The Cairo daily bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1870-1872, 1872-05-02

until they were within about four DAYS
sail Of Sofala, when for whole day their
keel ran through
MILES or ROTTEN cARcAssEs
Of these insects, which filed the mir with
q horrible and loathsome stencil. Eight
Of the men were taken sick and five of
them died, their corpses being covered
with pustules somewhat res milling those
Of small pox, but looking more malignant
while yellowish green ichor distilled
from them even In death. The men were
on the verge Of mutiny, but there was
nothing for them TO do but sail on, for now
they had come to clear water, and evi.
IDENTIFY 1t would not do to sail over the
course again. At last they reached
Sofala, the inhabitants of which they
found suffering from loathsome and most
malignant type of small pox, which
had long ragged in the interior, and
propogated BY enormous swsrms of
flies which had been bred and
propagated in the unburied and rotting
carcasses Of victims which lay broiling in
the sun in that vast and almost unknown
interior. They saw too, that not only
did the flies themselves reek with the vi
rus, but that when they settled on q VIC
tim, their pulvilli, which are beset with
hairs, and act as suckers, sucked up the vi.
rus, and then whoever they settled upon
was noc ulsted. The Althea sailed away,
all of its crew being reduced to the ex-
tremity Of fear, although none Of them at
the time were taken down with the dis
ease for on the sickness vi the eight men,
five of whom had already died, and the
other three Of whom soon followed, the
surgeon had vaccinated them all. Thus
far, Captain Arlington's story seemed hor-
rible enough, yet it might be true but for
that which followed I was wholly unpre-
pared, and think that the captain
must have gone mad. The
Althea sailed away northward toward the
Comoro Islands, every day or two running
through layers Of rottlng aies the crew
again became sick and half crazy, aud
were reduced almost to skeletons; halt Of
them only were made to do duty ten hours
at time, while the rest were confined in
the disinfected hold, where the surgeon
by means Of some chemicals made them
breathe air surcharged with oxygen, I'M
der the influence Of which they came to
sleep well and eat we'll but their nervous
syetems deteriorated and they became
more and more insane. From some reason
or other the Comoro Islands seem to be
free from this pestilence, and here they re.
manned for three weeks, during which
time they were greatly recuperated.
Then they determined at last to get away
from the horror as soon as possible and
set about to return hoineward.
But they went back to NADIA
gascar, stopping midway between Cape
Ambro and st. Andrew. Here the trees
and shrubery for great areas were covered
and absolutely weighed down with enor-
nous black flies, some Of which we're as
large as humble bees, and occasionally vast
clouds Of them would whiz through the
air, and, going down to the shore, would
settle on the ship. What they lived on
was the mystery, for already they had
stripped the trees Of their leaves Some
times limb loaded with them would fall
and crush myriads ofthem to death, and
the ground was covered with dense black
masses OF their decaying bodies, which
festercd there and He'd the air with the
loathsomc stencil. One realized what the
plague Of flies which once afflicted Egypt
must have been. They intended to set
sail, but the wind came up blowing
with almost hurricane violence from
the west, and they found il utterly impos-
sible 10 leave the place; but the wind
relieved them from the urgent necessity Of
doing so, for as they were or the west
side of the island, the wind bic ing away
toward the east, blew the stencil and the
flies of toward the mountains. Here six
men were taken i'll, but with no small pox
symptoms, their malady being of an
intensely cnervating nature, aud making
them nervous and cxcitablc to a great
degree. Four of them became insane and
jumped overheard After the gale had
continued for week its violence abated,
and as the pure air had done much TO
recuperaate the men, their despair gave
way to hope. They set sail toward the
north, and were driven by gale up
toward the Seychcttc Islands, where they
finally got rid of the plague, and after
much stress Of weather finally reached
Melbourne.