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Grosse Isle ((フランス語:Grosse Île), "big island"), is located in Gulf of St. Lawrence in Quebec, Canada. It is one of the islands of the 21-island Isle-aux-Grues archipelago. It is part of the municipality of Saint-Antoine-de-l'Isle-aux-Grues, located in the Chaudière-Appalaches region of the province. Also known as Grosse Isle and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site, the island was the site of an immigration depot which predominantly housed Irish immigrants coming to Canada to escape the Great Famine, 1845-1849.〔 In 1832, the Lower Canadian Government had previously set up this depot to contain an earlier cholera epidemic that was believed to be caused by the large influx of European immigrants, and the station was reopened in the mid-Nineteenth Century to accommodate Irish migrants who had contracted typhus during their voyages. Thousands of Irish were quarantined on Grosse Isle from 1832 to 1848. It is believed that over 3000〔A. Charbonneau: (Parks Canada Website ), retrieved August 9, 2006〕 Irish died on the island and over 5000〔 are currently buried in the cemetery there; many died en route. Most who died on the island were infected with typhus, which sprang up from the conditions there in 1847. Grosse Isle is the largest burial ground for refugees of the Great Hunger outside Ireland. After Canadian Confederation in 1867, the buildings and equipment were modernized to meet the standards of the new Canadian government's immigration policies.〔(Moving Here, Staying Here: The Canadian Immigrant Experience ) at Library and Archives Canada〕 The island is sometimes called Canada's Ellis Island (1892-1954), an association it shares with Pier 21 immigration facility in Halifax, Nova Scotia.〔Penelope Johnston, "Canada's Ellis Island", ''The Beaver'', February - March 2009, p. 52-53.〕 It is estimated that in total, from when it was set up in 1832 to the closing in 1932, almost 500,000 Irish immigrants passed through Grosse Isle on their way to Canada.〔(''The Irish Exodus to Canada: Grosse Isle, 1847-8'' )〕 ==Arrival== On arrival at Grosse Isle, emigrant ships were not permitted to sail onwards unless they had assured the authorities that they were free of disease. Those with fever cases on board were required to fly a blue flag.〔The Toronto Star, 2 May 1992〕 Dr. George Douglas, Grosse Isle's chief medical officer, recorded that by mid-summer the quarantine regulations in force were 'physically impossible' to carry out, making it necessary for the emigrants to stay on board their ships for many days. Douglas believed that washing and airing out the ships would be enough to stop the contagion spreading between infected passengers.〔Cecil Woodham-Smith: ''The Great Hunger - Ireland 1845-1849'', published by Penguin Books, 1991 edition〕 Robert Whyte, pseudonymous author of the ''1847 Famine Ship Diary: The Journey of a Coffin Ship'',〔Robert Whyte's ''1847 Famine Ship Diary: The Journey of an Irish Coffin Ship'', published by Mercier Press, 1994〕 described how on arrival at Grosse Isle the Irish emigrant passengers on the ''Ajax'' dressed in their best clothes and helped the crew to clean the ship, expecting to be sent either to hospital or on to Quebec after their long voyage. In fact, the doctor inspected them only briefly and did not return for several days. By mid-summer doctors were examining their charges very perfunctorily, allowing them to walk past and examining the tongues of any who looked feverish. In this way, many people with latent fever were allowed to pass as healthy, only to succumb to their sickness once they had left Grosse Isle.〔 On 28 July 1847, Whyte recorded the neglect of his fellow passengers, who 'within reach of help' 'were to be left enveloped in reeking pestilence, the sick without medicine, medical skill, nourishment, or so much as a drop of pure water'. However, conditions on other Irish emigrant ships were still worse. Two Canadian priests who visited the ''Ajax'' described the holds of other vessels where they had been 'up to their ankles in filth. The wretched emigrants crowded together like cattle and corpses remain() long unburied'. Whyte contrasted this with the condition of German immigrants arriving at Grosse Isle. These were all free of sickness, 'comfortably and neatly clad, clean and happy'. ''The Times'' also commented on the 'healthy, robust and cheerful' Germans.〔 The exact numbers of those who died at sea is unknown, although Whyte himself estimated it at 5293. During the crossing itself, bodies were thrown into the sea, but once the ships had reached Grosse Isle they were kept in the hold until a burial on land became possible. The dead were dragged out of the holds with hooks and 'stacked like cordwood' on the shore.〔The Great Shame by Thomas Keneally, published by Vintage in 1999〕 On July 29, 1847 Whyte described 'a continuous line of boats, each carrying its freight of dead to the burial ground... Some had several corpses so tied up in canvas that the stiff, sharp outline of death was easily traceable'.〔 Even those passengers who escaped typhus and other diseases were weakened by the journey. The Senate Committee of the United States on Sickness and Mortality in Emigrant Ships described the newly disembarked emigrants as 'cadaverous' and 'feeble'. Most had been misled by passage-brokers into believing that they would be provided with food on the ship.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Grosse Isle, Quebec」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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