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
All the Dogs and Cats that are killed, lye putrifying every where among
the dead Bodies, the Sick, and the infected Cloaths; all the Port is
filled with those thrown into them; and while they float, they add
their Stench to the general Infection, which has spread all over the
Town, and preys upon the Vitals, the Senses, and the Mind.
Those one meets in the Street, are generally livid and drooping, as if
their Souls had begun to part from their Bodies; or whom the Violence
of the Distemper has made delirious, who, wandring about they know not
whither, as long as they can keep on their Legs, soon drop, through
Weakness; and, unable to get up again, expire on the Spot; some writhed
into strange Postures, denoting the torturing Venom which struck them
to the Heart; others are agitated by such Disorders of Mind, that they
cut their own Throats, or leap into the Sea, or throw themselves out
of the Windows, to put an End to their Misery, and prevent the Death
which was not far off. Nothing is to be heard or seen on all Sides but
Distress, Lamentation, Tears, Sighs, Groans, Affright, Despair.
To conceive so many Horrors, one must figure to one's self, in one
View, all the Miseries and Calamities that Human Nature is subject to;
and one cannot venture to draw near such a Scene, without being struck
dead, or seiz'd with unutterable Horrors of Mind.
The 30th, those Heaps of dead Bodies which are in every Quarter of the
City, are increas'd by new ones; every Night adds a thousand Dead; and
now none of the Slaves are left to work, they are all dead, or sick of
the Distemper; nor can more be demanded, after the Protestation made by
the Officers of the Gallies.
What can be done in Circumstances so full of Desolation? The Sheriffs
have Recourse, as usual, to the First President, and intreat him
to dispatch a Courier for them to the Court, to sollicit his Royal
Highness to send Orders for their being supplied with as many
Galley-Slaves as they shall have occasion for: They desire him also to
write to M. _de Rancé_ and _de Vaucresson_, to persuade them to grant,
in the mean while, at least a Hundred.
The 31st, it is impossible for the Hospitals to receive the Number of
Sick who crowd thither: As soon as one Person in a House is seized with
the Distemper, that Person becomes an Object of Horror and Affright to
the nearest Relations; Nature instantly forgets all ordinary Duties;
and the Bands of Flesh and Blood being less strong than the Fear of
certain Death, shamefully dissolve in an Instant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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