128 MALUS. 
Bogaz of Damietta; on the 8th * we entered the Nile 
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- 
tinue with us the transcription of Malus’s harrowing 
recital. 
“The 10th Germinal t 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 rage 
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. 
7 Probably a mistake for Floreal, April 30. 
