In Caramania and Caesarea none were left alive. On the roads--in
the camps--in the caravansaries--unburied bodies alone were seen;
and a few cities only (Arabian historians name Maarael-Nooman,
Schisur, and Harem) remained, in an unaccountable manner, free.
In Aleppo, 500 died daily; 22,000 people, and most of the animals,
were carried off in Gaza, within six weeks. Cyprus lost almost
all its inhabitants; and ships without crews were often seen in
the Mediterranean, as afterwards in the North Sea, driving about,
and spreading the plague wherever they went on shore. It was
reported to Pope Clement, at Avignon, that throughout the East,
probably with the exception of China, 23,840,000 people had fallen
victims to the plague. Considering the occurrences of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, we might, on first view,
suspect the accuracy of this statement. How (it might be asked)
could such great wars have been carried on--such powerful efforts
have been made; how could the Greek Empire, only a hundred years
later, have been overthrown, if the people really had been so
utterly destroyed?
This account is nevertheless rendered credible by the ascertained
fact, that the palaces of princes are less accessible to
contagious diseases than the dwellings of the multitude; and that
in places of importance, the influx from those districts which
have suffered least, soon repairs even the heaviest losses.
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