GENERAL HISTORY. 



[175 



a vessel coming from Alexandria, 

 they were so well convinced of the 

 pestilential nature of the symptoms, 

 that they recommended burning 

 the ship and cargo, and putting in 

 practice the preventive measures 

 which were afterwards resorted to. 

 Either, however, from neglect of 

 this advice, or from the introduc- 

 tion of new infection, the disease 

 gained a footing iri the island, and 

 other deaths occurred about the 

 beginning of May attended with 

 circumstances still more decisive. 

 The Maltese physicians, with that 

 reluctance to pronounce a dreaded 

 name which has often been preju- 

 dicial in the beginning of a pesti- 

 lential contagion, chose to employ 

 the term of malignant contagious 

 Jever in reporting the existence of 

 an infectious disease ; which pro- 

 duced a solemn protest from Mr. 

 Green, dated May 13th, against 

 the use of an indefinite appellation 

 which might delude the public 

 with respect to the real nature of 

 a distemper that ought to be called 

 by its proper and common name of 

 the Plague. Previously to this,how- 

 ever, on May 5th, the government 

 had issued a proclamation announc- 

 ing the disease, and recommending 

 precautionary measures, which were 

 observed only by the English, as 

 the small number of deaths ren- 

 dered the natives incredulous as 

 to its true designation. From this 

 time it spread over the whole 

 island, but its ravages appear to 

 have been most considerable in the 

 crowded streets of the city, where 

 many whole families were swept 

 away. A letter, dated June 17th, 

 says, that a habitation in the Stra- 

 da Pozza had originally 52 inha- 

 bitants, all of whom were dead 

 except a little girl, and she was 



infected on that morning. Fort 

 Manuel was allotted for the recep- 

 tion of persons not yet infected, 

 who had been in infected houses ; 

 but it became necessary at length 

 to send infected persons thither, 

 whence numbers died in it. Great 

 difficulty was experienced in put- 

 ting into execution the orders for 

 preventing communication between 

 families and individuals of the dif- 

 ferent districts, the lower classes 

 being less afraid of the disease, 

 than averse to strict rules of con- 

 finement ; the mortality, however, 

 was not great in proportion to the 

 vast populousness of the island, in 

 which respect it is equalled by iew 

 places in the globe. Up to the 

 18th of June it is stated at 518. 

 At the end of July the deaths had 

 amounted to 2,400. Those in Au- 

 gust were returned at 1,042. They 

 began to diminish in September, 

 and towards the end of October 

 were reduced to two or three daily. 

 On November 3rd, sir T. Mait- 

 land, the governor, issued a pro- 

 clamation, stating that no new case 

 of the plague had occurred in Va- 

 letta (the capital) or Floriana for 

 more than a fortnight, and that 

 there was every reason to hope 

 that the inhabitants of the island 

 would shortly be relieved from the 

 restraints which had been necessary 

 for their security. It does not ap- 

 pear that during the whole time 

 of its prevalence it got into the 

 quarters or barracks of the British 

 troops, though a few of the foreign 

 soldiers were infected. 



Gibraltar was this year again 

 visited by a contagious and fatal 

 disease which, though at first re- 

 ported to have been the plague, was 

 recognised as a fever similar to 

 that of 1804. It first appeared on 



