128 MALTJS. 



Boo-az of Damietta ; on the 8th * we entered the Nile 



o * 



and the vessel was put under quarantine." 



If any one would wish to know how our institutions, 

 when entrusted to persons destitute of humanity, add 

 fresh sufferings to those of natural afflictions, let him con- 



G 



tinue with us the transcription of Malus's harrowing 

 recital. 



"The 10th Germinal f I disembarked and -was con- 

 ducted to the lazaretto of Lesbieh, where were collected 

 those suffering from the plague from Damietta as well as 

 those arrived from Syria. They placed also with me 

 several passengers who had no symptom of the disease, 

 but who in due course took the infection in the lazaretto 

 and died, every one of them. These numerous deaths 

 delayed the period of my enlargement. It was rare that 

 any one got out of this infernal prison who had once had 

 the misfortune to enter it ; hardly would they condescend 

 to succour the unhappy persons who came to spend their 

 last hours there. I have often seen them die with ra-e 



~ 



demanding water of the barbarians who pretended that 

 they did not understand them, or would answer, ' It is 

 not worth while.' Greedy grave-diggers robbed the dy- 

 ing persons before they had yielded their last breath ; 

 these unworthy agents of the sanitary commission were 

 the only medical attendants, the only guardians allowed 

 to the sick. Hardly had their victims ceased to live 

 when they carried them over to the opposite shore, 

 where they abandoned them to the dogs and birds of 

 prey. Sometimes they covered them with a little sand ; 

 but the wind soon exposed the bodies naked, and the 

 cemetery presented the hideous spectacle of a field of 



* April 27. 



f Probably a mistake tor Floreal, April 30. 



