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

This, and the following Day, the Sheriffs make very strict Enquiry in the Town, to discover all Persons who had Communication with those Dead or Sick of the Plague; the most suspected are sent to the Infirmaries, and the others confined to their Houses.

The 14th, they write an Account of what has passed to the Council of Marine; they resolve not to give any more Patents (or Certificates of Health) to any Vessel, till they can be sure the Distemper is over.

The 15th, left from this Refusal to give Certificates of Health, it should be believed in foreign Countries that the plague is in Marseilles; and lest this should entirely interrupt all Commerce, they write to the Officers Conservators of Health at all the Ports of Europe, the real Fact; that is to say, That there are several Persons ill of the Contagion in the Infirmaries, but that it has not made any Progress in the City.

The 21st of July, nothing of the Plague having since been discovered in the Town, they write it with Joy to the Council of Marine, and continue to provide whatever is necessary in the Infirmaries for the Subsistance of suspected Persons whom they have sent thither, and of those whom they have confined to their Houses.

Already the Publick, recovered from their Fright, begin to explode as useless the Trouble the Sheriffs had given themselves, and all the Precautions they had taken; 'tis pretended, the Two Persons who died in the Square of Linche, were carried off by quite another Distemper than the Plague: The Physicians and Surgeons are upbraided with having by their Error allarmed the whole Town. Abundance of People are observed to assume the Character of a dauntless Freedom of Mind, who are soon after seen more struck with Terror than any others, and to fly with more Disorder and Precipitation; their boasted Firmness quickly forsakes them. The Truth is, the Plague is to be feared and shunned.

The 26th of July, Notice is given to the Sheriffs, that in the Street of Lescalle, a Part of the old Town inhabited only by poor People, Fifteen Persons are suddenly fallen sick: They dispatch thither Physicians and Surgeons; they examine into the Distemper, and make Report; some, that 'tis a Malignant Fever; others, a contagious or pestilential Fever, occasioned by bad Food, which Want had long forced those poor Creatures to live upon: Not one of them says positively it is the Plague. A Man must indeed have been very well assured of it, to say it; the Publick had already shewed a Disposition to resent any false Alarm.

The Sheriffs do not rest wholly satisfied with this Report, but resolve to proceed in the same Way of Precaution, as if those Sick were actually touched with the Plague; to send them all without Noise to the Infirmaries; and for the present to confine them in their Houses.

The 27th, Eight of those Sick dye; the Sheriffs themselves go to their Houses to cause them to be searched; Buboes are found on Two of them: The Physicians and Surgeons still hold the same Language, and impute the Cause of the Distemper to unwholsome Food. Notwithstanding which, as soon as Night comes, M. Moustier repairs to the Place, sends for Servants from the Infirmaries, makes them willingly or by Force, take up the Bodies, with all due Precautions; they are carried to the Infirmaries, where they are buried with Lime; and all the rest of the Night he causes the remaining Sick, and all those of their Houses, to be removed to the Infirmaries.

The 28th, very early in the Morning, Search is made every where for those who had Communication with them, in order to confine them: Other Persons in the same Street fall sick, and some of those who first sicken'd dye. At Midnight M. Estelle (who was come back from Aix) repairs thither; causes the Buriers of the Dead at the Infirmaries to attend; makes them carry off the dead Bodies, and bury them in Lime; and then till Day-break sees all the Sick conducted to the Infirmaries.

The People who love to deceive themselves, and will have it absolutely not to be the Plague, urge a Hundred false Reasons on that Side. Would the Plague, say they, attack none but such poor People? Would it operate so slowly?