Island Health In The Sixteenth Century

ISLAND HEALTH IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY Although the first actions date back to 1506, we must wait until 1528 to find an explicit recognition by the Crown of the supreme power of the Cabildo to issue as many preventive ordinances as they deemed necessary, placing its authority above the newly created Royal Audience.11 The refusal of the Cabildo of Tenerife to admit ships from Gran Canaria, even though they had the express authorisation of the Audiencia, was resolved at Court when the Emperor, at the request of Francisco de Lugo, messenger of the island, issued the Royal Decree of 18 August 1528 by which he recognised the Cabildo of Tenerife that "... with regard to the guardianship of the said pestylencia to keep the said ysla for the form and manner that it has had until now in the said guard...", ordering the Royal Audience that "... You do not enter into it, for the said office in all our kingdoms is left to the Justice and Regency of the peoples, because otherwise the damage and damage would be very notorious and high. destruction of the blissful ysla and as ours is (. ) that you command that dexeys e consyntais a la ysla de Thenerife to keep the order it has to put the necessary collection for the health of the neighbors of the said ysla ...".12 Although this Royal Decree reserved the exclusive exercise of the fight against the Plague to the Cabildo, this did not prevent the different representatives of the royal authority and the municipalities of Tenerife from transferring the tense relations maintained in times of health to the health field throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, whenever one of the parties considered that their own jurisdiction had been violated. Thus, the Royal Audience would return to the fray three years later, when, fleeing from the plague that devastated the city of Las Palmas, it tried to move to the island of Tenerife without carrying out the appropriate quarantine.13 In 1581 and 1674, the Judge of the Indies tried to supervise the visits made to the ships that made the route to Brazil and Cape Verde.14 The governor himself tried, in the face of the epidemic that hit Garachico, to adopt the appropriate measures unilaterally, marginalizing the municipal councilors.15 Curiously, only the Captain-General respected the Cabildo's field of sanitary action, offering close collaboration to the municipal authority.16 Apart from these incidents, which were very common in the Ancien Régime, we can affirm that the Cabildo of Tenerife managed to maintain its jurisdiction in the fight against the plague without alterations until the Bourbon dynasty came to power. In order to effectively implement a preventive health policy, it was necessary to have prompt and accurate information on the health status of the vessels' regions of origin.17 In most cases, the declarations of skippers and passengers on arrival at port were sufficient to trigger the preventive mechanisms.18 Equally valued was the information provided by the island "colony" established abroad, mainly merchants, always attentive to transmitting the news and rumors about the Plague that circulated in their places of residence.19 On the other hand, the fear of disease favored cooperation and exchange of news among the various institutions based in the Archipelago. A good example of this can be seen in 1554. The Cabildo of Tenerife knows that the Gran Canarian has put guards in place to prevent the arrival of ships from Madeira and Lanzarote. That is why they are asked to ". that when from there [Gran Canaria] a boat or boat departed for here letter (...) that comes from there and not from anywhere else, because if we do not bring it, it will not be allowed to disembark here, and that the same will be done in this island when any ship leaves for there...".20 Logically, the greatest concern of the island authorities was focused on the health of the surrounding islands. Added to their proximity was the widespread belief that any disease could become a plague epidemic, provided the right conditions were met.21 It is not surprising that, in the eyes of the municipalities, any rumor of illness or the sudden rise in the number of deaths were alarming data and therefore especially monitored. In 1562 the Cabildo of Gran Canaria was forced to send a report to the Tenerife governor assuring the good state of health of the island, as Tenerife was preparing to cut off traffic.22 With the confirmation of the outbreak of an outbreak of the plague, the Cabildo proceeded to appoint on a temporary basis a small group of "sanitary offices", whose number and quality differed substantially from one epidemic to another (Table II), in charge of executing the decisions of the island consistory and whose action was focused. Basically, in the sanitary control of the vessels arriving at the different ports of the island. At the top of the health organization chart we find the Health Deputies, councilors appointed by the plenary of the Cabildo to take care of the health administration in each of the ports subject to surveillance. If it was initially decided that a councillor from La Laguna would come down to Santa Cruz every eight days so that "... was in charge of not allowing any wheat to be shipped or any port of transport to enter...",23 over the years the norm was the appointment of two health deputies for Garachico, Puerto de la Cruz and La Laguna, while in Santa Cruz the mayor or a local resident was commissioned to carry out the initial errands with the vessels arriving at the port. waiting for the councillors residing in La Laguna to come down to carry out the regulated procedures.24 The deputations, like many other commissions of the Cabildo, were held among the councillors resident in the different parts of the island. In 1569 a group of aldermen recalled that "... as such aldermen have used the said office in the places of this island where they have resided and have been engaged in being deputies and overseers and have been present when loading the bread belonging to the Lords of the Church of Canaria and their deputies of health and captains and in this they have served His Majesty and have not paid them salaries by reason of the nyngo salaries...".25 Its functions are related to the initial sanitary inspection of vessels coming from suspicious places, as well as the supervision of the maintenance and surveillance of ships, men and goods subject to the quarantines dictated by the Cabildo, appointing the personnel in charge of their surveillance. In order to carry out their task more effectively, they had the capacity to impose penalties and legal authority within the scope of their competence. In different parts of the island, the mayors played a prominent role in the fight against the plague, either by accompanying the deputy councillors27 or by exercising the health administration alone in their respective jurisdictions.28 Occasionally, the Cabildo directly elected "Guardas de la Salud" from among the residents of the ports, as it did in 1507, when it appointed Francisco Malpica as guardian of the health of the port of Santa Cruz, with the charge that "... to dislodge any person so fast that he comes to decide and notify the Justice and Regiment of the said island...".29 The functions of the two do not differ substantially from those performed by the deputies; initial inspection of vessels coming from suspicious areas30 and surveillance of quarantines approved by the Cabildo. At certain particularly critical junctures, the Cabildo entrusted them with the appointment of guards to patrol the coasts in search of suspicious vessels or persons.31 For the surveillance of quarantines, the appointment of guards from among the neighbours of the ports was resorted to.32 However, the numerous breaches of that law indicate that they were unreliable in maintaining the strict isolation of patients and goods. Thus, in 1602 it was ordered to change the two guards of the degredo of San Telmo, because they had not fulfilled their mission well.33 The help of some existing councillors was also used, since their actions did not differ substantially from those they carried out in times of health. Thus, in 1589 Bernardino Justiniano points out that "... the writs [of the health visits] had always passed through the presence of the senior notaries of this Cabildo as scribes of the things of the government...", rejecting the power that the governor had recently given to the notaries of the places so that the visits would pass before them.34 The actions of the island's bailiffs for sanitary purposes are also documented on several occasions.35 Curiously, the Salaried Doctors of the Cabildo do not seem to have played a prominent role in the fight against the Plague, except for their actions during the epidemics of 1582-1583 and 1601-1606.36 From the documentation consulted, it appears that his work was concentrated on supervising the health status of persons subject to quarantine,37 not attending the health inspection of ships arriving in port.38 This situation contrasts sharply with what has happened in other regions, where the participation of doctors in urban health policy is more prominent. Thus, for example, in Barcelona there was a strong harmony between the city's governing groups and the College of Physicians of the same, who met at the request of the former after news of an infected place or a sudden increase in the number of deaths within the walls of the city.39 The actions analysed so far are limited exclusively to the duration of an epidemic. It is virtually impossible to know when the decisive step towards continuous surveillance in ports was taken, or whether it was carried out from the earliest moments of colonization. In Tenerife, the first documents that refer to a continuous sanitary inspection in the ports do not date back further than the 1980s, which obviously does not imply that it began in this decade. In 1589 the governor Don Juan Núñez de la Fuente recognized that "... after he came to this island [in 1582] with the foreign nabians who came from outside the country, he found that the two proposed measures [health and smuggling visits] were carried out, which the mayor of the place of Santa Cruz did and does in the matter of health, by the notary of the said place or of the island, and this information is sent to his md...". Bernardino Justiniano, on behalf of the Cabildo, argues that "... As far as health is concerned, the order that the city has had is that in the port of Santa Cruz, which is the main port of this island for the dispatch of the nabians who live there, it appoints two deputies aldermen to attend in this city and for those who come to Garachico it appoints two other deputies aldermen from those who reside in the town of Garachico, and these by virtue of the The information and delicacies that are agreed upon and brought to this Cabildo where they agree and order what should be done...". The Governor's response could not be more explicit, stating that "... when this Cabildo should appoint in each year deputies of health and these, with the obligation that they have been appointed, go with a notary of the Cabildo to the ports of the island where the said nabians go to make the dha informazion of health, it is such as it is done, it will not ask or ask the Cabildo to do so...".40 Although the scant documentation prevents us from leaning towards one argument or the other, everything indicates that since the 1990s, if not before, the situation evolved into a modus vivendi between the representatives of the regiment and the mayors of the island's ports. While the latter made the ordinary visits of the arriving vessels, the deputies were called in case of anomaly (irregular health letter, sick appearance of the crew, poor answers to questions, etc.) or when an epidemic had been officially declared.41 Let us not forget that this little "sanitary army" was subject to the authority of the Cabildo, since it was the Cabildo that ultimately ruled on whether or not to grant talks to vessels arriving at port, as well as on any other type of precautions that were adopted with respect to ships, people or goods. It is clear that, far from remaining defenseless in the face of the disease, the Island Council developed an effective preventive policy, based on the permanent search for information on the progress of the disease and on the existence, more or less permanently, of a staff dedicated to the health surveillance of commercial exchanges. This is a counterpoint to the idea that prior to the Bourbons, the actions carried out were entirely circumstantial, local and poorly coordinated, as opposed to the supposed rationality and efficiency imposed by the governments of the new dynasty.