A.D. 1585 and 1586, the winters were severe, and the summers dry and hot; famine ensued; universal catarrh with general pestilence followed, and prevailed all over Europe. The plague raged at Narva and Revel, in Livonia, in the Gulf of Finland, 59° of north latitude: 6000 persons died at Revel. Thuanus considered that the disease arose from the effects of war and the inclemencies of the weather—“a belli incommoditationibus et cœli inclementiâ.” In the archbishopric of Toledo small-pox broke out: the disease was remarkable, inasmuch as almost all who were attacked were old persons, according to Andres de Leon; ‘en su practico de morbo Gallico.’ Plague raged in Dresden in both these years. On the 9th of July in the latter year, 1586, a severe earthquake was felt, which shook Lima, and ran 170 leagues along the coast, and 50 leagues across the mountainous parts.
A.D. 1587, epidemic small-pox broke out in the city of Madrid: 5000 persons and upwards died of it in a short time. The two following years, 1588 and 1589, a pestilence, similar to that of 1583, appeared, and lasted three years: it committed frightful devastation in Seville and its neighbourhood. In the latter year, plague prevailed in Barcelona, and lasted from June to December; it was supposed to have been imported from France.
A.D. 1590. A comet was seen this year during the reign of Philip II. The city of Valladolid was attacked with petechial pestilence. The celebrated Francisco Valles de Covarrubias depended principally on local depletion by means of cupping-glasses for its treatment. A dispute arose this year among the Italian physicians as to the virtue of blisters in the treatment of the plague which was prevailing there.
During the summer of 1592 the drought was extreme, and the autumn was sultry and variable. The river Thames was fordable at London, and epidemic pestilence destroyed 18,000 persons in that city. Various other parts of England also suffered from it, especially Shropshire, where it was very fatal. The city of Dresden suffered from plague in this and the preceding year, 1591.
A.D. 1593, the island of Malta was ravaged by plague: the year following, the city of Seville was visited by pestilence, which, according to the authority of Rosell and Bezon, lasted for the four consecutive years, 1594–97. Pestilence was also rife in many provinces of Spain, especially in the year 1596. A comet was observed.
Malignant fevers prevailed in England about these periods, and London was devastated by pestilence in 1599, as was also Lichfield, Leicester, Kendal, Carlisle, Penrith, and Richmond. Pegu, in Asia, was nearly depopulated the same year by famine and disease. Constantinople suffered from pestilence: seventeen princesses, sisters of the Sultan Mahommed, were carried off, three dying in one day. A mortal pestilence destroyed much cattle in Italy, and plague carried off 70,000 of the inhabitants of Lisbon and Spain.
A.D. 1600 and 1602, great numbers perished in Muscovy; it is recorded that 500,000 died of famine and plague, and in Livonia 30,000 are said to have been carried off. In the latter year, 1602, the summer and winter were cold and dry. Catarrh and acute fevers epidemically scourged the human race; great famine prevailed for a series of years, the crops having failed for several years successively. In Muscovy the plague raged for three years; parents devoured their children; and cats, rats, dogs, &c., were also used for food: all the ties of nature seem to have been forgotten during this dreadful suffering; the powerful overcame the weak, and human flesh was exposed for sale in the shambles in the markets. Multitudes were found dead with their mouths filled with straw and other filthy substances. Sacred history affords us similar examples of wretchedness,—parents devouring their children (2 Kings vi.); it occurred during the siege of Samaria by Ben-hadad, king of Syria, (verses 28, 29,) “And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him; and she hath hid her son.” Similar disasters happened at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezekiel v. 10).
About this period, 1600, the city of Granada was visited by pestilential epidemics, which were very fatal; Fernando Bustos gives an account of them. Gallicia suffered from epidemic small-pox.—A.D. 1601, plague visited the city of Seville; it carried off many of the higher classes.—A.D. 1602, in the middle of March, pestilence broke out in the city of Jaen; the principal symptoms were those of the true plague, attended by buboes and glandular swellings: this pestilence soon extended to Seville, Madrid, Valladolid, Burgos, Saragossa, Toledo, Cordova, Malaga, Velez, Ecija, Antequera, Granada, Andujar, and to other places.
A.D. 1603, plague prevailed in England; 36,000 of the inhabitants of London perished by it. A similar pestilence raged at Paris, continuing for three or four years, and carrying off weekly 2000 persons during some portion of that time. This pestilence was supposed by the physicians to have been imported into London, notwithstanding the inclement seasons, and the famine and disease amongst the cattle, dumb animals, and even among dogs. The year following, 1604, the puncticular fever extended and raged with great violence all over Spain, attacking old and young; none escaping. A.D. 1605, various parts of Spain were afflicted by epidemic pestilence, especially Arbucias, where it was very fatal.
A.D. 1606. Epidemic pestilence prevailed all over Europe this year, and continued for some years after; it extended to America, where it attacked the company of emigrants taken out by George Popham, who were settled at a place in America called Sagadahoe, a patent having been granted by King James to some London merchants to form a settlement there. Hutchison, Purchas, and Gorges, in their histories of New England and Massachusetts, describe this unfortunate adventure. Various provinces in Spain suffered from bubonic pestilence, which was remarkable as having been confined principally to children; great mortality from it occurred at Barcelona.