[ 4 * ] 
Scratching together on the fame dunghill, and quarrel- 
ling for a bone, or piece of carrion, to allay their hun- 
ger. A pedilence followed clofe to the heels of 
the famine, which laded the greated part of 1758, 
and is fuppofed to have fwept away 50 or 60 thou- 
sand fouls in this city and its environs. I blefs God, 
I was not a fpe&ator of this complicated fcene of 
mifery : the very defcription of it mud didrefs a com- 
paffionate^difpodtion j the fight of it mud have made 
an impredion on an heart of dint. 
I have already acquainted you, in a former letter, 
with our troubles by earthquakes, &c. of 1759 and 
1760 and therefore fliall proceed from the date of my 
lad letter. The latter end of March 1761, the plague, 
which had lain dormant dnce the autumn, made its 
appearance again in this city, and alarmed us con- 
fiderably. Tho’ I confefs, it did not furprize me; fo 
far from hot expe&ing its return, I ihould have looked 
on it almod as a miracle, if we had efcaped, after the 
little progrefs it had made among us the preceding 
year. The infedion crept gently and gradually on, 
confined chiedy to one particular quarter, till the begin- 
ning of May, when it began to fpread vifibly and 
univerfally. We diut up on the 27th, and our con- 
finement laded 96 days. The fury indeed of the con- 
tagion did not continue longer than the middle of July, 
and many of our merchants went abroad with caution 
early in Augud j but as our conful had no urgent 
bufinefs to induce him to expofe himfelf to any rifle, 
we remained in clofe quarters till we could vifit out- 
friends with tolerable fecurity. As an addition to 
the uneafinefs of our fituation, the earthquakes re- 
Vol, L 1 II. G turned 
