OP THE MARSH POISON. 279 



running stream itself, which in all other countries has been 

 esteemed a source of health, and delight and utility, in these 

 malarious lands proved only an addition to the endemic pesti- 

 lence. It is difficult to conceive any thing more deceptions 

 than the appearance of these two towns, particularly the last, 

 which might have been pitched upon by the best instructed 

 medical officer, if unacquainted with the nature of Malaria, as 

 a place of refuge from disease ; for the shores of the river, (it 

 had no confining banks,) seemed perfectly dry, and there was 

 not an aquatic weed, nor a speck, nor line of marsh, to be seen 

 within miles of the town, nor any thing but dry, bare, and 

 clean savannah. It had, however, been so far the contrary in 

 all past times, that the canons and ecclesiastics of its ancient 

 cathedral had a dispensation from the Pope, of no less than 

 five months leave of absence, to avoid the Calentura, ftheir 

 name for the endemic fever). In the other ecclesiastical resi- 

 dences of Estremadura, the same dispensation rarely extended 

 beyond three months, but almost all had some indulgence of 

 the kind. During the autumnal season, the epidemic prevail- 

 ed so generally amongst all classes of inhabitants, that even 

 infants at the breast were affected with it, and few of the resi- 

 dents attained to any thing like old age. The oldest person I 

 ever saw in Corea, who was a priest, that had often taken ad- 

 vantage of the dispensation for leave of absence, was only in 

 his 57th year, and he appeared like a man past 70. The inha- 

 bitants, nevertheless, seemed always surprised and offended 

 when we condoled with them on the unhealthiness of their 

 country, which they would not admit in any degree ; for with 

 them, as every where else, where immemorial experience has 

 shewn that it is impossible to avoid a calamity, it goes for no- 

 thing. They contemplated its approach with the same indif- 

 ference that a Turk does the plague, and patiently awaited its 

 VOL. IX. p. II. . V n extinction 



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