Professor of African Languages, and formerly British Consul and
Agent for Holland, Sweden, and Denmark, at Santa Cruz, South
Barbary.[234]
_Circus, Minories, May 4._ 1819.
[Footnote 234: See BRITISH STATESMAN, May 6th, 1819.]
419
LETTERS RESPECTING AFRICA,
FROM
_J.G. JACKSON AND OTHERS._
_On the Plague._
To JAMES WILLIS, Esq. late Consul to Senegambia.
London, October 30, 1804.
My dear Sir,
Your letter reached my hands yesterday; but I am afraid I shall not
be able to satisfy you in every enquiry which you have made
relative to the plague in Barbary in 1799. I have, however, no
doubt but the plague which has prevailed in Spain has originated
from it. Some of the following observations may probably be of
service to you.
It does not appear to be ascertained how the plague originated in
Fas in the year 1799. Some persons have ascribed it to infected
merchandise received at Fas from the East; whilst others maintain
that the locusts which had infested Western Barbary during seven
years, destroying the crops, the vegetables, and every green thing,
even to the bark of the trees, produced such a scarcity, that the
420 poor could obtain scarcely any thing to eat but the locusts; and
living on them for several months, till a most abundant crop
enabled them to satisfy the cravings of nature, they ate abundantly
of the new corn, which producing a fever, brought on the contagion.
At this time the small-pox pervaded the country, and was generally
fatal. The small-pox is thought to be the forerunner of this
species of contagion, as appears by an ancient Arabic manuscript,
which gives a full account of the same disorder having carried off
two-thirds of the inhabitants of West Barbary about four hundred
years since; but, however the dreadful epidemy originated, the
leading features of the disorder were novel, and more dreadful than
the common plague of Turkey, or that of Syria or Egypt, as the
following observations will demonstrate.
In the month of April, 1799, a plague of the most dreadful kind
manifested itself at the city of Old Fas, which soon after
communicated itself to the new city. About this time the Emperor
Muley Soliman ben Muhamed was preparing a numerous army, and was on
the eve of departure to visit his Southern dominions, and to take
possession of the province of Abda, which had not acknowledged him
as Emperor, but was, as well as the port of Saffy, in a state of
rebellion. The Emperor left Fas early in the summer, and proceeded
to Sallee, Mazagan, and Saffee; thence to Marocco and Mogodor. Now
the plague began to kindle in all the Southern provinces, first
carrying off one or two the first day, three or four the second
421 day, six or eight the third day, and increasing progressively till
it amounted to a daily mortality of two in a hundred of the whole
population; continuing _with unabated violence_, ten, fifteen,
twenty days, being of longer duration in old than in new towns;
then diminishing in a progressive proportion from one thousand
a-day, to nine hundred, to eight hundred and so continuing to
decrease till it disappeared.
When it raged at the town of Mogodor, a small village (Deabet)
situated two miles South-east of Mogodor remained uninfected,
although the communication was open between these two places. On
the thirty-fourth day after its first appearance at Mogodor, this
village received the infection, where, after committing dreadful
havock among the human species for twenty-one days carried off one
hundred persons out of one hundred and thirty-three, the population
of the village before the plague visited it. After this, none died;
but those who were infected recovered, some losing the use of a
leg, or an arm, or an eye.
Many similar circumstances might be mentioned relative to the
numerous villages scattered about the extensive province of Haha,
all which shared the like, or a worse fate. Travelling through this
province after the plague had disappeared, I saw many ruins, which
had been flourishing villages before the plague. Making enquiry
concerning the population of these dismal remains of the
422 pestilence, I was informed, that one village contained six hundred
inhabitants; that only four had escaped. Others, which had
contained four and five hundred, had left seven or eight to lament
the calamities they had suffered.
Whenever any families retired to the country, to avoid the
infection; on returning to town, when apparently all infection had
disappeared, they were generally attacked, and died. The
destruction of the human species in the province of Upper and
LowerSuse was much greater than elsewhere. The capital city of this
province (Tarodant) lost, when the infection was at its _acmé_,
about eight hundred each day; the city of Marocco lost one thousand
each day; the cities of Old and New Fas from twelve to fifteen
hundred each day; insomuch, that, in these large towns, the
mortality was such, that the living had not time to bury the dead:
they were therefore thrown altogether into large holes, which were
covered over when full of dead bodies.
Young and healthy robust persons were generally attacked first;
then women and children; lastly, thin, sickly, and old people.
_After the plague had totally subsided, we saw men, who had been
common labourers, enjoying their thousands, and keeping horses,
without knowing how to ride them. Provisions became extremely
cheap, for the flocks and herds had been left in the fields, and
had nobody now to own them. Day-labour increased enormously. Never
423 was equality in the human species more evident than at this time_.
_When corn was to be ground, or bread made, both were done in the
houses of the rich, and prepared by themselves; for the very few
poor people whom the plague had spared were insufficient for the
wants of the affluent, and they were consequently obliged to work
for themselves_. The country being now depopulated, vast tribes of
Arabs from the Desert poured into Suse and Draha; settling
themselves on the river Draha and in Suse, and wherever they found
little or no population.
The symptoms of the disorder varied in different patients; in some
it manifested itself by a sudden shivering, in others by delirium,
succeeded by a violent thirst. Cold water was drank eagerly by the
imprudent, and generally proved fatal. Some had one, two, or three,
some more biles, generally in the groin, under the arm, or near the
breast; some had more. Some had no biles, nor any outward
disfiguration; these were invariably carried off in less than
twenty-four hours. I recommended Mr. Baldwin's remedy[235], applied
according to his directions; and I do not know one instance of its
failing, when properly applied, and sufficiently persevered in.
[Footnote 235: Of unction of the body with olive oil.]
I have no doubt but the epidemy, which has been ravaging Spain
lately, is the same disorder with the one above described. We have
been told that it was communicated originally to Spain by two
424 infected persons, who went from Tangier to Estapona, and eluded the
vigilance of the guards. We have been assured that it was
communicated by some persons infected, who landed in Spain from a
vessel that had loaded produce at Laraich, in West Barbary. We have
also been informed that a Spanish privateer, which had occasion to
land its crew for water in some part of West Barbary, caught the
infection, and afterwards went to Cadiz and communicated it to the
town.