This is said to have spread its Infection over
all the Earth, and to have lasted fifty two Years. The History of it is
very well told by _Evagrius_[32], and yet more learnedly by
_Procopius_[33]: and they both observe, that the Distemper had its Birth
in _AEthiopia_ or _Egypt_.

THIS is likewise agreeable to the modern Relations of Travellers and
Merchants from _Turkey_, who generally inform us, that the frequent
_Plagues_, which depopulate that Country, are brought thither from the
Coast of _Africa_: insomuch that at _Smyrna_, and other Ports of that
Coast, they often know the very Ship which brings it. And, in these
latter Ages, since our Trade with _Turkey_ has been pretty constant, the
_Plagues_ in these Parts of _Europe_ have evidently been brought from
thence.

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 can