My residence in this town, after visiting Olbera, was short and
unpleasant. The yellow-fever, which had some months before appeared
at Cadiz, began to show itself in our large suburb of Triana, on the
other side of the Guadalquivir. As no measures were taken to prevent
communication with Cadiz, it is supposed that the infection was
brought by some of the numerous seafaring people that inhabit the
vicinity of the river. The progress of the malady was slow at first,
and confined to one side of the street where it began. Meetings of
all the physicians were convened by the chief magistrates, who,
though extremely arbitrary in matters of daily occurrence, are,
in Spain, very timid and dilatory on any extraordinary emergency.
Unconscious of the impending danger, the people flocked to these
meetings to amuse themselves at the expense of our doctors, who are
notoriously quarrelsome and abusive when pitted against each other.
A few of the most enlightened among them ventured to declare that
the fever was infectious; but their voice was drowned in the clamour
of a large majority who wished to indulge the stupid confidence of
the inhabitants. The disease in the mean time crossed the river; and
following the direction of the street where it originally appeared
at Triana--now quite overrun by the infection--began its ravages
within the ancient walls of our town. It was already high time to
take alarm, and symptoms of it were shewn by the chief authorities.
Their measures, however, cannot fail to strike you as perfectly
original. No separation of the infected from the healthy part of the
town: no arrangement for confining and relieving the sick poor. The
governor who, by such means, had succeeded in stopping the progress
of the fever would have been called to account for the severity of
his measures, and his success against the infection turned into a
demonstration that it never existed. Anxious, therefore, to avoid
every questionable step in circumstances of such magnitude, the civil
authorities wisely resolved to make an application to the archbishop
and chapter, for the solemn prayers called _Rogativas_, which are
used in times of public affliction. This request being granted
without delay, the _Rogativa_ was performed at the cathedral for nine
consecutive days, after sunset.
The gloom of that magnificent temple, scarcely broken by the light of
six candles on the high altar, and the glimmering of the lamps in the
aisles, combined with the deep and plaintive tones of forty singers
chanting the penitential psalms, impressed the throng of supplicants
with the strongest feelings, which superstition can graft upon fear
and distress.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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