1831.] " Consolations" in Cholera. 389 



regular and strict expurgation of all merchandize coming from suspected 

 ports or places. 



Lest these remarks should cause it to be supposed that some disserta- 

 tion on infectious diseases is here intended, I must at once declare that 

 such is not the case ; it is only meant to record some of the moral 

 features of the epidemics which have occurred in the garrison of Gibraltar 

 — hitherto the most fertile field in Europe for the study of contagious 

 disease. 



It is well known that many of the present inhabitants of the rock have 

 accumulated great riches merely from the frequent recurrence of epi- 

 demics. Now that their treatment is somewhat better understood, and 

 that fear, that worst of all infections, has not as formerly abolished all 

 police regulations, the chances of making fortunes by these events are 

 considerably diminished ; add to which, the present registration of landed 

 property prevents the accidental holders of title deeds from appropriating 

 to themselves houses or lands, which the death of the real owners in- 

 duced them to convert to their own use. During the fever of 1804, the 

 houses of sick individuals were openly plundered at mid-day of every 

 valuable they contained. The family of a Portuguese lady, who had all 

 fallen victims to the epidemic, had been successively carried to their 

 graves, she alone lay abandoned on her bed, with just sufficient of sense 

 left to see what was passing around her. A neighbour, who had hoped 

 that there would be no kind friend at hoiT>e to receive her visit, came to 

 the house, and under the impression that her conduct was unwitnessed 

 by any living being, proceeded to rifle the drawers of some valuable 

 jewellery, with which she decamped. The Portuguese lady, contrary to 

 expectation, recovered ; as soon as she was able to walk, she returned 

 her neighbour's visit, intent on reproaching her with the theft, but death 

 had laid his cold hand on the offender, who was extended on the floor a 

 corpse. Under these circumstances, to take possession of what was her 

 own property the lady conceived was perfectly justifiable. In the act of 

 helping herself the police entered the house to remove the dead bodies, 

 and found her in the act of carrying off the jewellery. In vain did she 

 protest the property was her own ; the appeal was useless, she was hur- 

 ried off to prison, and as soon as the fever had subsided was brought to 

 trial. Fortunately the parties yet lived of whom the Portuguese dona 

 had purchased the trinkets ; these lent some weight to the story she told 

 in her defence, and when the possession of the ornaments came to be 

 contrasted with the notorious poverty of the woman who hac\ died, the 

 prisoner's innocence became apparent. 



At this time tlie living were scarcely sufficient in number to bury the 

 dead ; delinquents imprisoned for crime were offered their liberty on 

 condition of undertaking that office. Even those under sentence of death 

 were pardoned for this purpose. Four mutineers, soldiers of one of the 

 Irish regiments in the garrison, had been condemned to be shot at the 



{)eriod of the commencement of the epidemic. They had taken a final 

 eave of their wives and children on the morning of execution, and were 

 conveyed to " Bay-side" to undergo the sentence of the court-martial. 

 Their eyes were bandaged, and they had already fallen on their knees, 

 wlien, ere the platoon received the word " to fire," the town-major stepped 

 up to the culprits, and told them, on condition of their devoting their lives 

 to the care of the sick and the burial of the dead throughout the duration 



