Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1851-11-06
The Plague I'm the Canary Islands.

The Havana correspondent Of the New Orleans Plea.
yune, sends the following account Of the terrible mortal
liiy prevailing at the Canary Islands, and which is sup
posed to be the plague. It is terrific beyond measure
and the people OF Havana are fearful that it will be
brought 70 that city by the slave-dcalers:
History does not record anything so sad as the spec
tacle which the Island OF Grand Canary has presented
and still presents. The b-st directed pen attempts 10
vain to relate such misiortunes and horrors, and words
would not DC sufficient to depict their intensity.
The epidemic now ragged with such fury that the in'
habitants In CONSERVATION abandoned the town. without
caring Tor anything but their per sons, to such an extent
that they even forgot the ties 0f blood. Death surprised
them in the midst Of their fight, SC that the roads were
covered with corpSes, over which not u tear oil Trend
ship, or of hlial or lraternal love, was shed, because ter
ror had smothered every sentiment except that OF SELF
preservation. AS was to be expected the fusItIvesi
carrying with them the fatal germ Injected the coun.
try, which became The theatre OF the most horrible
scenes.
The boasts, abandoned in the city, persisted for wan,
Of food, and the decom position Of their bodies, together
with those OF the human corpses which remained unbu'
ried in tho streets, vitiated the atmosphere to such an
extent that any unfortunate person who might return &c
the city Tell dead almost as soon as he entered a house.
However, this new eonfreteHps was stopped as soon as
possible BY The energetic measures taken by the worthy
Military Governor. and y the humanity OF the Second
Aicalde Of the CorregidOr, and various young men, ma
ny Of whom fell victims TO their heroism.
AT last tho snpposition was confirmed that the epide
mic was not the cholera, but the terrible plague of the
Moors, IL having been ascertained that II was introduced
into the Island Of Grand Canary by the fishing vessels
which frequent the Western Coast OF Africa. The per-
sons in the Island devoted to this traffic, numbering
about eighteen hundred, have almost all persisted, as
there remain only enough to man u single vessel. Ac-
cordIng to the declarations Of the masters Of the sail
vessels, on all the Western shores of Africa there reigns
a deathly pest which carries off the inhabitants, the
mortality being so great that corpses are strewn upon
tho earth in incredible numbers, AID their ~decomposi.
ton angmcnts the influence OF the corrupted atmos-
phere.
As soon as the Commandant General Of the Province
learned the abandonment Of the city of Las Palmas, he
sent a portion of the garrison Of the Capital to bury the
dead, but the greater portion Of the soldiers were at
tackled by the epidemic and died. In short, in order to
give an idea of the ravagcs OF the pest, 1t is only neces-
sary TO state that in two months six thousand persons
died in the city Of Las Palmas, and sixteen thousand in
the whole Island. Up TO the last dates, the plague had
spared the towns OF Agaete and Fejeda.
The Bishop is one of the persons in Grand Canary,
who have contributed most to the alienation Of suffering
humanity. This holy prelate and worthy pastor, with
a resignation truly evangelical, displayed the utmost
charity. zeal and interest, in behalf of the unhappy peO-
pie. He was, and still is, untiring in trayersing the
streets, opening his purse, giving spirital consolation,
establishing a hospital IN his own palace, and in minis.
tering to the unhappy victims with his own hands. The
Brothers of Charity and the youths of the hospieio. imi.
who appears a messenger Of the Most High, lent all
their efforts TO assist the afflicted.
At the latest dates, August 18th. the epidemic abated
considerably in the city, though j. still ragged in the
country.