FROM A.D. 1530 TO 1613.
A.D. 1530, the sweating plague raged in Germany, and epidemic
scurvy prevailed in Denmark: two years after, various parts of the
world were visited by what were called spotted or petechial fevers. In
the month of March, pestilence broke out in Aragon and in the city of
Saragossa: Italy and Spain suffered also from a gangrenous sore-throat.
In October, the Tiber overflowed, and the dykes in Holland were
suddenly burst by inundation, to the destruction of much property and
of many lives.
A.D. 1531. A comet was seen this and the following year.
The Tagus overflowed in the month of February, destroying nearly the
half of Portugal. Pestilence followed, and devastated several cities,
especially Lisbon, as recorded by Cardinal Gastaldi.
A.D. 1533, the kingdom of Aragon suffered much from the great
want of corn. Amongst the preventive measures taken, was the bull of
Pope Adrian VI. against forestallers. Notwithstanding all the measures
that were adopted, the want of food (what there was even being of bad
quality), with the excessive heat, &c., caused pestilence, which was
very fatal, especially in the city of Huesca, and, as it was said, only
terminated on the intercession of the Virgin _de los Dolores_.
The year following, 1534, the city of Narbonne suffered from plague.
Epidemic disease raged in Cork and also in Dresden A.D. 1535.
England, the year following, suffered from pestilence, which continued
for three years, 1537, 1538, and 1539. Mortal dysentery prevailed all
over Europe. In the latter year, the river Lea in England was nearly
dried up, and pestilence carried off great numbers in its vicinity.
The summer in Europe was so hot, that in many parts the woods took fire
spontaneously. The South of Europe was infested with swarms of locusts,
and plague was rife in Hungary during the war of the Turks in that
country.
The famous Ruy Diaz de Isla published this year (1537) one of the best
works which had hitherto appeared on the venereal disease. In order to
avoid giving offence to any nation by using the popular names, such
as the French disease, the Neapolitan, &c., he denominated his work,
‘A Treatise of All Saints against the serpentine disease which came
from the Spanish island Hispaniola; a Treatise compiled in the great
and famous Hospital of All Saints, in the renowned city of Lisbon.’
Its author, following the opinion prevalent in his time, attributes
the origin of this disease to Hispaniola, where the natives call it
‘le llamaban, buainaras, bipas, taynas olias.’ The reason assigned
for using the appellation ‘serpentine’ is, because the disease was
considered to be analogous to the foulness of that reptile.
A.D. 1541, pestilence raged with great violence in
Constantinople, and carried off vast numbers. The year following, 1542,
clouds of red locusts, which came from Turkey, passed over Sclavonia,
Croatia, Austria, and Italy, and alighted in Spain in such numbers that
they destroyed every green thing. About this period the celebrated
Andres Laguna proposed for the cure of the plague an infusion of
carlina (white thistle), a drachm of which, after it had been infused,
was to be taken daily.
A.D. 1543, epidemic pestilence visited the city of Metz,
causing a frightful mortality. Two years after, 1545, a pestilential
epidemic, similar to that which prevailed so extensively A.D.
1528, called ‘la trousse galante,’ made its appearance in various parts
of Europe, slaying the robust and young; it was equal in awfulness and
mortality to the pestilence which in the days of Moses destroyed the
first-born of Egypt: the disease first appeared in Savoy, and over a
great part of France; it continued until the following year, 1546.
Parè, and a Flemish physician, Sanders, describe the symptoms of this
malady, which was attended, as in 1528, with the loss of the hair and
of the nails: its attack was rapid and very fatal. Patients at the
onset suffered from an overwhelming weight in the body, and a violent
headache, which soon deprived them of all consciousness; and stupor
ensued, with relaxation or loss of power of the sphincter muscles: in
most cases an eruption was observed, of which no mention is made in
former outbreaks of the malady; Sanders does not, however, distinctly
state its nature. 10,000 English residents died from pestilence in the
course of this year and the year following at Boulogne. The bubonic
plague made its appearance in the Netherlands.
A.D. 1547, heavy rains inundated Tuscany. Pestilence raged all
over Europe, especially in England, Holland, and Germany. The city of
Dresden also suffered from it. Mould-spots and red water were observed
in the north of Germany. The year following, pestilence continued in
England and also in Prussia, causing great mortality in both countries.
The kingdom of Murcia suffered from epidemic disease, and the question
arose, as had been frequently the case before, whether the disease
was contagious or not: great difference of opinion thereon prevailed.
Portugal also suffered about this period from pestilence.
A.D. 1549, vast numbers of caterpillars appeared in Germany
and destroyed all the herbage; they were followed by pestilence,
especially in the North, where petechial fever destroyed great numbers.
An epidemic catarrh, as well as dysentery, raged in France from 1550
until 1553. There had been great death in various parts of Spain,
and pestilence raged in Valencia: it was attributed to the effects
of damaged grain, which had been introduced for the support of the
inhabitants of that city. Don Pedro Jacobo Esteve makes mention of
these circumstances, in his commentary entitled ‘In Hippocratis librum
secundum Epidemiarum seu popularium morborum Commentarium.’ Seville
also suffered from pestilence. It was about this period that the last
attack of sweating sickness occurred in London; stinking mists were
first experienced on the banks of the Severn, which were overflowed.
On the 15th of April, 1551, the disease again broke out at Shrewsbury,
gradually extending in the course of the stinking mists, or fogs,
all over England. In the month of July it reached London, where the
mortality was very considerable: it is stated that 120 died of the
disease in a day in the city of Westminster. Two sons of Charles
Brandon, both Dukes of Suffolk, were carried off by it. This epidemic
subsided about the month of September in England, and was noticed as
being the fifth and last sweating sickness in this country.
Caius (John) published his ‘Booke, or Counseill against the disease
commonly called the Sweate, or sweatynge sicknesse, very necessary
for everye personne and much requisite to be had in the hands of all
sorts, for their better instruction, preparacion and defence against
the soubdin comyng and fareful assaultyng of the same disease (1552).’
About the same period, a mortal pestilence raged in Messina, blood
being in many instances discharged from the pores of the body of those
who were affected, three days before death. A similar disease prevailed
in Paris; in fact, epidemic pestilence may be said to have ravaged
various parts of Europe, especially Hungary, Transylvania, &c.
Senertus informs us, that pestilence not only overran Europe, but
almost the whole inhabited world. The spring of the year 1551 was
dry and cold, and the summer wet; inundations, earthquakes, meteors,
mock-suns, great tempests, and summer fogs were noticed: malignant
fevers prevailed in Suabia, and epidemic influenza was rife in
Spain. The two following years, malignant fevers overran Germany and
Switzerland; scurvy prevailed in Denmark.
A.D. 1555, the summer was hot, and heavy rains fell: febrile
diseases became very prevalent in England and France, and continued
with redoubled violence during the succeeding summer, which was also
excessively hot and dry: excessive commotions of the elements and
severe seasons marked this period. The city of Valencia suffered from
epidemic variola. Don Miguel Juan Pasqual, an eminent physician, makes
mention of this pestilence in his work ‘De Febre Pestilenti.’ About
this period, according to Cardinal Gastaldi, when the Emperor Charles
V. invaded the French territories, pestilence destroyed great numbers
of the peasantry and of the Spanish soldiery.
A.D. 1556, a whole province of the mountainous part of China
was in a moment absorbed into the earth; all the towns with their
inhabitants were buried in the ruins, and an immense lake of water
took its place, which remains to this day. A comet was seen this year.
Vienna about this time suffered from epidemic pestilence, as also
did Holland the year following; the disease continued until 1558.
This disease commenced in the form of influenza in various parts of
Europe, and in France, Italy, and Germany; Spain also suffered from
its violence, which was greater in some countries than in others, viz.
Florence and Tuscany. In France, malignant dysentery was the most
predominant malady; agues in Holland, and petechial or spotted fever
in Spain; the last-named disease was as fatal as the true plague.
A Spanish writer, Andres Laguna, physician to Charles V., Philip
II., and Julius III., wrote a work on this pestilence, (as did many
other eminent physicians,) entitled, ‘Discurso breve sobre la Cura y
Preservacion de la Pestilentia.’ In going minutely into the symptoms
described by these authors, we recognize all the symptoms of bilious
remittent or yellow fever, synocha, &c., as prevalent now-a-days, and
termed ‘Andalusian fever.’
A.D. 1557. A new infirmity, as it was then considered to be,
broke out this year in Spain, which nearly depopulated the peninsula:
it continued with great destruction until 1570. This new pestilence
was supposed to have originated with the Saracens, after the war of
Granada, that is, after King Don Fernando de Aragon, and Doña Isabel,
Queen of Castile, had conquered the city of Granada. That this disease
originated with the Spanish Arabs, was known from the fact that all
their disbanded soldiery communicated the disease to the inhabitants of
the cities and towns, as Luis de Torro relates in his work entitled ‘De
Febre Puncticulari,’ &c., to which type this pestilence belonged.
A.D. 1558, the city of Murcia suffered from pestilence, on
account of which the bishops and principal inhabitants deserted the
city. This fatal epidemic extended to all parts around Murcia and
to the kingdom of Valencia. The Jesuit Fathers assumed the temporal
as well as the spiritual care of the plague-striken. Many of the
attendants fell victims to the disease, amongst whom was the celebrated
Dr. Pedro de Cabera, son of the Viscount of the same name, together
with the padre Marco Antonio Fontoba.
Barcelona also at this period suffered from mortal pestilence; it
commenced in January, and continued unto July, when it ceased.
A.D. 1563, there was a great dearth of corn and other
provisions in London; famine and disease were the result, and 20,000
persons perished in consequence. France suffered from pestilence, and
Barcelona was again visited by it. Burgos--a city in which all the
reverend Fathers of the Society of Jesus, who administered the rites to
the dying, perished,--was nearly devastated by plague, as noticed by
Franco; in fine, many European cities suffered more or less during this
year from epidemic disease; among which were, Frankfort, Magdenburg,
Dantzic, Hamburgh, Wismar, Lubeck, Bostack, and Dresden.
A.D. 1564, an epidemic prevailed in the form of fatal quinsies
and spotted fever, in various parts of Europe. Barcelona again suffered
from pestilence, which broke out in the month of June, and lasted
unto November following. The city of Saragossa also suffered from a
cruel epidemic, from May unto December, during which period there died
10,000 persons in the city alone: it was supposed that the disease was
introduced from France by means of the clothes of persons who had died
there from the disease. Dr. Porcell, who was singularly successful
in treating the disease, wrote a work on it, and dedicated it to Don
Philip II.; it was entitled ‘Informacion y Curacion de la peste de
Zaragoza, y preservacion contra peste en general, por Juan Porcell
Sardo, Doctor en Medicina, Zaragoza.’ The symptoms of this malady were,
intense cephalalgia, sleeplessness and delirium, vomiting of bilious
matter, urgent thirst, nausea, accompanied by pain in the stomach:
dissection showed nothing particular in the humors; the gall-bladder
was extremely large, and distended with black viscid bile,--sometimes,
however, it was found empty. There was yellowness of the skin, and a
similar tinge was observed internally.
A.D. 1565, a pestilential epidemic prevailed in France, in
which bleeding was said to have been fatal to many; the disease raged
with great severity at Lyons. Charles IX. having inquired of his
physicians the most judicious mode of treatment, they expressed their
disapprobation of venesection. Seville and various other parts of Spain
suffered from a similar disease, which, however, was not very fatal;
great numbers are said to have owed their preservation to the use of
treacle, immense quantities of which the Catholic king Philip II. sent
to the Christian king Charles IX. Schenckius describes this pestilence
as having been preceded by a sharp frost in December, the distemper
having commenced in January: the air being filled with gross vapours
was supposed to have given rise to this malady.
Wierus informs us, that this pestilence afflicted all mankind; it was
preceded by small-pox and measles; it proved very fatal, depopulating
towns and cities, among which were Constantinople, Alexandria, Leyden,
London, Dantzic, Vienna, Cologne, and the whole tract of the Upper
Rhine, even unto Basle. The malady was accompanied by glandular tumors
in the neck; it was an aggravated form of quinsy, proving fatal to many
in one day. The sick were taken with vomiting, followed by a swelling
of the tongue,--afterwards loss of speech and difficulty of swallowing
anything, even in a liquid form; suffocation and death soon followed.
A.D. 1566, a pestilence began at Comorra, called in Latin
‘Morbus Hungaricus’ and ‘Lues Pannonica.’ The Emperor Maximilian’s
army, while carrying on hostilities against the Turks, lost many
thousands by this disease. The symptoms were as follow:
It began generally in the latter part of the day, towards evening,
with cold shiverings, succeeded in a short time by great heat and
insatiable thirst, lasting for some hours. There was pain in the head
and stomach. On the second, or third day at furthest, delirium set in.
The tongue was dry and black; the teeth were covered with sordes: some
spit blood; others suffered from diarrhœa. The sufferers generally were
covered with spots like flea-bites, chiefly on the breast. Stoppage
of the urine was considered a fatal sign. A similar spotted fever was
also prevalent at Paris the year following, 1567, carrying off great
numbers; it raged in many parts of Europe, continuing for three years:
it subsequently degenerated into a dreadful pestilence--the true
plague, and prevailed for the four following years.
A.D. 1568, Seville was visited by epidemic pestilence. Dr.
Andres Zamudio de Alfaro wrote a treatise on this malady, as did also
Francisco Franco, a native of Xativa, in the kingdom of Valencia,
physician to his Serene Highness the King of Portugal. Franco in his
work, alluding to the celebrated poet Ausias March, whose work he says
should be written in letters of gold, quotes the following therefrom:
“Merge scient no te locas per joch
Com la calor no surt à part estrema
Lignorant veu que lo malat no crema
He jutial sa puix que mostra bon toch,
Lo pacient no podra dir son mal
Tot aflebit ab llengua mal diserta
Gest è color asats fan descuberta
Gart de la fan que tant com lo dir val.”
During this year, 1568, the sea broke down the dykes, and almost all
Friesland was under water. Seventy-two villages were inundated, and
more than 20,000 persons lost their lives. Pestilence ensued.
A.D. 1570, epidemic pestilence was prevalent all over Spain;
it was similar to the maladies which prevailed some years previously,
and were called ‘febris diaria,’ and another, called sudorific fever,
of which Luis de Torro speaks: “Nonne pestilens aliquando diaria et
nostris diebus quædam appellata sudorifica visæ sunt, quarum nec
nomen quidam prisci audierunt?” It was carried to America through our
commercial intercourse, and prevailed with great mortality in the
city of Mexico. Dr. Francesco Bravo, a native of Ossuna, a celebrated
physician, wrote an extensive work on this subject, entitled ‘Opera
medicinalia’ in quibus quam plurima extant scitu medico necessaria,’
in quatuor libros digesta,’ which he dedicated to Don Martin Enriquez.
During this year, A.D. 1570, epidemic pestilences in the shape
of measles, erysipelas, malignant fever, &c., prevailed in various
parts of the world. 400,000 persons were drowned in Holland by the
inundation caused by the breaking down of the dykes. In Poland the
plague, and in Basle a malignant fever, were especially fatal.
A.D. 1572, the city of Augusta de Alemania was visited by a
pestilence, as recorded by Agricola. Dresden suffered from plague.
A.D. 1574, a remarkable aurora borealis was observed on the
14th of November. Pestilence, causing great mortality, prevailed in
various parts of Spain and Italy; and during the months of September,
October, and November of the same year, epidemic disease was rife
in London: it continued during the following year, and prevailed in
Verona, Venice, Africa, the Levant, and in Egypt: it persisted for
three years, until 1577. In the latter year, pestilence occurred at
Oxford, owing to some prisoners having been brought for trial in a
filthy state, from the foul condition of the cells: a stench arose,
which was supposed to have emanated from their persons. Some of the
judges and justices, among whom was Robert Bell, Lord Chief Baron,
and many of the jurors, with the high sheriff, died; and from the
6th to the 12th of July it is reported that 510 persons died from
the infection: it was termed in consequence ‘the black assizes.’ The
symptoms were described as consisting of a violent pain in the head,
with delirium; distress in the abdomen, and general prostration of
strength. Some were of opinion that this disease was generated by the
confinement of the prisoners, and that although they themselves did not
suffer from it, they communicated it to others by contagion: others
were of opinion that the disease was not in any way contagious.
The Court was held in a yard of the castle, a short distance from the
river Isis, the banks of which are low. It is recorded that a great
damp breath or fog existed at the time, the weather being excessively
hot and sultry. The physicians could not give the disease a name:
although it did not appear to them to be the true plague, it was as
destructive as that pestilence generally is.
A.D. 1579, the summer was moist and rainy, and was succeeded
by a cold dry north wind; the winter was open and chilly. An epidemic
catarrh pervaded all Europe: it began in Sicily, and showed itself
in Italy, Venice, and Constantinople: it infected Hungary, Bohemia,
and Saxony, and it afterwards prevailed in Norway, and raged in
Sweden, Poland, and Russia. The symptoms were, violent fever for some
days,--four or five generally,--with pains in the head and chest,
and severe cough, terminating in profuse perspiration. 4000 persons
died of it in Rome, 8000 in Lubeck, and 3000 in Hamburgh; and great
numbers were carried off in other places by epidemic pestilence.
Whilst this fatal catarrh ravaged Europe, one of the most destructive
plagues ever known began at Grand Cairo. Prosper Alpinus reports the
deaths from November, 1580, to July in the following year,--a period
of eight months,--to have amounted to 500,000. It has frequently been
observed that epidemic anginas, catarrhs, measles, &c., generally
precede great and destructive plagues or pestilences,--a fact that
has been frequently noticed in our day. The terrible pestilence
cholera, of 1817 and subsequent years, was preceded by influenza,
&c. For the constitution of the seasons, by which these diseases are
caused, becomes increased in its malignancy and powers by the repeated
accumulation of the peculiar poison, and it consequently induces
the highest gradation of disease, pestilence, or plague,--all these
distempers being essentially similar, differing in appearance only, as
modified by climate, season, &c., and also by the duration and energy
of various efficient causes. This year the plague raged at Marseilles.
A.D. 1580, a comet was seen. In the month of August, epidemic
catarrh broke out in Spain, and raged with such violence at Madrid,
that it almost depopulated the city. Variola prevailed principally
amongst children, to whom it was fatal in the city of Seville. The year
following, this city suffered from plague.
A.D. 1582, epidemic pestilence prevailed in various parts
of Spain; Cadiz suffered greatly. Dr. Juan de Carmona, a celebrated
physician and philosopher, wrote a work on the disease, entitled
‘Tractatus de Peste ac Febribus cum puncticulis, _vulgò_
tabardillo.’ In this work, which was dedicated to the Inquisitorial
Tribunal of Llerena, the author endeavoured to show that the
puncticular fever was unknown to the ancients, and that bleeding from
the arm was of great service in pestilential fevers: he states that
by this method he treated more than 10,000 persons, and always with
fortunate results, provided the practice was not contra-indicated by
the presence of buboes, carbuncles, and menstrual or hemorrhoidal
fluxes; he did not find the celebrated bezoar stone so efficacious as
it was represented to be, although it was in great repute amongst the
practitioners of Seville and other parts.
A.D. 1582, an earthquake was felt at Peru for 500 leagues,
some time after the city of Arequipa was overthrown. Pestilence
continued to prevail in various provinces of Spain the following year,
1583, with carbuncles, anginas, &c. Francisco Valles speaks of leprosy
in his work entitled ‘De iis quæ scripta sunt phisice in libris sacris,
sive de sacra philosophia.’ Plague, famine, and war destroyed numbers,
this year, in Flanders, and epidemic pestilence ravaged Moravia, and
was rife in London, Germany, and Holland. Egypt and Rome also suffered
from famine and disease.
A.D. 1585 and 1586, the winters were severe, and the summers
dry and hot; famine ensued; universal catarrh with general pestilence
followed, and prevailed all over Europe. The plague raged at Narva
and Revel, in Livonia, in the Gulf of Finland, 59° of north latitude:
6000 persons died at Revel. Thuanus considered that the disease arose
from the effects of war and the inclemencies of the weather--“a belli
incommoditationibus et cœli inclementiâ.” In the archbishopric of
Toledo small-pox broke out: the disease was remarkable, inasmuch as
almost all who were attacked were old persons, according to Andres de
Leon; ‘en su practico de morbo Gallico.’ Plague raged in Dresden in
both these years. On the 9th of July in the latter year, 1586, a severe
earthquake was felt, which shook Lima, and ran 170 leagues along the
coast, and 50 leagues across the mountainous parts.
A.D. 1587, epidemic small-pox broke out in the city of
Madrid: 5000 persons and upwards died of it in a short time. The two
following years, 1588 and 1589, a pestilence, similar to that of 1583,
appeared, and lasted three years: it committed frightful devastation in
Seville and its neighbourhood. In the latter year, plague prevailed in
Barcelona, and lasted from June to December; it was supposed to have
been imported from France.
A.D. 1590. A comet was seen this year during the reign
of Philip II. The city of Valladolid was attacked with petechial
pestilence. The celebrated Francisco Valles de Covarrubias depended
principally on local depletion by means of cupping-glasses for its
treatment. A dispute arose this year among the Italian physicians as
to the virtue of blisters in the treatment of the plague which was
prevailing there.
During the summer of 1592 the drought was extreme, and the autumn was
sultry and variable. The river Thames was fordable at London, and
epidemic pestilence destroyed 18,000 persons in that city. Various
other parts of England also suffered from it, especially Shropshire,
where it was very fatal. The city of Dresden suffered from plague in
this and the preceding year, 1591.
A.D. 1593, the island of Malta was ravaged by plague: the
year following, the city of Seville was visited by pestilence, which,
according to the authority of Rosell and Bezon, lasted for the four
consecutive years, 1594–97. Pestilence was also rife in many provinces
of Spain, especially in the year 1596. A comet was observed.
Malignant fevers prevailed in England about these periods, and London
was devastated by pestilence in 1599, as was also Lichfield, Leicester,
Kendal, Carlisle, Penrith, and Richmond. Pegu, in Asia, was nearly
depopulated the same year by famine and disease. Constantinople
suffered from pestilence: seventeen princesses, sisters of the Sultan
Mahommed, were carried off, three dying in one day. A mortal pestilence
destroyed much cattle in Italy, and plague carried off 70,000 of the
inhabitants of Lisbon and Spain.
A.D. 1600 and 1602, great numbers perished in Muscovy; it is
recorded that 500,000 died of famine and plague, and in Livonia 30,000
are said to have been carried off. In the latter year, 1602, the summer
and winter were cold and dry. Catarrh and acute fevers epidemically
scourged the human race; great famine prevailed for a series of years,
the crops having failed for several years successively. In Muscovy
the plague raged for three years; parents devoured their children;
and cats, rats, dogs, &c., were also used for food: all the ties of
nature seem to have been forgotten during this dreadful suffering;
the powerful overcame the weak, and human flesh was exposed for sale
in the shambles in the markets. Multitudes were found dead with their
mouths filled with straw and other filthy substances. Sacred history
affords us similar examples of wretchedness,--parents devouring their
children (2 Kings vi.); it occurred during the siege of Samaria by
Ben-hadad, king of Syria, (verses 28, 29,) “And the king said unto her,
What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy
son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow. So
we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day,
Give thy son, that we may eat him; and she hath hid her son.” Similar
disasters happened at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezekiel
v. 10).
About this period, 1600, the city of Granada was visited by
pestilential epidemics, which were very fatal; Fernando Bustos
gives an account of them. Gallicia suffered from epidemic
small-pox.--A.D. 1601, plague visited the city of Seville;
it carried off many of the higher classes.--A.D. 1602, in
the middle of March, pestilence broke out in the city of Jaen; the
principal symptoms were those of the true plague, attended by buboes
and glandular swellings: this pestilence soon extended to Seville,
Madrid, Valladolid, Burgos, Saragossa, Toledo, Cordova, Malaga, Velez,
Ecija, Antequera, Granada, Andujar, and to other places.
A.D. 1603, plague prevailed in England; 36,000 of the
inhabitants of London perished by it. A similar pestilence raged at
Paris, continuing for three or four years, and carrying off weekly 2000
persons during some portion of that time. This pestilence was supposed
by the physicians to have been imported into London, notwithstanding
the inclement seasons, and the famine and disease amongst the
cattle, dumb animals, and even among dogs. The year following, 1604,
the puncticular fever extended and raged with great violence all
over Spain, attacking old and young; none escaping. A.D.
1605, various parts of Spain were afflicted by epidemic pestilence,
especially Arbucias, where it was very fatal.
A.D. 1606. Epidemic pestilence prevailed all over Europe this
year, and continued for some years after; it extended to America,
where it attacked the company of emigrants taken out by George Popham,
who were settled at a place in America called Sagadahoe, a patent
having been granted by King James to some London merchants to form a
settlement there. Hutchison, Purchas, and Gorges, in their histories
of New England and Massachusetts, describe this unfortunate adventure.
Various provinces in Spain suffered from bubonic pestilence, which
was remarkable as having been confined principally to children; great
mortality from it occurred at Barcelona.
It was about this time that a mortal pestilence broke out in the fleet
of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, who were on their way
to Virginia in America. It was a spotted fever, with yellowness of
the skin, attended by bilious vomiting, hemorrhages, &c.,--symptoms
which characterize yellow fever in the present day. It raged with an
intensity equal to the true plague: it was preceded by bad weather
and gales of wind lasting four days, which, with the crowded state of
the ships, was sufficient to account for all their sufferings. The
vessel in which Sir George Somers embarked was wrecked on the island of
Bermuda, where Sir George died of the pestilence. The weather during
this period was very inclement in England: heavy rains and inundations
of the Severn deluged the country round about Bristol: epidemic
pestilence soon after followed in Somersetshire and Norfolk. A comet
was seen this year.
A.D. 1609, in the month of July, pestilence broke out in the
cities of Citaro, Potraso, Castelnuovo, Padua, and other places of
Venice and Albania,--in fact, throughout the entire jurisdiction of
Ragusa. In August, the pestilence extended to Seville.
A.D. 1610, plague showed itself in the suburbs of the city
of Granada, to which place it soon extended, causing great mortality.
The year following, it prevailed in various parts of Spain, and
Constantinople suffered awfully from pestilence about the same time;
it carried off 200,000 of the inhabitants. “Such clouds, or swarms, of
grasshoppers,” says Short, “so plagued their city and country about,
that they darkened the sun, and left not any green herb or leaf in all
the country; they entered the bedchambers; they were nearly as large
as dormice, and had red wings.” The year following, 1611, Goelenius
writes, in his account of the plague which raged at Hesse and other
parts of Germany, followed by a great pestilence among pigs and cattle
in 1612, that a sudden and amazing quantity of spiders appeared; swarms
of locusts laid waste the vegetable kingdom in Provence, tempests
destroyed great numbers of shipping at sea, many dead bodies were
drifted on the English shores as also on the shores of Holland, and
a province, under the dominion of France, was nearly destroyed by
inundation. The summer in England was hot and dry, and malignant fevers
carried off great numbers.
A.D. 1613, epidemic pestilence occurred in various parts of
France; and in Montpelier there was a malignant fever, with livid spots
and carbuncles. Riverius states, that one-third of those who were
attacked with it died. At Lausanne, where pestilence raged with great
violence, there was such an abundance of flies as was never remembered
to have occurred previously,--“tanta ubique fuit muscarum copia, ut
post hominum memoriam vix similis visa fuerit.” (Hildanus.) Pestilence
also raged at Constantinople, where the physicians, supposing that
the cats spread the contagion, advised the Emperor, Achmet I., to
transport them to the desert island of Scutari. Spain, this year,
suffered from malignant sore-throat, which raged with such severity,
that it was considered to have been more fatal than in the year of the
_garratillos_ (quinsy). The year following, the winter was very
severe, the summer cold and wet, and the autumn variable. The most
deadly small-pox laid waste Crete, Alexandria, Calabria, Turkey, Italy,
Dalmatia, Venice, Germany, France, Poland, Flanders, Persia, and Asia;
it prevailed also, with great severity, in England. In some of these
countries, measles was also prevalent. The mortality from the natural
small-pox, at that period, equalled in fatality the plague in its worst
form. About this period, water was first brought by means of the New
River to London by Sir Hugh Middleton.