that it was a ancient, indigenous disease, while syphilis wide spread affliction in Asia before the had sometimes hardly penetrated, even as arrival of syphilis. late as 1960 (Sigerist 1961: 132, Reid 1988: 161, Bevoise 1995: 71, Bamber et al. 1997: 49, Guénel 1997: 141). Syphilis and yaws

The second piece of evidence is just one Before embarking upon the story of yaws sentence in an old Chinese source on in Indonesia, and the riddles it poses, it Indonesia, dealing with the period 618- should be made clear from the outset that 906, when Chinese traders occasionally came to Java: “In this country there are poisonous girls; when one has intercourse 6 From Groeneveldt (1876: 13). That this with them, he gets painful ulcers and dies, description refers to gonorrhoea was confirmed but his body does not decay.” This is the to me by retired naval physician G.T. one and only reference to gonorrhoea for Haneveld, oral communication 12 October 1999.

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yaws and syphilis are closely related cannot. Yaws and non-venereal syphilis diseases. During the sixteenth and are both transmitted through skin contact, seventeenth centuries, and sometimes even and therefore scantily clad, unhygienic much later, European physicians, who populations are good candidates for the were unfamiliar with both prior to, say, of these afflictions. There 1500, were often inclined to confuse the seems to exist a geographical division of two afflictions when they came across labour between yaws and non-venereal them in tropical countries. The terms for syphilis, in the sense that yaws does not the two diseases were also quite similar in appear to thrive outside the intertropical many languages, and sometimes one term zone, while non-venereal syphilis does was used for both. well in colder climes.

Modern science confirms that both Therefore, if all these diseases are caused diseases are caused by a spirochete, of the by the same spirochete, or at least closely genus , and while not so long related ones, the main differences to be ago a distinction was made between observed between them are the mode of various species of Treponema, it is now transmission, the climate zone where they largely accepted that both diseases are can survive, and some of the symptoms, caused by the same species, or at least that syphilis being, generally speaking, more the causative organism of yaws gruesome than yaws, although yaws in its ( subspecies later stages can be quite nasty too. pertenue) is morphologically and sero- Nevertheless, yaws is usually regarded as logically identical to that of syphilis (T. a much milder disease, particularly as an pallidum ssp pallidum). Nevertheless, infliction of very young children. Mothers syphilis and yaws are different diseases, for instance, were reported to put their with different symptoms, even if some of healthy toddlers in bed with children the symptoms do resemble each other afflicted with yaws, in the expectation that (Hermans 1928: 5-16, 21, Baker and they would then be spared in later life Armelagos 1988: 705, Monnais-Rousselot having acquired life-long . Even 1999: 55, Mafart 2002: 1168). then, however, it was still fairly widespread among adults in the nineteenth However, the story is even more and twentieth centuries, making their lives complicated than that. Syphilis has been quite miserable before the discovery of dealt with in this paper as an STD, and as salvarsan. such it is widely known by the general public. However, there are also examples Given the fact that syphilis and yaws are of non-venereal syphilis, which is caused caused by the same, or at least an up to by the same spirochete as venereal syphilis now undistinguishable spirochete, it stands and yaws. Non-venereal syphilis was to reason that if someone catches one of historically known as a phenomenon from these diseases and lives to tell the tale, he poor, backward areas in Europe, with poor or she will have acquired at least partial . One of the main differences immunity against the other one. between the symptoms of venereal and non-venereal syphilis appears to be that the venereal variant can be hereditary (congenital syphilis), while the other one

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The origins of syphilis convincing evidence, while pre- Columbian skeletal remains from the Americas clearly show signs of a Given these confusing facts, it is no small treponemal affliction, in all probability wonder that there are various theories (non-venereal) syphilis. Only one about the origins of syphilis (venereal and skull of a young child appears to support non-venereal) and yaws, as they are so the possibility of congenital and therefore difficult to differentiate, both in older venereal syphilis in pre-1492 America, descriptions and in skeletal remains. which would be a bit meagre as evidence Contemporary opinion during the for widespread venereal syphilis there. sixteenth century mostly appears to have If we accept these findings, we must favoured the theory that (venereal) conclude that Columbus and his sailors syphilis, a new and terrible disease, which contracted an endemic non-venereal had apparently spread from Naples all treponemal disease in the West Indies, over Europe after 1495, was closely which turned venereal when it was connected to the ‘discovery’ of America a transmitted through sexual contact in few years earlier. This is the so-called Europa, where the non-venereal Columbian hypothesis. transmission was much more difficult

among a fully clothed population. While The second, or pre-Columbian, hypothesis the endemic American variant of suggests that venereal syphilis was a Treponema was probably often a mild European disease that was not childhood disease, when it was transmitted distinguished from leprosy. According to sexually between non-immune adults, all this theory, the alleged resulted of a sudden it turned very nasty, from the recognition of syphilis as a something well captured in horrific separate disease in the 1490s. records from the period and in horrid

The third, or Unitarian, theory argues that drawings of awfully disfigured people. At the agent of syphilis was present in and that stage, venereal syphilis was not evolved with human populations in both seldom lethal. By the end of the sixteenth the Old and the New World. It manifested century, the more virulent form of syphilis itself as yaws in humid tropical zones, as began to recede, as is usual when a disease endemic (non-venereal) syphilis in drier has been around for some time (McNeill rural areas, and as venereal syphilis in 1979: 218-220, Quétel 1992: 50-72, urban centres, where the causative agent Bynum and Porter 1997, I: 564, Watts could no longer spread itself by skin 1997: 125). contact, as clothing and some minimal standards of hygiene became usual there (Baker and Armelagos 1988: 703-4, cf The origins of yaws also Quétel 1992: 33-49). But what about yaws? The literature on the In a review of the literature, particularly history of yaws is barely a shadow when that on skeletal remains, Baker and compared with the volumes that have been Armelagos concluded in 1988 that the written about syphilis. Insofar as scholars presence in pre-Columbian Europe of had an opinion on the topic, they usually syphilis, either of the endemic or of the argue that it has an African origin. venereal variety, was not supported by According to this view, it arrived in the

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Americas with the black slaves imported According to one source, yaws (parangi; by the Portuguese and the Spaniards, an again referring to the ‘Franks’) was undertaking partly inspired by the fact that introduced to Sri Lanka by the negro Africans had more immunity against the slaves from Mozambique, introduced by European disease that killed the the Portuguese. A study dating from the Amerindians in droves. This opinion is 1920s states in very general terms that it is partly based on medical data from the possible that African slaves (of the sixteenth century, partly on the fact that Portuguese) transmitted yaws to tropical yaws was still rampant (hyperendemic) in Asia. In the Philippines the term bubas is around 1900 and later (Hermans used in the 1580s and 90s for a disease 1928: 6, 8, 16, Cartwright 1972: 63, Kiple recently introduced, in a context that and Ornelas 1996: 67, Bynum and Porter suggests that it was yaws rather than 1997, I: 523). syphilis, while the term appears to be close to bobas, the name for yaws in many However, there are also those who have eastern Indonesian languages (see below) argued that yaws was originally a fairly (Hermans 1928: 18, Uragoda 1987: 55, harmless American disease which turned Newson 1999: 1840). The term bubas into venereal syphilis in European bodies could have an American or African origin, after they had acquired the treponemal or both (Hermans 1928: 4, 16). affliction through sexual contact with Amerindians post-1492, a disease which The earliest references to yaws in the then spread alarm and despondency in Indonesian Archipelago date from the Europe, where it was transmitted sexually 1620s. In a report, dated 1624, it is (Watts 1997: 127). The above-mentioned mentioned that the assistant, Dick Unitarians of course saw it everywhere in Malburch (the name sounds European), in the humid . There appears also to be western Seram, Moluccas, had suffered some evidence for the presence of yaws or from the Amboinese pox for a number of syphilis on the Pacific Islands prior to months. This was the term for yaws used European contact (Baker and Armelagos in the Dutch sources prior to the middle of 1988: 711, Wills 1996: 195, Watts 1997: the nineteenth century. The term pox 127). Moreover, if it is so hard to suggests the likeness to the Spanish or distinguish yaws from (endemic) syphilis French pox (syphilis). In a source, dated in skeletal remains, how can we be sure 1628, it is recorded that one-month old that yaws was not present in tropical children in Ambon, Moluccas, already America? could contract the Amboinese pox.

The following quotation is from the Yaws in Indonesia physician Bontius, who died in 1631:

I now turn to yaws in tropical Asia, and There is an endemic or popular particularly to the Indonesian Archipelago, disorder in Amboyna, and the in order to find out whether the story of Molucca islands particularly, yaws there can shed some light on its which in its symptoms resembles origins. much the venereal disease. But they differ in this respect, that the

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former is produced without any it. This in contrast to the slaves from venereal embrace. Malabar (southern India), who, unfamiliar (Bontius 1931: 181) with the disease, were afflicted with this ‘pestilential ’, because of which Bontius stated that the same many died, while others remained invalids was used for yaws as for syphilis – guaiac, (Wurffbain 1686: 47, Leupe 1875: 47, radix china, and, if that did not cure the Saar 1930: 47). patient, mercury and antimony. Clearly, therefore, the disease that later on would This appears to imply in the first place that be called yaws, and by the Dutch, by its yaws had reached New Guinea (from the Latin name, framboesia (tropica), was Moluccas or from the Pacific, where, mainly to be found in and around Ambon, according to sources cited above, it had for example in Seram, and perhaps existed in pre-Columbian times), and, generally in the northern Moluccas secondly, that it was unknown in southern (Ternate, Tidore, Bacan, Makian), for India at that time. It also implies that the which the term Moluccas was then disease was often lethal to those who had reserved (Tiele and Heeres 1890, II: 24, no experience with it, and had therefore no Colenbrander 1911: 205, Bontius 1931: immunity. 181-3). Another important bit of information dates In a publication dating from the 1680s, but from 1665, when 4 or 5 soldiers afflicted referring to a sojourn on Ambon in the with Amboinese pox were sent from 1630s and 40s, Johann Wurffbain stated Ternate to Batavia. They had begged to that in that area there were diseases that remain on the island of Ambon, where were unknown elsewhere, such as the their ship probably made a stopover. As Amboinese pox. These pox were very they testified to the Ambon commander, large, poisonous and painful, looked more they were convinced they could only be like scabies, and took several years before cured in the eastern parts of the disappearing. His fellow countryman Archipelago, or, in other words, the Johann Jacob Saar, in the same area during Moluccas. Here we find another reference the 1640s and 50s, recorded that the to the belief mentioned above, that the Amboinese pox was an infamous endemic cure for a disease was only to be found in disease7 in the area, which many people the region where the disease itself was got each year, and others once every two encountered. Apparently, by that time or three years. yaws had not yet reached Java.

A key passage is to be found in a source, In 1672, a slave with Amboinese pox, who dated 1653, where it is stated that the possibly just arrived from Ambon presents slaves from New Guinea, being employed the first recorded case, at least to my by the people of Banda (Moluccas), had knowledge, to be encountered in Java. The acquired yaws when they were young, as slave, owned by a Batavia citizen, had run had the Bandanese. Thus, when they away but was subsequently caught and became adults, they were usually free from apprehended by the Resident (the highest local Dutch VOC functionary) of Jepara (central Java’s north coast). However, 7 The term used is – in translation – ‘disease of because the slave was afflicted by the the country’.

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disease, his master did not want him back. whether a Chinese origin is plausible, it is The Resident reported to Batavia at least interesting to note that at the authorities that the slave had Amboinese beginning of the nineteenth century, yaws pox, a disease to which many children in Java was apparently still thought of as were subject. He does not specify, an alien affliction (Daghregister 1665: however, whether he is talking about 207, Daghregister 1672: 249, 260, Javanese children, and the fact that he Valentijn 1724-6, II: 248, Stavorinus writes these sentences to authorities in 1797-8, II: 270, Crawfurd 1820, I: 34). Batavia seems to suggest that he assumed that the VOC functionaries in Batavia So it would appear that yaws had reached might not be familiar with the disease and Java somewhere between 1700 and 1775, its properties. but certainly prior to the British Interregnum. Finally, reverend François Valentijn, writing shortly after 1700, stated explicitly However, even as late as 1848, children that only the people from Ambon got the who were afflicted with yaws in the Amboinese pox, and that it affected only Surakarta Residency, southern central very rarely other indigenous people or Java, were sent by the indigenous Dutchmen. It looks therefore as if even by bureaucracy to certain villages in order to 1700 yaws had not yet reached Java. isolate them from the general population. This suggests that at least in this inland However, naval captain Stavorinus, part of Java, the population had not yet visiting Java around 1775, stated that the come to terms with the disease. endemic disease (‘disease of the country’) to which the Javanese were particularly In 1853, though, a high of subject was an affliction that the Dutch yaws was reported in Jepara, northern called the Javanese pox, which was a kind central Java, particularly among children. of lues – another term for syphilis – but To my knowledge, this is the first record less malignant. This sounds remarkably for Java of yaws as a disease that affected like a reference to yaws. Note that here the mainly children, something that was term Javanese pox is used instead of reported already for the Moluccas in the Amboinese pox (if we accept that yaws seventeenth century (Bosch 1852: 337, was meant). Wassink 1854: 397, Ludeking 1868: 151- 3, Kreemer 1915: 106). The prevalence of yaws is confirmed by the British administrator John Crawfurd, who served under Thomas Stamford Yaws comes to Java? Raffles during the so-called British Interregnum (1811-15). He is the first It is tempting to suggest that the moment European source to use the Javanese word of arrival of yaws in Java has been for the disease, pathèk, and also the first captured in the Dutch sources dating from one to my knowledge to use the term the 1750s, when they described a ‘yaws’ for this disease in the Indonesian particularly nasty episode of famine and Archipelago. According to him the in western Java between 1756 introduction of the disease was attributed and 1760. to the Chinese. Apart from the question of

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Famines, caused by droughts or floods, So where did this enormous mortality rate often in combination with war, and come from? Partly, no doubt, it was epidemics, which were often exacerbated caused by famine, which was in turn the by bad weather conditions and food result of harvest failures owing to drought. scarcity, were regular phenomena in the In addition to this the high rate was, Indonesian Archipelago at least until the according to various sources, also caused beginning of the twentieth century. by a pestziekte, or, in other words, a Therefore, reports, dated 1754 and 55, on ‘plague’, an epidemic. There is, alas, only rice shortages and riots on the Batavia rice one source that names the disease, and the market owing to harvest failures caused by term used there is bobik. This name is not excessive and protracted war were found in any dictionary, but it reminds us nothing out of the ordinary. Prior to these of another term, boba, meaning yaws in years, Java had enjoyed a 25-year period various languages of eastern Indonesia; it during which famine or high mortality could perhaps be a combination between were absent, although occasional droughts, pathèk, the Javanese term for yaws, and partial harvest failures, and high rice boba (Radermacher and van Hogendorp prices were not. 1779: 27, Haan 1910-12, IV: 526).

However, the modest problems of 1754/5 I suggest that during these years, yaws would only get worse in the years to come. made its entrance in Java, precisely during In 1756 there were harvest failures in two a period of harvest failures, when the areas in or near western Java, Cirebon and population of western and western central Pekalongan, this time caused by drought, Java had less resistance to diseases problems which led to ‘land flight’ – anyway. If we then take into account that hungry people leaving their villages, yaws was a new disease for the island, it searching for food elsewhere. In 1757, an seems possible that an otherwise often unheard of drought and high mortality relatively harmless childhood disease, with were recorded in Priangan and Banten, which the people of the Moluccas had both western Java, while the harvest learned to live a long time ago, suddenly failures in Cirebon continued. In 1758, turned out to be a major killer on ‘virgin’ high mortality was reported form soil. We saw that the slaves from Malabar, Priangan, Buitenzorg and Krawang, again where the disease appears to have been in western Java, while in 1759 similar unknown in the seventeenth century, were reports came from Cirebon, Banyumas and also killed by yaws, a disease new to them. Bagelen, where people left their areas in Some 15 years later, the disease appears to droves. The literature suggests that by the have settled down in Java, according to following year the worst was over, the Stavorinus’ testimony dated 1775, (though situation having returned more or less this is certainly the case by the 1810s). back to normal by 1761. During the period 1757 to 1760 between 100,000 and The suggestion that the disease to hit 150,000 people perished, which was 10- western Java so forcefully in the late 15% of the area concerned, and 2-3% of 1750s was yaws, is, of course, highly the population of the entire island.8 speculative. Several questions come to mind. Is 15 years not a bit short for a disease to become more or less endemic? 8 See Boomgaard 2005 for more details on It probably is, but it is far from clear how 18th-century famines and epidemics in Java.

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much we can trust Stavorinus’ Philippines perhaps by the 1580s, why did observation, or whether his remark can it not reach Java around the same time? A only be applied to some sea towns (which possibility might be that syphilis got there as a sea captain, he was probably more first. We do know that syphilis had familiar with than the inland areas). If we reached Java by 1520, no doubt also with take into consideration that yaws in Java the Portuguese, and by 1580 it had become may not have turned into a childhood fairly common. As the two diseases are so disease prior to c. 1850, or one hundred similar, partial immunity against one of years after its purported introduction, we them appears to be acquired when a person are looking at a fairly plausible time span. is afflicted with the other. We know that We are also bound to ask why yaws, there was not much syphilis in the which had been present in the Moluccas at Moluccas, while yaws was more or less least since the 1620s but probably much ubiquitous (Ludeking 1868: 151), so longer, never infected large numbers of perhaps the Javanese in the sea towns who Javanese before the 1750s, while it had acquired syphilis were immune appears to have infected the Papuans much against yaws. We are left to speculate that earlier, unless one assumes yaws had come the group of people without experience from the Pacific Islands. In order to try with syphilis had been growing in western and answer that question, it is important to Java, while the number of people from the know the origins of yaws in Indonesia. Moluccas coming to western Java – The most likely explanation in my view, is particularly Batavia and its Environs – that it came with the Portuguese and their increased, which, in combination with a African slaves who were early (c. 1500) generally weakened condition owing to visitors in the spice producing Moluccas. harvest failures, might have created a The alternative hypothesis is that it had critical mass for yaws around 1750. come from New Guinea, where it may have arrived from the Pacific Islands in pre-Columbian times. We should then Conclusion perhaps assume that yaws, like the sweet potato, had come from When around 1500 syphilis arrived in Asia prior to 1492. It has been suggested that with the Portuguese, it was obviously a the sweet potato had just reached New new disease. The historical sources are Guinea via the Pacific Islands pre-1492, quite clear about that. As a new disease, while the Portuguese or the Spaniards, syphilis was much more lethal when first who had found the crop in America, introduced into the population, than it introduced it somewhat later in Indonesia would be later on, when host and (Boomgaard 2003). However, when the spirochete had adapted to each other. This Portuguese and the Spaniards arrived, the must have led to a somewhat higher sweet potato had, in all probability, not yet mortality rate in Asia. However, to my reached Indonesia from New Guinea, so a knowledge there are no demographic case could be made for a similar situation historians who argue for a much higher with yaws. death rate caused by syphilis in Europe, where it was a new disease as well, If we assume that yaws came to the according to current opinion. Granted that Moluccas with the Portuguese soon after although case fatality was high, it is 1500, and may have reached the unlikely that a large proportion of the

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population would be affected. Although is a confirmation of the notion that syphilis soldiers and sailors spread it among the was new to Europe too, thus supporting lower classes, and members of the nobility the Columbian hypothesis. among the upper classes, very large Asia was not a world without STDs prior sections of the population remained to 1500. Historical demographers probably out of reach, particularly when however, need to find more, earlier and Reformation and Contra-Reformation better data on the spread of both tightened moral regulations in Europe, gonorrhoea and syphilis as both diseases perhaps as a response to the threat of considerably affect the rate of population syphilis. growth. Although gonorrhoea can be rather harmless, it can lead to , Data on case mortality in Asia is, to my and given the examples of high knowledge, not available. It is proportions of people afflicted with the occasionally stated that the disease spread disease quoted in this paper, this must rather quickly, but we have no way of have had some bearing on the birth rate. knowing how quickly and to what Syphilis, apart from the fact that it can be proportion of the population. It is not inherited (congenital syphilis), often leads impossible, in fact it is rather likely, that to premature births, stillbirths, and high the spread of Islam and Christianity in . Technically speaking, the Island Southeast Asia after 1500, and last factor is part of the death rate and perhaps also the further spread of therefore has no bearing on the birth rate, Buddhism in Mainland Southeast Asia, but clearly it leads to lower rates of should be regarded as the equivalent of a population growth. Puritanical backlash in Asia comparable to the one in Europe (cf. Reid 1988: 161). The other disease new to Asia was yaws, The propagation of these religions might an illness that does appear to be limited to have mitigated the impact of syphilis in hot and humid climates. The historio- societies that were rather lenient regarding graphy on this much less spectacular premarital sexual relations. disease, to which no moral opprobrium was attached, is much more modest than Be that as it may, it is out of the question the literature on syphilis. The disease was that the impact of syphilis in Asia would present in the Moluccas at the beginning have come near the terrible death rates in of the seventeenth century and probably the Americas caused by the new disease much earlier. A case is made here for the the Europeans had imported after 1492. introduction of the disease by African All the diseases the Europeans brought to slaves in the employ of the Portuguese, America, such as smallpox and influenza, which is in keeping with an often assumed were doubtlessly already present in Asia African origin of yaws. when the Europeans arrived there. After all, most regions of Eurasia had been part During the seventeenth century yaws was of a common disease pool for a long time already a childhood disease in the by 1500 (Roy Ladurie 1973, McNeil Moluccas. It does not appear to have 1979). It should be mentioned here in reached Malabar and Java at that stage, but passing that in the light of this Eurasian Papuan slaves in the Moluccas had been disease pool theory, the fact that syphilis confronted with it in the area where they was apparently new in Asia around 1500, had been captured (New Guinea). Around

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1800 yaws was present in Java; by 1850 it Transmitted Diseases in Thailand. In was a childhood disease in some areas of Sex, Disease, and Society: A the island. It is suggested in this paper that Comparative History of Sexually the introduction of yaws in Java took place Transmitted Diseases and HIV/AIDS during the famine years 1756-60, when as in Asia and the Pacific, eds. By M. much as 10-15% of the regional Lewis, S. Bamber, and M. Waugh, pp. population succumbed to a combination of 37-66. Westport/London: Greenwood famine and an epidemic that appears to Press. have been yaws. It is an often reproduced phenomenon that a newly introduced Bevoise, Ken de. 1995. Agents of disease is a big killer which then settles Apocalypse: Epidemic Disease in the down and becomes a relatively harmless Colonial Philippines. Priceton: endemic disease, caught by many in their Princeton University Press. childhood. Bontius, (Jacobus). 1931. Tropische The Portuguese, their African slaves, and Geneeskunde/On . possibly the Spaniards therefore, Amsterdam: Nederlandsch Tijdschrift introduced two new diseases in Asia: voor Geneeskunde (Opuscula Selecta syphilis and yaws. The first originated in Neerlandicorum de Arte Medica 10). America, the second in Africa. They were both lethal to many of those who Boomgaard, Peter. 1996. Dutch Medicine contracted the diseases immediately after in Asia, 1600-1900. In Warm Climates they were introduced, settling down and Western Medicine, 1500-1900, ed. probably within a century (at least locally). by David Arnold, pp. 42-64. Therefore, these introductions must have Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi. had some impact on the death rate, but there is no evidence that it was anything . 2003. In the Shadow comparable to the onslaught that took of Rice: Roots and Tubers in place in the Americas when new diseases Indonesian History, 1500-1950. were introduced from Europe. Syphilis Agricultural History 77 (4), pp. 582- must have had an impact on the birth rate 610. as well, but again, it is unlikely to have been more than marginal. . 2005. Harvest Failures, Famine, Epidemics, War and References Weather in 18th- century Java, Indonesia. Paper prepared for the panel Baker, Brenda J. and George J. on History of the Environment in Asia, Armelagos. 1988. The Origin and ICAS4 conference, Shanghai. Antiquity of Syphilis: Paleopathological Diagnosis and Bosch, W. 1852. Summier Raport der Interpretation. Current Anthropology Behandelde Zieken bij de Civiele 29 (5), pp.703-20. Geneeskundige Dienst (…) Java en Madoera, over het jaar 1848. Bamber, Scott, Kevin Hewison and Peter Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Underwood. 1997. Dangerous Nederlandsch-Indië 2, pp. 300-90. Liaisons: A History of Sexually

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