In this Extremity the Sheriffs have recourse to the Officers commanding the Gallies, most earnestly beseeching them to let them have some of their Slaves to serve for Buriers of the Dead, offering them Security for supplying their Room at the Cost of the City, or to make the Loss good to his Majesty. They condescend, considering the absolute Necessity, to give them Twenty Six of their Invalids, to whom they promise Liberty to excite them to the Work.
It cannot be denied that the City was in some Measure saved by the Help of these Slaves, and of those afterwards granted, but it must be allowed too, that to Sheriffs who are oppress'd with the Weight of Business, and deserted by all Persons on whom they could repose any Part of their Care, such Buriers of the Dead are very burdensome.
They are destitute of all Necessaries; they must be provided with Shooes when there are neither Shooes nor a Shooemaker left in the City: They must have Lodgings and Victuals, and no body will harbour, or come near, or have any Communication with Gally-Slaves, Buriers of infected Bodies: A watchful Eye must be kept over them Night and Day; they rob all Houses from whence they fetch the dead Bodies; and not knowing how to harness the Horses, or drive the Carts, they often overturn them, breaking the Carts or the Harness, which cannot be mended, not only because there is neither Wheelwright nor Collarmaker left, but because no body will touch Things infected; so that the Sheriffs must be continually begging or borrowing of Carts from the Country, where every Body contrives to hide them; and must often be at a Stand in a Work requiring the most Haste of all others, which those Slaves affect to perform so slowly and lazily, that it is very provoking.
In what City of the World was it ever seen, that the Consuls were harrassed with so many Cares, and reduced to the Necessity of going through all the dismal and dangerous Offices, to which the Sheriffs of _Marseilles_ are forced to sacrifice themselves? Seeing that very quickly, to oblige those Slaves to make more Dispatch, and carry off putrified Bodies which they cannot endure to touch, nor even so much as to approach, without being excited and urged on, the Sheriffs are forced to put themselves at their Head, and go the foremost where the Infection rages most, to make them carry them off: M. _Moustier_ for near Two Months together was forced to rise constantly at Day-break, to see them put the Horses to the Carts, and prevent their breaking them; to follow them to the Pits, lest they should leave the Bodies on the Sides of the Pits without burying them; and at Night to see the Horses unharnessed; put into the Stables, and the Harness hung where they may be found next Morning, and thereby prevent the Inconveniences which might interrupt the Continuance of a Work, the Delay of which is dangerous. Even the _Roman_ Consuls, so full of the Love of their Country, did certainly never carry their Zeal to so high a Pitch.