A brief Journal of what passed in the City of Marseilles, while it was afflicted with the Plague, in the Year 1720

by Pichatty de Croislainte

To put into Order as speedily as is requisite, a Pest-House, and to furnish it with all Necessaries, which are almost numberless, is a Task no less perplexed with Difficulties. The Hospital des Convalescens, which was resolved to be made use of, is found to be too little; it is necessary to enlarge it, by joining to it a Building called the Fas, which stands very near it; a thousand Things are to be done, and yet none could easily be made to stir about them: M. Moustier is obliged to repair thither, and to abide upon the Spot; and by keeping Hands at Work Night and Day, he makes such Expedition, that in 48 Hours he gets it put in Order, all Necessaries sorted and laid ready, and the whole made fit to receive the Sick.

A very great Difficulty still remains, which is to find Stewards, Overseers, Cooks, and other lower Officers, and especially so great a Number of Servants as are requisite to tend the Sick: Advertisements are affixed throughout the City, to invite those sordid Creatures whom Avarice draws into Dangers, or those of better Minds, whom superabundant Charity disposes to devote themselves for the Publick; and by seeking such out, by encouraging, giving, and promising, they are procured: Apothecaries and Surgeons are engaged; and two Physicians, Strangers, named Gayon, come in voluntarily, and offer their Service, and to be shut up in the Hospital: Unhappily, Death puts an End too soon to their Charity and Zeal.

Three Pits of Sixty Foot long, as many broad, and Twenty four deep, are begun at once without the Walls, between the Gate of Aix and that of Joliette: To compel the Peasants to work at them, M. Moustier is obliged to keep with them daily, exposed to the Heat of the Sun.

The Chevalier Rose, appointed Captain and Commissary-General at the Rive Neuve, beyond the Port, does the same: He puts into proper Order another vast Hospital, under the Sheds of a Rope-yard; causes large and deep Pits to be dug near the Abbey of St. Victor; gets together Carts, Buriers of the Dead, and all Persons needful to look to the Living, the Dying, and the Dead; and what is no less remarkable than his Activity, his Courage, and his Zeal for his unfortunate Country, he furnishes out of his own Purse the great Expences necessary for maintaining that Hospital, and the many Hands he employs, without troubling himself when and how he shall be reimbursed.

No sooner are these Pest-Houses in any Readiness to receive the Sick, but in less than Two Days they are quite filled; but are not long so by those who are carried thither: The Distemper is so violent, that those who are brought in at Night are carried out next Day to the Pits; and so the Dead make Room every Day successively for the Sick.

The 12th of August, M. de Chicoyneau and Verny, the chief Physicians of Montpellier, arrive at the Barrier of Notre-Dame, to come and examine, by Order of his Royal Highness, the true Nature of the Distemper that afflicts this City: Lodgings are made ready for them, and a Coach is sent to bring them hither from the Barrier.

The 13th, the Marquess de Pilles, and the Sheriffs invite them to the Town-House, whither they had summoned all the Physicians and Master-Surgeons of the City; after they had conferred a long Time upon the Symptoms of the Distemper, they agree among themselves, to go together the following Days, to visit as well the sick in the Hospitals, as those in the several Quarters of the Town, and to make such Experiments as they should judge proper.

Hitherto the Distemper has not exerted all its Rage; it kills indeed those it seizes, hardly one escaping; and whatever House it enters, it carries off the whole Family; but as yet, it has fallen only on the poorer Sort of People, which keeps many Persons in a false Notion, that it is not really the Plague, but proceeds from bad Diet and Want of other Necessaries: those who use the Sea, and have frequently seen the Plague in the Levant, think they observe some Difference: In short, Abundance of People still remain in doubt, and expecting with the utmost Impatience the Decision of the Physicians of Montpellier, to determine them whether to stay or fly.

The 14th, the Sheriffs write to the Council of Marine, most humbly to thank his Royal Highness for his Care and Goodness, in sending to them these Physicians.