430 Report from the Select Committee appointed to consider 



which constituted the chief object of the trade, in ships, which 

 they sent to Holland : there they have no quarantine establish- 

 ment. The practice hi Holland is, to take a few of the goods 

 out on the arrival of the ship, which they put into a lighter along- 

 side the ship and cover up the hatchways; at the end of twenty- 

 one days, tlie ship and lighter go up to the quays and discharge 

 their cargoes ; sometimes the cotton is trans-shipped in vessels 

 bound to London without being landed. On their arrival in Eng- 

 land they were liable to fourteen days quarantine in Standgate 

 Creek, where they merely cut a little rslit in one side of the bales 

 of cotton ; after the end of fourteen days, the cotton was sent to 

 London in the same vessel or in lighters, and of course imme- 

 diately sold and distributed among the manufacturers, without 

 any other precautions than now stated. By these means the 

 Greeks anticipated us, and we could not carry on the trade; but 

 there is another reason now, to influence the bills of health. The 

 committee who decided on the plague or no plague at Smyrna, 

 during the time of the plague when it was known to prevail, col- 

 lected from the Greek community a certain sum weekly. (Is not 

 aware that they collected from other jjeople.) That is, for the 

 avowed purpose of rendering assistance to persons afflicted with 

 the plague, but there is no account rendered of the distribution ; 

 consequently, so long as they can establish the plague to exist, 

 they collect these contributions. On the other hand, when there 

 has been no accident from the plague, and clean bills of health 

 are issued ; then the community resist as much as they can the 

 first allegation of an accident from the plague, in order to save 

 their contributions. The plague is said to originate sometimes 

 in Smyrna. It prevails most in particular low narrow streets, 

 where the houses are so close that you can shake hands across 

 the way, and which are inhabited by the very lowest classes of 

 people ; a place into which no European would chuse to go, 

 therefore we do not go to investigate it : it is a situation where 

 fevers must necessarily be expected, from the confined air and 

 want of ventilation, and the concourse of persons existing in such 

 numbers there. Thinks the plague is not nece?sarily taken by 

 contact; because during the plague in 1778, has seen the man 

 who brought provisions to the house where Mr. G. lived a dozen 

 times every day take off the bundle of clothes belonging to peo- 

 ple who had died of the plague, Armenians. They are buried 

 without coffins, but carried on biers ; and when they are put into 

 the grave, they bundle the bed and clothes into a sheet and bring 

 them back again, bring them home. There was a winehouse 

 opposite Mr. G.'s house ; has seen the man who attended him 

 take the bundles from the men's backs as they were returning 



from 



