The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1839-06-25
NaHSCEH4HA NElOUS.

NaASCHtHLHIAN EtD us.
From the yNe,o- York Literary Gazette.
THE BLACK DEATH OF THE FOUR
~ s TENTH CENTURY. b.
Translated from The German of. I'D c. Hecker.
W Our readers, we think, cannot fail OF being
entertained by the TRANSACTIONS which we ggive
them from this curious and highly valuable work
giving minute and authentic particulars of that
terrible peslence, which il is believed, destroy
ed one fourth of the population of the whole
world, visiting England with such peculiar Sc
verify, that 1t has been asserted that three fours
of the whole people persisted. With DR. Heck
er speculations OH the causes of this fatal pes
thence, though very entertaining to the general
| reader, and particularly so TO the man ofscience
we shall, in our present notice have nothing
10 do, contnng our extracts to the Plague itself,
and tile dreadful persecution of the Jews, who
were charged with having caused it by poison
ing the wells
Cairo lost daily when the plague was raging
with It's greatest violence, from 10 to $4,000 -
being as many as, in modern times, great plaques
have carried off during their whole course In
China, more than thirteen millions are said TO
nave died, and this is in correspondence with
! the certainly exaggerated accounts from The rest
OF Asia. India was depopulated. Tartary, the
Tartar kingdom of Kaptcchack, Mesopntamia
| Syria, Armenia, were covered with dead bodies
The Curds flew in vain to to the mountains
On the roads, in the camps, in the caravansaries
unbured bodies alone were seen. In Aeppo.
500 died daily; $4,000 people and most of The
animals were carried off in GAIA, within six
weeks. Cyprus lost all its inhabitants; and
slips without crews were often seen in the Med
terranean as afterwards in the North Sea.
driving about and spreading the plague where
ever they went on shore. 1t was reported to
Pope Clement, at Avignon, that throughout the
East, probably, with the exception of China,
23,040,OOO people had fallen victims to the
plague.
Merchants whose earning and possessions
were unbounded, coldly and willingly renounc-
ed their earthly goods. They carried their trea-
sures to the monasteres and churches, and laid
them at the foot Of the altar but gold had no
charms for the monks, for it brought them death
They shut their gates; yet, still it was cast TO
them over the convent walls. People would
brook no impedient to the last pious work to
which they were driven by despair. When the
plague ceased, men thought they were still lin
gering among the dead, so appalling was the
living aspect of the survivors in consequence OF
the anxiety they had undergone, and the unavoida
BILE infection Of the air. Many other cities pro-
baby presented a similar appearance and it is
ascertalned that a great number of small country
towns and villages, which have been estimated
and not too highly al 200, 900, were bereft oil all
their inhabitants.
In many places in France, not more than two
out of twenty of the inhabitants were lett alive
and the capital felt the fury of the plague, alike
in the palace and the cot.
The churchyards were soon unable to contai 81
the dead. and many houses, left without inhabi'
tants fell TO ruins.
In Avignon, the Pope found it necessary to
consecrate the Rhone that bodies might be
thrown into the river without delay, as the
churchyards would no longer hold them; SO
| likewise in all popuous cities, extraordinary
measures were adopted in order speedily to dis
pose of the dead. In Vienna, where for some
time 1900 inhabitants died daily, the intermenl
| of corpses in the churchyards and within the
churches, was forthwith prohibited, and the
dead were then arranged in layers, by thous
ands, in six large pits outside the city, as had al
ready been done in Cairo and Paris In many
places, it was runoreL that plague patients were
| hurled alive, as may sometimes happen through
senseless alarm and indecent haste |; and thus the
horror of the distressed people was every where
increased. In Erfurt, after the churchyards
were filed, l2,000corpses were thrown into e.
leven great pits and the light might, more OF
less exactly, be stated with respect to all the
larger cities. Funeral ceremonies the last con
ISOLATION Of the survivors, were every where i'm
practicable. ~ -'t"
In all Germany, according to probable cal
culation, there seems to have died only 1874,
| 434 habitants this country, however, was more
spared than others; Italy, on the contrary, was
most severely visited 1t is said TO haves los
half its inhabitants and this account is render
ed credible from the immense loss Of cities and
provinces for in SARDINIA and Corsica, accord
ing to the account of the distinguished floren
tine, John VILLAIN, who was himself carried of
by the Black Plague, scarcely a third part OF the
population remained alive and it is related o.
the Venans, that they engaged ships at d hlgt
rate IN order to retreat to the island, so that ate
the plague had car, led off three fourths of he
inhabitants, that proud city was forlorn and des
oiate. In Padua, after the cessation OF the
plague, two thirds of the inhabitants were want
ing and in Florence il was prohibited to pub
lish the numbers of the dead and to toll the bell