Chapter XXVII: Letter XIX (1)

_Journey from Santa Cruz to Mogodor, when no Travellers ventured to
pass, owing to civil War and Contention among the Kabyles.--Moorish
Philanthropy in digging Wells for the Use of Travellers.--Travelled
with a trusty Guide without Provisions, Tents, Baggage, or
Incumbrances.--Nature of the Warfare in the Land. Bitter Effects of
Revenge and Retaliation on the Happiness of Society.--Origin of
these civil Wars between the Families and Kabyles.--Presented with
Honey and Butter for Breakfast.--Patriarchal Manner of living among
the Shelluhs compared to that of Abraham.--Aromatic
Honey.--Ceremony at Meals, and Mode of eating.--Travelled all
Night, and slept in the open Air;--Method of avoiding the
Night-dew, as practised by the Natives.--Arrival at Mogodor_.

TO THE SAME.

Santa Cruz, April 7, 1795.

The province of Haha was in arms; caffilahs, and travellers could
not pass; but it was expedient that I should go to Mogodor. Men of
property in this country, influenced by a philanthropic spirit,
often expend large sums in digging wells in districts, through
which caffilahs pass, on their road from one country to another. I
knew one of these philanthropists who was at Santa Cruz, and who
had recently benefited the province of Haha, by having dug a well
151 in the Kabyl of Benitamer, a mountainous district in Haha; I sent
for him, and as he was under obligations to me for various services
I had rendered to him and his family, he consented to accompany me
to Mogodor, through the disturbed province of Haha; and he assured
me, that his influence throughout that province was such, that, by
travelling quick, and without any baggage, tents, or incumbrances,
he did not doubt of conducting me safe to Mogodor. I agreed to go
with him, without servants, tents, or bedding, being determined to
reconcile myself, under present circumstances, to the accommodation
the country might afford. We started from Santa Cruz at sun-set;
travelling through Tamaract, to the river Beni Tamur. We continued
our journey till we arrived, at the dawn of day, at the foot of
immense high mountains, called Idiaugomoron. Here my companion and
guide L'Hage Muhamed bu Zurrawel, pointed out to me two castellated
houses, about two miles distant from each other; the
family-quarrels of these people had produced such animosity, that
the inhabitants of neither house could with safety go out, for fear
of being overpowered and killed by those of the other; so that
wherever they went, they were well armed, but dared not go far.
These two families were preparing for a siege, which often happens
in this province. Thus the inhabitants of one house attack another,
and sometimes exterminate or put to death the whole family, with
their retainers. The province of Haha was thus in a state of the
152 most lamentable civil war, originating from these family-quarrels
and domestic feuds. The heathen and anti-christian principle of
revenge and retaliation, is here pursued with such bitter and
obstinate animosity, that I have known instances of men
relinquishing their vocation, to go into a far country to revenge
the blood of a relation after a lapse of twenty years, and pursue
the object of his revenge, for some murder committed in his family,
perhaps forty or fifty years before.

To a British public, blessed with the benign influences of the
Christian doctrine, it is perhaps necessary that I should elucidate
this retaliative doctrine by an example:--Two men quarrel, and
fight; they draw their kumäyas (curved daggers about 12 inches
long), which all the people of Haha wear, as well as all the clans
or kabyles of Shelluhs; and if one happens to give his antagonist a
_deadly_ wound, it becomes an indispensable duty in the next of kin
to the person killed or murdered, (though perhaps it can hardly be
termed a murder, as it is not committed, like an European duel, in
cold blood, but in the moment of irritation, and at a period when
the mind is under the influence of anger,) to seek his revenge by
watching an opportunity to kill the survivor in the contest. If the
former should die, his next of kin takes his place, and pursues his
enemy, whose life is never safe; insomuch that, whole kabyles, when
this deadly animosity has reached its acme, have been known to quit
153 their country and emigrate into the Sahara; for when the second
death has been inflicted, it then becomes the incumbent duty of the
next of kin of the deceased to seek his revenge: they call this
justifying blood. This horrible custom has the most lamentable
influence on the happiness of human life; for there will sometimes
be several individuals seeking the life of one man, till this
principle, pervading all the ramifications of relationship and
consanguinity, produces family-broils, hostility, and murder, _ad
infinitum!!_ We stopped at a friend of L'Hage Muhamed, who
presented us with honey and butter, thin shavings of the latter
being let to fall into a bowl of honey for breakfast. This bowl was
served up with flat cakes kneaded without leaven, and baked on hot
stones; these are converted from corn into food in less than half
an hour; they are in shape similar to our crumpets or pancakes. We
were pressed by this Shelluh to stay and dine with him, which being
agreed to, he sent a shepherd to his flock to kill a fat young kid,
which was roasted with a wooden spit, before the vital heat had
subsided, which was very tender, and of an exquisite flavour. The
bread or cakes above described appear to be similar to what the
women kneaded for the guests in the patriarchal ages: indeed, the
customs of these people, as well as those of the Arabs, is
precisely the same as they were in the patriarchal ages, and which
are delineated in the 18th chapter of Genesis, 1st to the 8th
verse.
154
The honey of this province is very fine: it has an aromatic
flavour, derived from the wild thyme and other aromatic herbs on
which the bees feed. Among these people every meal is preceded with
a washing of their hands with water, which is brought round for the
purpose in a brass pan; each guest dips his right hand in the pan,
and a napkin is presented to wipe them; they then break the bread,
and, after saying grace, which is universally this,--_bismillah_,
i.e. "in the name of God," each guest takes a bit of bread, dips it
in the honey and butter, and eats it. It is reckoned uncourteous or
vulgar to bite the bread; therefore the piece broken off is
sufficient for a mouthful, so that there is nothing that should
offend a delicate appetite in this antique mode of eating. We
remained several hours with our hospitable Shelluh friend; and we
departed, after taking a little sleep, at four o'clock in the
afternoon. Travelling all night, we arrived, at the dawn of day, at
a large house in Idaugourd; the Shelluh to whom it belonged brought
us carpets, and we slept under the wall of his house till the sun
arose. The people of this country prefer sleeping in the open air
to a room, and they have an excellent mode of securing themselves
from the heavy dews of the night, by covering their heads and faces
with a thin woollen hayk or garment, which they throw over their
heads and faces. When I have had the Arabs of Sahara (who have
conducted the caffilahs from Timbuctoo) at my house at Santa Cruz,
155 I gave them a long narrow room, 48 feet long, which was called
(_beet assuda_) the apartment of Sudan, to sleep in; but they
invariably came out at night, and placed their carpets and mats, as
beds, outside of the room, and slept under the balustrade, in
preference to the confinement, as they called it, of a room.

We rose at sun-rise, passed through the picturesque district of
Idaugourd and the Woolja, and entered Mogodor at four o'clock, P.M.
156

AN ACCOUNT
OF THE
RISE, PROGRESS, AND DECREASE
OF
THE PLAGUE
_That ravaged Barbary in_ 1799;
FAITHFULLY EXTRACTED FROM
LETTERS WRITTEN BY THE HOUSE OF JAMES JACKSON
AND CO., OR BY JAMES G. JACKSON,
MERCHANTS AT MOGODOR,
TO THEIR CORRESPONDENTS IN EUROPE, DURING THE
EPIDEMY.

* * * * *

_Fragments respecting the Plague_.

When the Emperor's army proceeded from Fas to Marocco in the summer
of 1799, a detachment of which passed by Mogodor, consisting of
20,000 horse and 10,000 foot, it had the plague with it; so that,
wherever it passed, the plague uniformly appeared three days after
its arrival at the respective douars near which it encamped; those
who died were buried in the tents, and the people of the provinces
knew little about it.

A large _akkaba_[122], consisting of upwards of 1700 camels,
157 arrived 23d August, 1799, at Akka from Timbuctoo, laden with
gum-sudan, ostrich-feathers, and gold dust, which had brought also
many slaves; this _akkaba_ had deposited its merchandize at Akka,
till the plague should disappear and the country become healthy; as
the people of that territory, unlike Muhamedans in general, will
hold no communication with the infected, nor will they admit any
one from these parts.

[Footnote 122: An _akkaba_ is an accumulated caravan.]

Mogodor, April 31, 1799.

A violent fever now rages at Fas: some assert it to be the plague,
but that is Moorish report, and little to be depended on; the
European consuls at Tangier, and the Spanish ambassador, who,
having terminated his embassy, has lately left Mequinas, mention it
as an epidemical disorder.

May 20. The small-pox rages violently throughout this country, and
is of a most virulent kind: its origin is ascribed to the famine
that has of late pervaded this country, and which was produced by
the incredible devastation of the devouring locusts; the dregs of
olives, after the oil had been extracted, has been the only food
that could be procured by many thousands.

Mogodor, June 14, 1799.

Various reports reach us daily from _the city of Marocco_,
respecting the epidemy that prevails there, some say 200 die, some
158 say 100, others limit the daily mortality to 50, in a population,
according to the imperial register, of 270,000.

When any _light_ rain falls, as is the case at Marocco at this
season of the year, the mortality increases. Mr. Francisco Chiappe,
an Italian merchant, is just arrived from Marocco, and is
performing quarantine, by his own desire, at the Emperor's
garden.[123] This gentleman reports, that the greater portion of
the people die of fear, from hunger, or bad food, or from the
small-pox, which latter has raged at Marocco the last month or two;
but he had not been able to ascertain, so various were the reports,
whether it was the plague or not. The emperor's army, a division of
which passed through this country, and encamped at the river, about
two miles south of this port, had the distemper with it. We have
been assured, that the soldiers who died, were immediately buried
within the tents, so that, by this stratagem, the mortality was not
perceived by the public; it was apprehended that, if the mortality
were known, the kabyls, through which the army passed from Mequinas
to Marocco, would not have supplied the troops with provision. This
detachment consisted of 20,000 horse and 10,000 foot. No disorder
has yet appeared here, nor in the adjacent provinces of Shedma and
Haha.

[Footnote 123: A garden in the province of Haha, five miles
from Mogodor, that was presented to the European merchants by
the late sultan, Seedy Muhamed ben Abdallah.]
159
July 5. We dispatched the Spanish brig yesterday; but she is still
at anchor in the road, waiting for passengers, who fly from hence
with precipitation, from fear of the fever or plague, which
prevails at Fas and at Marocco, and which, it is reported, has made
its appearance at the port of Saffy. We have, however, nothing of
the kind here yet, though we expect we shall not escape the general
scourge.

July 13. The epidemy in the interior provinces has greatly
augmented, insomuch, that the demand for linen to bury the dead
rapidly increases, and the stock is almost exhausted. This article
has risen to an unprecedented price. All the relatives of L'Hage
Abdallah have fallen victims to the epidemy. This gentleman is
consequently in possession of very considerable property; and (if
he be not also carried off) there will be no fear of our recovering
the debt he owes you.

We cannot ascertain if the disorder prevails in the outer town, and
in the Jews' quarter, or not; it is certain, however, that eight or
ten die daily of the small-pox, and as many more of fevers and
other disorders, as report proclaims.

July 25. We are so much engaged in making arrangements against the
epidemy, which is now confidently reported to us to be the plague,
of a most deadly species, that we have only time to refer you to
the captain of the Aurora, to whom we have communicated every
160 particular, and who is extremely anxious to be off for England. The
deaths in this town, which contained a population of 10,000,
according to the imperial register, are from forty to fifty each
day.

Aug. 1. As the plague now rages violently here, no one thinks of
business or the affairs of this world; but each individual
anticipates that he will be next called away. I send the inclosed,
to be forwarded to Mr. Andrea de Christo, at Amsterdam, to announce
to him the sudden death of his partner, Mr. J. Pacifico, who is
lately dead of the plague. I paid him a visit a few hours before
his death; I met there Don Pedro de Victoria, who was smoking a
segar; he offered me one, and urged me to smoke it. I believe that
the smoke of tobacco is anti-pestilential; this, added to the
precaution of avoiding contact, and inhalation of the breath of the
person infected, appears to be quite sufficient to secure a person
from infection.

Aug. 1. (Translation of a letter to Mr. Andrea de Christi, merchant
at Amsterdam.) We are sorry that the subject of this letter is so
melancholy. All our domestics have left us; the plague rages so
violently here, that the daily mortality is from sixty to seventy,
among which we are sorry to announce the death of your partner, Mr.
J. Pacifico, who died two days since.

August 23. The best gum is selling at Akka for six dollars a
quintal: they will not bring it here, fearing the infection. A
161 large Brazil ship has been wrecked off Cape Noon, her cargo,
consisting for the most part of silks and linens, is estimated at
half a million of dollars. The Arabs of Sahara convert the most
beautiful lace into bridles for their horses, by twisting it; and
superior silk stockings are selling at Wedinoon at a dollar per
dozen pair. The plague is rapidly diminishing from 100 deaths to 20
or 30 per day. Meeman Corcoes is dead, as well as most of the
principal tradesmen of Marocco and Fas; whole families have been
swept off, and there is none left to inherit their property.
Immense droves of horses, mules, and cattle of every description
stray in the plains without owners.

September 5. The plague continues to decrease; and in another month
we expect to be quite free from it. Signor Conton died this morning
of the epidemy; yesterday afternoon he was apparently quite well,
and paid me a visit. He wished me to shake hands with him, which I
declined, alleging as an excuse, that I would dispense with that
custom till the plague should pass over. He drank a glass of wine,
and appeared cheerful and in good health. I have had fixed in my
dining room, a table that extends from one end to the other. I walk
or sit on one side of the table, my visitors on the other. I am
only cautious to avoid personal contact. All the houses of the
other merchants are closely barricaded or bolted. A fumigating pot
162 of gum sandrac stands at the entrance of my house, continually
burning, which diffuses an agreeable perfume, but is not, as I
apprehend, an antidote to the epidemy.

October 1. We have to apprise you of the decease of L'Hage Abdallah
El Hareishy, most of whose relations are dead. His brother is the
only one of the family besides himself that remains: he has
inherited considerable property, and thence will be enabled to pay
your bill on him in our favour.

October 29. The plague appears to have ceased in this town. All the
merchants have opened their houses; but the disorder continues in
the provinces, from whence there is little or no communication with
the town. The kabyls seem to be wholly engaged in burying their
dead, in arranging the affairs of their respective families, in
dividing the property inherited by them, and in administering
consolation to the sick.

Nov. 11. The plague having committed incalculable ravages
throughout this country, had put a stop to all commerce, which now
begins to revive, in proportion as that calamity subsides. Linens
are selling to great advantage, a cargo would now render 60 per
cent. profit, clear of all charges.

Nov. 29. The deadly epidemy that has lately visited us, and which
163 at one period carried off above 100 each day, has now confined its
daily mortality to two or three; some days none. When, however, the
Arabs of Shedma, and the Shelluhs of Haha come to town, and bring
the clothes of their deceased relations for sale, the epidemy
increases to three, four, and five a day; then, in three or four
days, it declines again to its former number, one, two, or three.
We have reason to expect, that, before the vessels which we expect
from London shall arrive, the plague will have subsided entirely.

Mogodor, Dec. 12. 1799. The plague or mortality of this town is now
reduced to three or four weekly.

OBSERVATION.

After the plague had subsided, a murrain attacked the cattle, and
great numbers of all kinds died; so that they became reduced in the
same proportion as the race of man had been reduced before.

_Letter from His Excellency James M. Matra to Mr. Jackson_.

Gibraltar, 28th Oct. 1799.

Dear Jackson;

Within a few days of each other, I received your packets of the
164 21st of September, and 8th instant. Their inclosures are of course
taken care of. Your letter about Soke Assa was received, and sent
home to government ages ago.

I never could understand the drift of the people either at Tangier
or Mogodor, in asserting that my report of the plague was
political. God knows, that our politics in Barbary are never
remarkable for refinement: they are, if any thing, rather too much
in the John Bull style; and the finesse they gave me such credit
for, was absolutely beyond my comprehension, as I never could
discover what advantage a genuine well-established plague in
Barbary could be to our country. Of its existence I had not the
shadow of doubt, for more than eight months before it was talked
of; and when Doctor Bell was going that way, I begged of him to be
particular in his enquiries, which he, as usual, neglected. When
John Salmon[124] was up, he was _very particular_, and _I_ of
course was laughed at. _Here_ I saw politics, and told all the
gentlemen, that when Salmon[125] arrived at Tariffa, then, and not
till then, we should have the plague in Barbary; and just so it
turned out.

[Footnote 124: John Salmon was Spanish envoy to the emperor of
Marocco, and was at this time up at Fas, _i.e._ on his
embassy.]

[Footnote 125: Arrived at Tariffa, and so secured his admission
into Spain on his return from his embassy.]
165
I am confident, if my advice had been taken, the disease might have
been checked in the beginning; for it was almost three quarters of
a year confined to _old_ Fas. I wrote in the most pressing manner
to Ben Ottoman[126], who never believed me. A few days before he
was seized with it, he wrote me a melancholy letter for advice, and
pathetically lamented that he had not listened to me in time; and I
suppose that even Broussonet[127] believed me when he embarked. I
hope your opinion that it diminishes with you will prove well
founded; but I fear its ravages are only suspended by the great
heats; besides, you should recollect that people cannot die twice,
and with a population so diminished, you must not expect so many as
formerly on your daily dead-list. Mrs. M., who desires her
remembrance to you, is well, but barring plague, would rather be at
Tangier than Gibraltar; so would I.

Ever truly thine,

J. MATRA.

[Footnote 126: The emperor's prime-minister, or _talb cadus_ at
that time.]

[Footnote 127: Dr. Broussonet, French consul. This gentleman
was intendant of the botanical garden at Montpelier: he, with
another doctor embarked for Europe just as the plague began to
appear at Mogodor in the year 1799.]
166
_Some Account of a peculiar Species of Plague which depopulated
West Barbary in 1799 and 1800, and to the Effects of which the
Author was an eye-witness._

From various circumstances and appearances, and from the character
of the epidemical distemper which raged lately in the south of
Spain, there is every reason to suppose, it was similar to that
distemper or plague which depopulated West Barbary; for, whether we
call it by the more reconcileable appellation of the epidemy, or
yellow fever, it was undoubtedly a plague, and a most destructive
one; for wherever it prevailed, it invariably carried off, in a few
months, one-half, or one-third, of the population.

It does not appear how the plague originated in Fas in the year
1799.[128] Some persons, who were there at the time it broke out,
have confidently ascribed it to infected merchandise imported into
that place from the East; whilst others, of equal veracity and
judgment, have not scrupled to ascribe it to the locusts which had
infested West Barbary during the seven preceding years, the
destruction of which was followed by the (_jedrie_) small-pox,
167 which pervaded the country, and was generally fatal. The _jedrie_
is supposed to be the forerunner of this species of epidemy, as
appears by an ancient Arabic manuscript, which gives an account of
the same disorder having carried off two-thirds of the inhabitants
of West Barbary about four centuries since. But however this
destructive epidemy originated, its leading features were novel,
and its consequences more dreadful than the common plague of
Turkey, or that of Syria, or Egypt. Let every one freely declare
his own sentiments about it; let him assign any credible account of
its rise, or the causes that introduced so terrible a scene. I
shall relate only what its symptoms were, what it actually was, and
how it terminated, having been an eye-witness of its dreadful
effects, and having seen and visited many who were afflicted, and
who were dying with it.

[Footnote 128: See the Author's observations, in a letter to
Mr. Willis, in Gentleman's Magazine, February, 1805.]

In the month of April, 1799, a dreadful plague, of a most
destructive nature, manifested itself in the city of Old Fas, which
soon after communicated itself to the new city. This unparalleled
calamity, carried off one or two the first day, three or four the
second day, six or eight the third day, and increasing
progressively, until the mortality amounted to two in the hundred
of the aggregate population, continuing _with unabating violence_,
ten, fifteen, or twenty days; being of longer duration in old than
in new towns; then diminishing in a progressive proportion from one
168 thousand a day to nine hundred, then to eight hundred, and so on
until it disappeared. Whatever recourse was had to medicine and to
physicians was unavailing; so that such expedients were at length
totally relinquished, and the people, overpowered by this terrible
scourge, lost all hopes of surviving it.

Whilst it raged in the town of Mogodor, a small village, _Diabet_,
situated about two miles south-east of that place, remained
uninfected, although the communication was open between them: on
the _thirty-fourth day_, however, after its first appearance at
Mogodor, this village was discovered to be infected, and the
disorder raged with great violence, making dreadful havock among
the human species for _twenty-one_ days, carrying off, during that
period, one hundred persons out of one hundred and thirty-three,
the original population of the village, before the plague visited
it; none died after this, and those who were infected, recovered in
the course of a month or two, some losing an eye, or the use of a
leg or an arm.

Many similar circumstances might be here adduced relative to the
numerous and populous villages dispersed through the extensive
Shelluh province of Haha, all which shared a similar or a worse
fate. Travelling through this province shortly after the plague had
exhausted itself, I saw many uninhabited ruins, which I had before
witnessed as flourishing villages; on making enquiry concerning the
169 population of these dismal remains, I was informed that in one
village, which contained six hundred inhabitants, four persons only
had escaped the ravage. Other villages, which had contained four or
five hundred, had only seven or eight survivors left to relate the
calamities they had suffered. Families which had retired to the
country to avoid the infection, on returning to town, when all
infection had apparently ceased, were generally attacked, and died;
a singular instance of this kind happened at Mogodor, where, after
the mortality had subsided, a corps of troops arrived from the city
of Terodant, in the province of Suse, where the plague had been
raging, and had subsided; these troops, after remaining three days
at Mogodor, were attacked with the disease, and it raged
exclusively among them for about a month, during which it carried
off two-thirds of their original number, one hundred men; during
this interval the other inhabitants of the town were exempt from
the disorder, though these troops were not confined to any
particular quarter, many of them having had apartments in the
houses of the inhabitants of the town.

The destruction of the human species in the province of Suse was
considerably greater than elsewhere; Terodant, formerly the
metropolis of a kingdom, but now that of Suse, lost, when the
infection was at its acme, about eight hundred each day; the
170 ruined, but still extensive city of Marocco[129], lost one thousand
each day; the populous cities of Old and New Fas diminished in
population twelve or fifteen hundred each day[130], insomuch, that
in these extensive cities, the mortality was so great, that the
living having not time to bury the dead, the bodies were deposited
or thrown altogether into large holes, which, when nearly full,
were covered over with earth. All regulations in matters of
sepulture before observed were now no longer regarded; things
sacred and things prophane had now lost their distinction, and
universal despair pervaded mankind. Young, healthy, and robust
persons of full stamina, were, for the most part, attacked first,
then women and children, and lastly, thin, sickly, emaciated, and
old people.

[Footnote 129: I have been informed that there are still at
Marocco, apartments wherein the dead were placed; and that
after the whole family was swept away the doors were built up,
and remain so to this day.]

[Footnote 130: There died, during the whole of the above
periods, in the city of Marocco, 50,000; in Fas, 65,000; in
Mogodor, 4500; and in Saffy, 5000; in all 124,500 souls!]

After this violent and deadly calamity had subsided, we beheld a
general alteration in the fortunes and circumstances of men; we saw
persons who before the plague were common labourers, now in
possession of thousands, and keeping horses without knowing how to
ride them. Parties of this description were met wherever we went,
171 and the men of family called them in derision _el wuratu_, the
inheritors.[131] Provisions also became extremely cheap and
abundant; the flocks and herds had been left in the fields, and
there was now no one to own them; and the propensity to plunder, so
notoriously attached to the character of the Arab, as well as to
the Shelluh and Moor, was superseded by a conscientious regard to
justice, originating from a continual apprehension of dissolution,
and that the _el khere_[132], as the plague was now called, was a
judgment of the Omnipotent on the disobedience of man, and that it
behoved every individual to amend his conduct, as a preparation to
his departure for paradise.

[Footnote 131: _Des gens parvenus_, as the French express it;
or upstarts.]

[Footnote 132: The good, or benediction.]

The expense of labour at the same time increased enormously[133],
and never was equality in the human species more conspicuous than
at this time; when corn was to be ground, or bread baked, both were
performed in the houses of the affluent, and prepared by
themselves, for the very few people whom the plague had spared,
were insufficient to administer to the wants of the rich and
independent, and they were accordingly compelled to work for
themselves, performing personally the menial offices of their
respective families.
172
[Footnote 133: At this time I received from Marocco a caravan
of many camel-loads of bees-wax, in serrons containing 200 lbs.
each; I sent for workmen to place them one upon another, and
they demanded one dollar per serron for so moving them.]

The country being now depopulated, and much of the territory
without owners, vast tribes of Arabs emigrated from their abodes in
the interior of Sahara, and took possession of the country
contiguous to the river Draha, as well as many districts in Suse;
and, in short, settling themselves, and pitching their tents
wherever they found a fertile country with little or no population.

The symptoms of this plague varied in different patients, the
variety of age and constitution gave it a like variety of
appearance and character. Those who enjoyed perfect health were
suddenly seized with head-aches and inflammations; the tongue and
throat became of a vivid red, the breath was drawn with difficulty,
and was succeeded by sneezing and hoarseness; when once settled in
the stomach, it excited vomitings of black bile, attended with
excessive torture, weakness, hiccough, and convulsion. Some were
seized with sudden shivering, or delirium, and had a sensation of
such intense inward heat, that they threw off their clothes, and
would have walked about naked in quest of water wherein to plunge
themselves. Cold water was eagerly resorted to by the unwary and
imprudent, and proved fatal to those who indulged in its momentary
relief. Some had one, two, or more buboes, which formed themselves,
173 and became often as large as a walnut, in the course of a day;
others had a similar number of carbuncles; others had both buboes
and carbuncles, which generally appeared in the groin, under the
arm, or near the breast. Those who were affected[134] with a
shivering, having no buboe, carbuncle, spots, or any other exterior
disfiguration, were invariably carried off in less than twenty-four
hours, and the body of the deceased became quickly putrified, so
that it was indispensably necessary to bury it a few hours after
dissolution. It is remarkable, that the birds of the air fled away
from the abode of men, for none were to be seen during this
174 calamitous period; the hyænas, on the contrary, visited the
cemeteries, and sought the dead bodies to devour them. I
recommended Mr. Baldwin's[135] invaluable remedy of olive oil,
applied according to his directions; several Jews, and some
Muselmin[136], were induced to try it, and I was afterwards visited
by many, to whom I had recommended it, and had given them written
directions in Arabic how to apply it: and I do not know any
instance of its failing when persevered in, even after the
infection had manifested itself.

[Footnote 134: _M'drob_ is an idiom in the Arabic language
somewhat difficult to render into English; it is well known
that the Muhamedans are predestinarians, and that they believe
in the existence of spirits, devils, &c.; their idea of the
plague is, that it is a good or blessing sent from God to clear
the world of a superfluous population--that no medicine or
precaution can cure or prevent it; that every one who is to be
a victim to it is (_mktube_) recorded in the Book of Fate; that
there are certain Genii who preside over the fate of men, and
who sometimes discover themselves in various forms, having
often legs similar to those of fowls: that these Genii are
armed with arrows: that when a person is attacked by the
plague, which is called in Arabic _l'amer_, or the destiny or
decree, he is shot by one of these Genii, and the sensation of
the invisible wound is similar to that from a musquet-ball;
hence the universal application of _M'drob_ to a person
afflicted with the plague, i.e. he is shot; and if he die,
_ufah ameruh_, his destiny is completed or terminated (in this
world). I scarcely ever yet saw the Muselman who did not affirm
that he had at some time of his life seen these Genii; and they
often appear, they say, in rivers.]

[Footnote 135: Late British Consul in Egypt.]

[Footnote 136: Muselman, sing.: Muselmin. plur.]

I have no doubt but the epidemy which made its appearance at Cadiz,
and all along the southern shores of Spain, immediately as the
plague was subsiding in West Barbary, was the same disorder with
the one above described, suffering, after its passage to a
Christian country, some variation, originating from the different
modes of living, and other circumstances; for nothing can be more
opposite than the food, dress, customs, and manners of Muhamedans
and Christians, notwithstanding the approximation of Spain to
Marocco. We have been credibly informed, that it was communicated
originally to Spain, by two infected persons, who went from Tangier
to Estapona, a small village on the opposite shore; who, after
eluding the vigilance of the guards, reached Cadiz. We have also
been assured that it was communicated by some infected persons who
175 landed in Spain, from a vessel that had loaded produce at L'Araiche
in West Barbary. Another account was, that a Spanish privateer,
which had occasion to land its crew for the purpose of procuring
water in some part of West Barbary, caught the infection from
communicating with the natives, and afterwards proceeding to Cadiz,
and spread it in that town and the adjacent country.

It should be observed, for the information of those who may be
desirous of investigating the nature of this extraordinary
distemper, that, from its character and its symptoms, approximating
to the peculiar plague, which (according to the before mentioned
Arabic record) ravaged and depopulated West Barbary four centuries
since, the Arabs and Moors were of opinion it would subside after
the first year, and not appear again the next, as the Egyptian
plague does; and agreeably to this opinion, it did not re-appear
the second year: neither did St. John's day, or that season, affect
its virulence; but about that period there prevails along the coast
of West Barbary, a trade-wind, which, beginning to blow in the
month of May, continues throughout the months of June, July, and
August, with little intermission. It was apprehended that the
influence of this trade-wind, added to the superstitious opinion of
the plague ceasing on St. John's day, would stop, or at least
sensibly diminish the mortality; but no such thing happened: the
wind did set in, as it invariably does, about St. John's day; the
176 disorder, however, increased at that period, rather than
diminished. Some persons were of opinion, that the infection
maintained its virulence till the last; that the decrease of
mortality did not originate from a decrease of the _miasma_, but
from a decrease of population, and a consequent want of subjects to
prey upon; and this indeed is a plausible idea; but admitting it to
be just, how are we to account for the almost invariable fatality
of the disorder, when at its height, and the comparative innocence
of it when on the decline? for _then_, the chance to those who had
it, was, that they would recover and survive the malady.

The old men seemed to indulge in a superstitious tradition, that
when this peculiar kind of epidemy attacks a country, it does not
return or continue for three or more years, but disappears
altogether, (after the first year,) and is followed the seventh
year by contagious rheums and expectoration, the violence of which
lasts from three to seven days, but is not fatal. Whether this
opinion be in general founded in truth I cannot determine; but in
the spring of the year 1806, which was the seventh year from the
appearance of the plague at Fas in 1799, a species of influenza
pervaded the whole country; the patient going to bed well, and, on
rising in the morning, a thick phlegm was expectorated, accompanied
by a distressing rheum, or cold in the head, with a cough, which
quickly reduced those affected to extreme weakness, but was seldom
fatal, continuing from three to seven days, with more or less
violence, and then gradually disappearing.
177
During the plague at Mogodor, the European merchants shut
themselves up in their respective houses, as is the practice in the
Levant; I did not take this precaution, but occasionally rode out
to take exercise on horseback. Riding one day out of the town, I
met the Governor's brother, who asked me where I was going, when
every other European was shut up? "To the garden," I
answered.--"And are you not aware that the garden and the adjacent
country is full of (_Jinune_) departed souls, who are busy in
smiting with the plague every one they meet?" I could not help
smiling, but told him, that I trusted to God only, who would not
allow any of the _Jinune_ to smite me unless it were his sovereign
will, and that if it were, he could effect it without the agency of
_Jinune_. On my return to town in the evening, the beach, from the
town-gate to the sanctuary of Seedi,[137] Mogodole was covered with
biers. My daily observations convinced me that the epidemy was not
caught by approach, unless that approach was accompanied by an
inhaling of the breath, or by touching the infected person; I
therefore had a separation made across the gallery, inside of my
house, between the kitchen and dining parlour, of the width of
three feet, which is sufficiently wide to prevent the inhaling the
178 breath of a person. From this partition or table of separation I
took the dishes, and after dinner returned them to the same place,
suffering none of the servants to come near me; and in the
accounting-house, I had a partition made to prevent the too near
approach of any person who might call on business; and this
precaution I firmly believe to be all that is necessary, added to
that of receiving money through vinegar, and taking care not to
touch or smell infectious substances.

[Footnote 137: A sanctuary a mile south-east of the town of
Mogodor, from whence, the town receives its name.]

Fear had an extraordinary effect in disposing the body to receive
the infection; and those who were subject thereto, invariably
caught the malady, which was for the most part fatal. At the
breaking out of the plague at Mogodor, there were two medical men,
an Italian and a Frenchman, the latter, a man of science, a great
botanist, and of an acute discrimination; they, however, did not
remain, but took the first opportunity of leaving the place for
Teneriffe, so that the few Europeans had no expectation of any
medical assistance except that of the natives. Plaisters of gum
ammoniac, and the juice of the leaves of the _opuntia_, or _kermuse
ensarrah_, _i.e._ prickly pear, were universally applied to the
carbuncles, as well as to the buboes, which quickly brought them to
suppuration: many of the people of property took copious draughts
of coffee and Peruvian bark. The _Vinaigre de quatre voleurs_, was
179 used by many, also camphor, smoking tobacco, or fumigations of gum
Sandrac; straw was also burned by some, who were of opinion, that
any thing which produced abundance of smoke, was sufficient to
purify the air of pestilential effluvia.

During the existence of the plague, I had been in the chambers of
men on their death-bed: I had had Europeans at my table, who were
infected, as well as Moors, who actually had buboes on them; I took
no other precaution than that of separation, carefully avoiding to
touch the hand, or inhale the breath; and, notwithstanding what may
have been said, I am decidedly of opinion that the plague, at least
this peculiar species of it, is not produced by any infectious
principle in the atmosphere, but caught solely by touching infected
substances, or inhaling the breath of those who are diseased; and
that it must not be confounded with the common plague of Egypt, or
Constantinople, being a malady of a much more desperate and
destructive kind. It has been said, by persons who have discussed
the nature and character of the plague, that the cultivation of a
country, the draining of the lands, and other agricultural
improvements, tend to eradicate or diminish it; but, at the same
time, we have seen countries depopulated where there was no morass,
or stagnate water for many days' journey, nor even a tree to impede
the current of air, or a town, nor any thing but encampments of
Arabs, who procured water from wells of a great depth, and
180 inhabited plains so extensive and uniform, that they resemble the
sea, and are so similar in appearance after, as well as before
sun-rise, that if the eye could abstract itself from the spot
immediately surrounding the spectator, it could not be ascertained
whether it were sea or land.

I shall now subjoin a few cases for the further elucidation of this
distemper, hoping that the medical reader will pardon any
inaccuracy originating from my not being a professional man.

Case I.--One afternoon, I went into the kitchen, and saw the cook
making the bread; he appeared in good health and spirits; I
afterwards went into the adjoining parlour, and took up a book to
read; in half an hour the same man came to the door of the room,
with his eyes starting from his head, and his bed-clothes, &c. in
his hands, saying, "open the gate for me, for I am (_m'dorb_)
smitten." I was astonished at the sudden transition, and desired
him to go out, and I would follow and shut the gate. The next
morning he sent his wife out on an errand, and got out of bed, and
came to the gate half-dressed, saying that he was quite recovered,
and desired I would let him in. I did not, however, think it safe
to admit him, but told him to go back to his house for a few days,
until he should be able to ascertain that he was quite well; he
accordingly returned to his apartments, but expired that evening,
and before day-break his body was in such a state, that his feet
181 were actually putrified. His wife, by attending on him, caught the
infection, having a carbuncle, and also buboes, and was confined
two months before she recovered.

Case II.--L'Hage Hamed O Bryhim, the old governor of Mogodor, had
twelve or more children, and four wives, who were all attacked, and
died (except only one young wife); he attended them successively to
the grave, and notwithstanding that he assisted in performing the
religious ceremony of washing the body, he never himself caught the
infection; he lived some years afterwards, and out of the whole
household, consisting of wives, concubines, children, and slaves,
he had but one person left, which was the before-mentioned young
wife: this lady, however, had received the infection, and was
confined some time before she recovered.

Case. III.--Hamed ben A---- was smitten with the plague, which he
compared to the sensation of two musket balls fired at him, one in
each thigh; a giddiness and delirium succeeded, and immediately
afterwards a green vomiting, and he fell senseless to the ground; a
short time afterwards, on the two places where he had felt as if
shot, biles or buboes formed, and on suppurating, discharged a
foetid black pus; a (_jimmera_) carbuncle on the joint of the arm
near the elbow was full of thin ichor, contained in an elevated
skin, surrounded by a burning red colour; after three months'
confinement, being reduced to a skeleton, the disorder appeared to
182 have exhausted itself, and he began to recover his strength, which
in another month was fully reestablished. It was an observation
founded on daily experience, during the prevalence of this
disorder, that those who were attacked with a nausea at the
stomach, and a subsequent vomiting of green or yellow bile,
recovered after suffering in various degrees, and that those who
were affected with giddiness, or delirium, followed by a discharge
or vomiting of black bile, invariably died after lingering one,
two, or three days, their bodies being covered with small black
spots similar to grains of gun-powder; in this state, however, they
possessed their intellects, and spoke rationally till their
dissolution.

When the constitution was not disposed, or had not vigour enough to
throw the miasma to the surface in the form of biles, buboes,
carbuncles, or blackish spots, the virulence is supposed to have
operated inwardly, or on the vital parts, and the patient died in
less than twenty-four hours, without any exterior disfiguration.

Case IV.--It was reported that the Sultan had the plague twice
during the season, as many others had; so that the idea of its
attacking like the small-pox, a person but once in his life, is
refuted: the Sultan was cured by large doses of Peruvian bark
frequently repeated, and it was said that he found such infinite
benefit from it, that he advised his brothers never to travel
without having a good supply. The Emperor, since the plague, always
has by him a sufficient quantity of quill bark to supply his
emergency.
183
Case V.--H.L. was smitten with the plague, which affected him by a
pain similar to that of a long needle (as he expressed himself)
repeatedly plunged into his groin. In an hour or two afterwards, a
(_jimmera_) carbuncle appeared in the groin, which continued
enlarging three days, at the expiration of which period he could
neither support the pain, nor conceal his sensations; he laid
himself down on a couch; an Arabian doctor, applied to the
carbuncles the testicles of a ram cut in half, whilst the vital
warmth was still in them; the carbuncle on the third day was
encreased to the size of a small orange; the before-mentioned
remedy was daily applied during thirty days, after which he
resorted to cataplasms of the juice of the (_opuntia_) prickly
pear-tree, (_feshook_) gum ammoniac, and (_zite el aud_) oil of
olives, of each one-third; this was intended to promote
suppuration, which was soon effected; there remained after the
suppuration a large vacuity, which was daily filled with fine hemp
dipped in honey; by means of this application the wound filled up,
and the whole was well in thirty-nine days.

Case VI.--El H--t--e, a trading Jew of Mogodor, was sorely
afflicted; he called upon me, and requested some remedy; I advised
him to use oil of olives, and having Mr. Baldwin's mode of
184 administering it[138], I transcribed it in the Arabic language, and
gave it to him; he followed the prescription, and assured me, about
six weeks afterwards, that (with the blessing of God) he had
preserved his life by that remedy only; he said, that after having
been anointed with oil, his skin became harsh and dry like the
scales of a fish, but that in half an hour more, a profuse
perspiration came on, and continued for another half hour, after
which he experienced relief: this he repeated forty days, when, he
was quite recovered.

[Footnote 138: Mr. Baldwin observed, that, whilst the plague
ravaged Egypt, the dealers in oil were not affected with the
epidemy; and he accordingly recommended people to anoint
themselves with oil every day as a remedy.]

Case VII.--Moh--m'd ben A---- fell suddenly down in the street; he
was conveyed home; three carbuncles and five buboes appeared soon
after in his groin, under the joint of his knee, and arm-pits, and
inside the elbow; he died in three hours after the attack.

Case VIII.--L.R. was suddenly smitten with this dreadful calamity,
whilst looking over some Marocco leather; he fell instantaneously;
afterwards, when he had recovered his senses, he described the
sensation as that of the pricking of needles, at every part wherein
the carbuncles afterwards appeared: he died the same day in
defiance of medicine.

Case IX.--Mr. Pacifico, a merchant, was attacked, and felt a
pricking pain down the inside of the thick part of the thigh, near
the sinews; he was obliged to go to bed. I visited him the next
day, and was going to approach him, but he exclaimed, "Do not come
185 near for although I know I have not the prevailing distemper, yet
your friends, if you touch me, may persuade you otherwise, and that
might alarm you; I shall, I hope, be well in a few days." I took
the hint of Don Pedro de Victoria, a Spanish gentleman, who was in
the room, who, offering me a sagar, I smoked it, and then departed;
the next day the patient died. He was attended during his illness
by the philanthropic Monsieur Soubremont, who did not stir from his
bed-side till he expired; but after exposing himself in this
manner, escaped the infection, which proceeded, as he thought, from
his constantly having a pipe in his mouth.

Case X.--Two of the principal Jews of the town giving themselves
up, and having no hope, were willing to employ the remainder of
their lives in affording assistance to the dying and the dead, by
washing the bodies and interring them; this business they performed
during thirty or forty days, during all which time they were not
attacked: when the plague had nearly subsided, and they began again
to cherish hopes of surviving the calamity, they were both smitten,
but after a few days' illness recovered, and are now living.

From this last case, as well as from many others similar, but too
numerous here to recapitulate, it appears that the human
constitution requires a certain miasma, to prepare it to receive
the pestilential infection.

_General Observation._--When the carbuncles or buboes appeared to
186 have a blackish rim round their base, the case of that patient was
desperate, and invariably fatal. Sometimes the whole body was
covered with black spots like partridge-shot; such patients always
fell victims to the disorder, and those who felt the blow
internally, showing no external disfiguration, seldom survived more
than a few hours.

The plague appears to visit this country about once in every twenty
years[139]: the last visitation was in 1799 and 1800, being more
fatal than any ever before known.

[Footnote 139: This opinion is confirmed by the plague, being
now (1820) in Marocco just twenty years since the last plague.
65,000 persons have been lately carried off by this disease in
the cities of Old and New Fas.]

* * * * *

_Observations respecting the Plague that prevailed last Year in
West Barbary, and which was imported from Egypt; communicated by
the Author to the Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Literature,
Science, and the Arts, edited at the Royal Institution of Great
Britain, No, 15, published in October, 1819._

His Majesty's ship, which was lying in the port of Alexandria, when
Colonel Fitzclarence passed through Egypt, from India, on his way
to England, convoyed to Tangier a vessel which had on board two of
the sons of Muley Soliman, emperor of Marocco; on their arrival at
Tangier, the princes immediately landed and proceeded to their
father at Fas; but it was discovered by the governor or alkaid of
187 Tangier, that during the passage some persons had died; and
accordingly the alkaid would not suffer any of the passengers to
land, except the princes, until he should have received orders from
the Emperor how to act; he accordingly wrote to Fas, for the
imperial orders, and in the mean time the princes arrived, and
presented themselves to the emperor: the latter wrote to the
alkaid, that as the princes had been suffered to land, it would be
unjust to prohibit the other passengers from coming ashore also. He
therefore ordered the alkaid to suffer all the passengers, together
with their baggage, to be landed, and soon afterwards the plague
appeared at Fas, and at Tangier. Thus the contagion which is now
ravaging West Barbary was imported from Egypt. It does not appear
that the mortality is, or has been, during its acme at Fas, any
thing comparable to what it was during the plague that ravaged this
country in 1799,[140] and which carried off more than two-thirds of
the population of the empire.