A brief Journal of what passed in the City of Marseilles, while it was afflicted with the Plague, in the Year 1720Pichatty de Croislainte
History
A brief Journal of what passed in the City of Marseilles, while it was afflicted with the Plague, in the Year 1720
Pichatty de Croislainte
Plague -- France -- Marseille -- Early works to 1800
As the Number of Slaves employed to take them out of the Houses, is
very insufficient to be able to carry all off daily, some frequently
remain there whole Weeks; and there would remain longer, if the Stench
they emit, which poisons the Neighbours, did not compel them for their
own Preservation, to overcome all Aversion to such horrid Work, and go
into the Apartments where they lye, to drag them down into the Streets:
They pull them out with Hooks, and hawl them by Ropes fastened to the
Staves of those Hooks into the Streets: This they do in the Night, that
they may draw them to some Distance from their own Houses; they leave
them extended before another's Door, who at opening it the next Morning
is frighted at the Sight of such an Object, which generally infects
him, and gives him Death.
The Ring, and all publick Walks, Squares, and Market-Places, the Key of
the Port, are spread with dead Bodies, some lying in Heaps: The Square
before the Building called the _Loge_, and the Pallisades of the Port,
are filled with the continual Number of dead Bodies that are brought
ashore from the Ships and Vessels, which are crowded with Families,
whom Fear induced to take Refuge there, in a false Persuasion, that the
Plague would not reach them upon the Water.
Under every Tree in the Ring and the Walks, under every Pent-House
of the Shops in the Streets and on the Port, one sees among the Dead
a prodigious Number of poor Sick, and even whole Families, lying on
a little Straw, or on ragged Mattresses; some are in a languishing
Condition, to be relieved only by Death; others are light-headed by the
Force of the Venom which rages in them: They implore the Assistance
of those who pass by; some in pitiful Complaints, some in Groans and
Out-cries which Pain or Frenzy draw from them. An intolerable Stink
exhales from among them: They not only endure the Effects of the
Distemper, but suffer equally by the publick Want of Food and common
Necessaries: They dye under the Rags that cover them, and every Moment
adds to the Number of the Dead that lye about them. It rends the Heart,
to behold on the Pavement so many wretched Mothers, who have lying by
their Sides the dead Bodies of their Children, whom they have seen
expire, without being able to give them any Relief; and so many poor
Infants still hanging at the Breasts of their Mothers, who died holding
them in their Arms, sucking in the rest of that Venom which will soon
put them into the same Condition.
If any Space be yet left in the Streets, it is filled with infected
Houshold-Goods and Cloaths, which are thrown out of the Windows every
where; so that one cannot find a void Place to set one's Foot in.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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