Ch. V. SOUTH AMERICA. 45 

 In 1729, Don Domingo Juftiniani, commodore of the 

 guarda coftas, loft fo confiderable a part of his Ihips 

 companies at Santa Martha, that the furvivors were 

 ftruck v/ith aftonifliment and horror at the havock 

 made among their comrades. In 1730, when the 

 galleons under Don Manuel Lopez Pintado came to 

 Carthagena, the feamen were feized with the fame 

 dreadful mortality, and fo fudden were the attacks of 

 the difeafe, that perfons walking about one day, were 

 the next carried to their graves. 



The inhabitants of Carthagena, together with thofe 

 in the whole extent of its government, are very fubjed; 

 to the mal de San Lazaro, or leprofy, which feems ftill 

 to gain ground. Some phyficians attribute the pre- 

 valence of it to pork, which is here a very common 

 food \ but it may be objeded, that in other countries, 

 where this flefti is as frequently eaten, no fuch effedfcs 

 are feen, whence it evidently appears that fome latent 

 quality of the climate muft alfo contribute to it. In 

 order to ftop the contagion of this diftemper, there is, 

 without the city, an hofpital called San Lazaro, not far 

 from the hill on which is a cattle of the fame name. In 

 this hofpital all perfons of both fexes labouring under 

 this diftemper are confined, without any diftinc^tion to 

 age or rank; and, if any refufe to go, they are forcibly 

 carried thither. But here the diftemper increafes 

 among themfelves, they being permitted to intermarry, 

 by which means it is rendered perpetual. Befides^ their 

 allowance being here too fcanty to fubfift on, they are 

 permitted to beg in the city ; and from their intercourfe 

 with thofe in health, the number of lepers never de- 

 creafes \ and is at prefent fo confiderable, that their 

 hofpital refembles a little town. Every perfon at his 

 entering this ftrudture, where he is to continue during 

 life, builds a cottage called in the country bujio, pro- 

 portional to his ability, where he lives ih the fame 

 manner as before in his houfe, the prohibition of not 

 going beyond the limits prefcribed him, unlefs to alk 



alms- 



