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liberty, tho’ after a confinement more tedious, and 
much more difmai than even that of the laft year; 
we got abroad on the 1 8 th of Auguft, when the 
burials were reduced to about 20 a day : the infection 
gradually decreafed till the middle of September, fince 
which time we have heard of no accident. May the 
Almighty gracioufiy be pleafed to prevent the return 
of adiftemper, whofe very name ftrikes terror when- 
ever it is mentioned and is undoubtedly one of the 
moft lamentable misfortunes, that mankind is liable 
to. 
I wifh I could with any precifion determine our 
lofs in the two laft fummers ; but, in times of fuch 
general horror and confufion, it is in a manner im- 
pofiible to come at the exadt truth. If you enquire 
of the natives, they fwell the account each year from 
40 to 60 thoufand, and fome even higher; but, as 
the eaftern dilpofition to exaggaration reigns at p re- 
fen t almoft univerfally, little accuracy is to be ex- 
pedted from them : this however is certain, that the 
mortality of this year has been very confiderable, per- 
haps not much inferior to any in this century. Some 
of the Europeans have been at no fmall pains and 
expence to procure a regular and daily lift of the 
funerals during our confinement, and their account 
amounts to about twenty thoufand, from the ift of 
April to the 1 ft of September this year, and about one 
third lefs the preceding fummer. This calculation 
I am inclined to think is pretty right, tho’ there are 
fome ftrong objedtions againft a probability of being 
able to procure a juft one in fuch circumftances : for 
the Turks keep no regifter of the dead, and have 
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