TEE BUBONIC PLAGUE. 583 



the bubonic plague, and yet there can be no doubt but that this dis- 

 ease occupied no second rank during the dreary darkness of the middle 

 ages. This era in history may be said to have been ushered in by the 

 Justinian plague, and it was closed by an even more disastrous outbreak 

 of this same disease. All the ravages and slaughter consequent upon 

 the great historic battles, when taken together, pale into insignificance 

 on comparison with that dread visitation of the fourteenth century, the 

 'black death'. 



It is noteworthy that this great historic epidemic did not originate 

 in Egypt, as did many of its predecessors. Without exception the con- 

 temporaneous writers ascribe its origin to Cathay, or the China of to- 

 day. This fact is of interest when it is borne in mind that at the present 

 time we know of the existence of two endemic foci in China, besides 

 that of Gurhwal in India, of Beni Cheir in Arabia and of Uganda and 

 Kisiba in Africa. Whatever may have been its source, the fact is that 

 it advanced from the Orient along the three principal routes of travel. 

 One of these led from the Persian Gulf through Bassorah and Bagdad 

 along the Euphrates, across Arabia to Egypt and Northern Africa. 

 Another route passed from India through Afghanistan, and skirting the 

 southern borders of the Caspian and Black Seas, eventually reached 

 Asia Minor. A third route from Turkestan and China led around the 

 northern shore of the Caspian Sea to Crimea, and thence to Con- 

 stantinople. It was along these several routes that the plague advanced 

 and spread over most of Western Asia and Northern Africa. 



The European black death, however, can be traced with accuracy 

 to the Crimean peninsula. Gaffa, a town in Crimea, now known as 

 Theodosia, had been founded and fortified by the Genoese. It, as well 

 as other cities along the Black Sea, was largely populated by Italians. 

 One of these, Gabriel de Mussis, a lawyer in Gaffa, has left a faithful 

 account of his experience and share in the introduction of the plague 

 into Europe. In 1346 in the Orient numberless Tartars and Saracens 

 were attacked with an unknown disease and sudden death. In the city 

 of Tanais, through some excess, a racial struggle ensued between the 

 Tartars and the Italian merchants. The latter eventually escaped and 

 took refuge in Gaffa, which in time was besieged by the Tartars. Dur- 

 ing the siege, which lasted three years, the Tartar hordes were attacked 

 by the plague, which daily carried off many thousands. The besiegers, 

 despairing of reducing the city by direct attack, attempted to do so in 

 another way. By means of their engines of war they projected the dead 

 bodies into the beleaguered city, which, as a result, soon became in- 

 fected. The Christian defenders took to their ships, and abandoning 

 Gaffa, sailed westward, touching at Constantinople, Greece, Italy and 

 France. 



Wherever the infected vessels touched they left the plague. Con- 



