33 



meahs of fiery arrows. By this method, which 

 is truly a violent one, they have hitherto pre- 

 vented its progress, and been exempted from this 

 disorder. 



A physicianofthe country, Matthias Verdu go, 

 a monk of the order of St. John, was the first 

 who, in 1761, introduced inoculation, and since 

 that period it has been practised with great suc- 

 cess. Tertian and quartan fevers are also un- 

 known there ; and the inhabitants of the neigh- 

 bouring provinces who are afflicted with them^ 



rid fate of their friends around them, prepared to disappoint 

 the plague of its prey by terminating their own existence. 



The habits and lives of these devoted people, which provided 

 not to-day for tlie wants of to-morrow, must have heightened 

 the pains of such an affliction, by leaving them not 6nly without 

 remedy, but even without alleviation. 



To aggravate the picture, if aggravation were possible, may 

 be added, the putrid carcases which the wolves dragged forth 

 from the huts, or which were mangled within them by the 

 dogs, whose hunger was satisfied with the disfigured remains 

 of their masters. Nor was it unconmion for the fatlicr of a 

 family whom the infection had not reached, to call them 

 around him, to represent the cruel sufferings and horrid fate 

 of their relations, from the iniiuence of some evil spirit who 

 \\i-d% preparing to extirpate their race, and to invite them to 

 bafile death with all its horrors by their own poniards. At 

 the same time, if their hearts failed them in this necessary 

 act, he was himself ready to perform the deed of m'ercy with 

 his own hand, as the last act of his affectioii, and instantly to 

 follow them to the common place of rest and refuge frou'. 

 iiuman f:\i\, ^^Mackenzie. 



A' 



