informed, that it was communicated orig ina lly to Spain, by two infected persons, who went from Tangie r to Estapona, a simall villa ge on the opposite- sh o re ; who, after eluding the v i gilance o f the guards, reached Cadiz. W e h a v e alsobeen assured that it was communicated by some infected persons who landed in Spain, from a vessel that had loaded produce at L ’araiche in West Barbary. A n o the r account was, that a Spanish privateer, which Had occasion to land its crew for the purpose o f procuring water in some part o f West Barbary, catight the infection from communicating with the natives, and afterwards^ proceeding to Cadiz, spread it in that town and the adjacent country. It should be observed, for the information o f those who may be desirous o f investigating the nature o f this extraordinary distemper, that, from its character and its symptoms, approximating to the pecu liar plague, which (according to the before mentioned A ra b ic record) ravaged and depopulated West Barb a ry four centuries since, the Arabs and Moors were o f 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 y e a r : neither did St. John’s day, or that season, affect its virulence ; but abdut that period there prevails along the coast o f West Barbary a trade wind, which beginning to blow in the month o f May, continues throughout the months o f June, Ju ly , and August, with little intermission. It was apprehended that the influence o f this trade wind, added to the superstitious opinion o f the plague ceasing on St. John’s day, would stop, or at least sensibly diminish the m o r ta lity ; but no such thing happened, the wind did set in, as it in va riab ly does, about St. John’s day ; the disorder, however, encreased at that period, rather than diminished. Some persons were of opinion, that the infection maintained its virulence till the last; that the decrease o f mortality did not originate from a decrease o f the miasma, but from a decrease o f population, and a consequent want o f subjects to jjre y upon ; and this indeed is a plausible idea; but admitting it to be ju s t, how are we to account for the almost invariable fatality o f the disorder, when at its height, and the comparative innocence o f it when on the decline ? for then, the chance to those who had it, was, that they would recover and su rv iv e the malady. T h e old men seemed to indulge in a superstitious tradition, that when this peculiar kind o f 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 b y contagious rheums and expectoration, the violence o f which lasts from three to seven days, but is not fatal. W h ethe r this opinion be in general founded in truth I cannot determine; but in the spring o f the y ea r 1806, which was the seventh y ea r from the appearance o f the plague at Fas in 1799, a species o f influenza pervaded the whole country ; the patient going to bed well, and on rising in the morning, a thick phlegm was expectorated, accompanied b y a distressing rheum, or cold in the head, with a cough, which q u ick ly reduced those affected to extreme weakness, but was-seldom fatal, continuing from three to seven days, w'ith more or less violence, and then grad ually disappearing. 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 d a y out o f
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