The plague has never been endemic in Malta but it has been ‘imported’ several times from the Levant and spread rapidly throughout the islands with heavy loss of life. After the Order of St John was expelled from Malta in 1798, the first plague outbreak under the new British rulers occurred in April 1813. This is the basis of this month’s anniversary story.

Lieutenant-General Sir Hildebrand Oakes (1754-1822), Civil Commissioner of Malta, 1810-13. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

One of the results of the economic war then being waged by Napoleon Bonaparte and France against Great Britain – his well-known ‘Continental System’ and the British response through Orders in Council – was a commercial boom in Malta, which became an emporium of commerce in the Mediterranean. J.D. Tully also noted that “one of the most material branches of this commercial intercourse was the trade carried on between Malta and the Levant, and the produce of the latter appeared in her ports. In consequence of the frequency of the plague, which for centuries past had existed in almost every port of the Levant, the general quarantine precautions were invariably resorted to and, after due expurgation, both ships and cargoes were admitted to pratique in Malta.”

Unfortunately, quarantine was carried out at Marsamxett Harbour where boats constantly passed by. Quarantine supervision had fallen by the wayside by 1811 because the island lacked a superintendent. In 1802, Superintendent William Eton left Malta but continued in his post, even though he remained abroad. His successor in 1811, William Pym, left after a few months.

Malta’s Civil Commissioner, Sir Hildebrand Oakes, therefore appointed a Board of Public Health which brought together Maltese officials and a number of military doctors who had other onerous duties to attend to. This lack of proper leadership meant that the Lazzaretto Hospital, where quarantine was carried out, suffered from a lack of supervision and lax rules. These deficiencies all came to the fore when plague broke out in 1813.

Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Maitland (1759-1824), Governor of Malta 1813-24, in a portrait by John Hoppner. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Maltese-owned brig San Nicola arrived in Malta on March 28, 1813, from Alexandria where the plague had been present since 1812. Moreover, two members of her 10-man crew had died en route to the island after displaying plague symptoms. The brig berthed at Marsamxett Harbour and the crew was quarantined at the Lazzaretto of Manoel Island. Soon, the captain and his servant passed away, probably of the plague. A number of other vessels arrived from Alexandria, including a privateer, two transports, a British brigantine Nancy and a Spanish polacca, Bella Maria, that also lost crew members to the plague.

The berthing of these ships at Marsamxett caused great alarm, so all, with the exception of the privately-owned San Nicola, were ordered to leave port. The deaths of the San Nicola captain, Antonio Maria Mescar, and his servant, however, forced Civil Commissioner Oakes to order the brig to return to Alexandria, an order carried out on April 10 under escort by HMS Badger.

Quarantine supervision had fallen by the wayside by 1811 because the island lacked a superintendent

However, coincidentally on that same day, one of the daughters of Salvatore Borg, a shoemaker living in Valletta at 227, St Paul Street, fell ill. Nine days later, a physician diagnosed typhus but he also noticed two swellings, resembling carbuncles, on her chest. The girl died on April 19, and, on May 1, her pregnant mother was sick and passed away three days later. Salvatore Borg and his four-year-old son succumbed next and the whole family was transferred to the Lazzaretto. No one as yet suspected that the dreaded plague had already taken hold. In fact, Borg’s daughter was even interred in church though her mother was buried elsewhere.

The Lazzaretto building on Manoel Island in its present neglected state and in dire need of restoration.

Because of these deaths, the government declared the presence of the plague and, on May 12, every individual connected with the Borg family was removed to the Lazzaretto. On May 6, Maria Agius was found dead in her room. She had assisted Mrs Borg and a post-mortem ascertained that her death was due to the plague. One of Agius’s friends, Grazia Pisani, also developed the sickness on May 8 but she survived. Salvatore Borg’s father passed away on May 9, Borg himself on May 12 and his son the following week.

The next seven reported illnesses and deaths did not occur before May 16, and the only new reports before this date were on three ships. On May 18, three cases were reported in Valletta, another at Fort Manoel and another at Gudja. On the other hand, writing in 1833, Baron G.M. de Piro asserts that there had been four deaths on April 22, but they had not occasioned alarm and had not led to precautions being taken.

The number of new cases continued to increase. The authorities tried to discover how the plague had spread from the San Nicola, and it was thought, without any proof whatsoever, that infected cargo had been passed clandestinely to Salvatore Borg. It was said that guards had stolen some linen from the San Nicola and stored it in a wine shop before being sold to Borg, who was also described as a fence and smuggler.

Others believed that the plague had been introduced into Valletta before the sickness appeared in the Borg family. A certain Dr Bardon stated that, a fortnight before, he has successfully treated a Sicilian plague patient and had also attended a woman who died of the plague seven days later. The supposed medium of communication, Salvatore Borg, did not actually fall ill before May 4, that is, an appreciable length of time after other members of his family had died of the malady.

Lack of proper leadership meant that the Lazzaretto Hospital, where quarantine was carried out, suffered from a lack of supervision and lax rules

Before 1894-98, people neither knew how the plague was caused, nor how it was spread. Various suppositions included ‘bad air’ according to some doctors, touching a plague-stricken person or his clothes according to others. No one realised that the disease was due to infection from a microbe that attacks rats. It is then transmitted to humans through the bite of the infected fleas that live on rats. Since the cause of the sickness and its spreading were unknown, no really effective precautions were taken, except, perhaps, the strict isolation of the stricken patients.

Statue of St Sebastian at Qormi, erected in 1815. It is an ex-voto of the 1813-14 plague outbreak.

The Manoel Island Lazzaretto was soon full and, therefore, other provisional hospitals were set up. They were not enough, and so, wooden huts – or barracche – were erected in the Valletta and Floriana ditches, Fort Manoel, Bighi promontory, Birkirkara, Qormi, Żebbuġ, Santa Venera and outside Vittoriosa, at Salvatore Gate and Fortina.

 Towards the end of August, the epidemic began to abate and, on January 29, 1814, pratique was given to all the towns and villages with the exception of Qormi, which was surrounded by a cordon sanitaire guarded by the soldiery; here, pratique was only granted on July 1, 1814. Only Qrendi and Safi remained free of the disease, while Senglea reported only a single case. Some localities remained virtually free with only a couple of cases reported.

Part of the instructions by police chief Francesco Rivarola about segregation during the 1813-14 plague outbreak. Photo: Christopher Grech collection

In Gozo, the first case appeared on February 22, 1814, at Xagħra. Restrictions were only imposed 12 days later but then Governor Sir Thomas Maitland, who had replaced Oakes in October 1813, ordered a strict segregation and pratique was given on September 8, 1814.

The isolation of infected persons was carried out by troops belonging to the Malta Provincial Battalion and to the Corps of Maltese Veterans who carried out policing duties to ensure compliance with sanitary regulations. The tasks they performed included accompanying the death-carts (hearses) and to guard the convicts placed in charge of them. They also manned the sanitary cordons placed round the highly-infected areas to prevent access and exit to and from these places.

The government made use of convicts to take care of patients, convey them to hospitals and to bury the dead. Most of them eventually died of the plague, and so convicts were brought over from Sicily to carry on with this work. Anyone hiding the disease from the health authorities was liable to the death penalty, a threat that was carried out on some occasions.

Churches and shops were closed by order of the sanitary authorities and streets were deserted because people were, at one stage, confined to their houses. Many were afraid to leave their homes.

Over 4,600 people died in this epidemic. There had been greater outbreaks in the past – 11,300 deaths in 1675-76 – but the adverse results cannot be compared solely in terms of the number of deaths. Before April 1813, Malta was not only prosperous but enjoying its greatest-ever trade boom; within a few months, the islands were reduced to abject misery and poverty.

The plague could not have arrived at a more delicate time for the Maltese economy. 1814 witnessed the end of the Napoleonic Wars and, all things considered, it was going to be difficult for Malta to hold on to the trade it had acquired by virtue of the war, since an appreciable amount of trade was expected to revert to the former routes. The plague of 1813-14 ensured that the Maltese islands would lose it all.

Joseph F. Grima, retired casual history lecturer and Asst Director of Education

An ex-voto of the 1813-14 plague, at the Mellieħa Sanctuary, which depicts the scene at the Valletta ditch. Courtesy: Mellieħa Sanctuary