THE late _Plague_ in _France_ came indisputably from _Turkey_, as I shall particularly shew in some of the following Pages. The _Plague_, which broke out at _Dantzick_ in the Year 1709, and spread from thence to _Hamburgh_, _Copenhagen_, and other Cities in the _North_, made its way thither from _Constantinople_ through _Poland_, &c. And the last _Plague_ in this City, if we may believe Dr. _Hodges_, had the same Original, being brought to us from _Holland_, but carried to them by _Cotton_ imported from _Turkey_[34].
THE greatest _Mortality_ that has happen'd in later Ages, was about the middle of the fourteenth Century; when the _Plague_ seized Country after Country for five Years together[35]. In the Year 1346 it raged in _Egypt_, _Turkey_, _Greece_, _Syria_, and the _East-Indies_; in 1347 some Ships from the _Levant_ carried it to _Sicily_, _Pisa_, _Genoa_, &c. in 1348 it got into _Savoy_, _Provence_, _Dauphiny_, _Catalonia_, and _Castile_, &c. in 1349 it seized _England_, _Scotland_, _Ireland_, and _Flanders_; and the next Year _Germany_, _Hungary_ and _Denmark_: and in all Places, where it came, it made such heavy Destruction, that it is said to have dispeopled the Earth of more than half its Inhabitants[36]. Now since _Africa_ had a share of this _Plague_ in the very beginning, I question not but it had its first Rise in that Country; and not in _China_, as _M. Villani_, in his History of those Times, relates from the Report of _Genoese_ Seamen, who came from those Parts, and said it was occasion'd there by a great _Ball of Fire_, which either burst out of the Earth, or fell down from Heaven[37]. But this Relation is so very incredible, that I cannot think we ought at all to rely upon it: seeing we have no Instance of a _Plague_, which was originally bred in that Country.
IT is very remarkable, that the several Countries of _Europe_ have always suffered more or less in this way, according as they have had a greater or lesser Commerce with _Africa_; or with those Parts of the _East_, that have traded thither. Which Observation, by the by, may help to solve a Difficulty concerning the great Increase of People among the _Northern_ Nations in ancient Times, more than at present; for in those Ages, having no Communication at all with _Africa_, they were not wasted with _Plagues_, as they have been since.