A (Brief) Beginner’s Guide To Maltese History Part 15: Return Of The Plague

As we’ve already established in the last episode of our Maltese history series, the British settled their rule over here in 1813. That is, we officially became a British Colony. We were granted our first constitution and were confirmed as a Crown Colony a year later.

The British found us super useful for a great number of reasons, among which was how great we were as a naval base during the Greek War of Independence. Our economy literally inflated so hard that we were actually happy about other countries’ troubles.

Of course, we were not directly involved in this war and most of this economic privilege came from sailors being anchored over here.

We saw the abolishment of press censorship, our first council under the government and the first ever referendum in Malta. Things were looking sunny AF for us.

Until a certain ship from Egypt brought the plague with it.

The disease literally spread like wildfire around the island. The British tried to prevent the outbreak from spreading but to no avail.

The plague lasted for less than a year and wiped out 4,500 people. It was a horrible time for Malta as all public places including churches were closed down. It was our first outbreak in over 100 years, so we were kind of taken a bit by surprise.

The disease was borne from infected rats aboard ships and was passed onto humans, but people back then didn’t know from where this dreaded curse was coming from.

This meant that precautions taken were oftentimes futile.

It was so bad, that the British government issued an order saying anyone who harboured any diseased people would be sentenced to death. Those who did were literally shot on the streets.

The towns which were closer to the harbours were hit the worst by the plague. Birgu, Valletta, Senglea and Cospicua were barricaded, fenced and armed with guards to prevent people from spreading the disease to other towns.

Since there was a shortage of nurses and people willing to get close to this disease, local criminals were ordered by the government to remove and bury infected corpses in communal graves and clearing out their houses.

People were terrified whenever these criminals adorned in red and black robes and hoods approached their neighbourhoods, and for once, it wasn’t about the actual crime.

The guards assigned to supervise these criminals were terrified of getting the plague themselves, so the undertakers were left with little to no supervision, causing a rampant spike in robberies and attacks on people.

Eventually, when these guys died out from the plague, the governor at the time – Sir Thomas Maitland – brought over prisoners from Sicily to continue the dirty work.

When the plague spread to Mdina and Birkirkara, the diseased were transferred to the Lazzaretto, which instantly became overcrowded (with the sick, no less).

Provisional hospitals were opened all over the island, including the St.Dominic’s convent in Rabat and Villa Bighi in Kalkara. These temporary hospitals were soon full of those riddled with the plague and wooden shacks were built in the ditches and bastions of Floriana to house the sick.

All of this is starting to sound like a Monty Python sketch… without the funny bits.

Since everyone was dropping like flies, most fields were abandoned… causing a shortage of food around the island. So apart from being very sick, people were also very hungry.

One year later, in 1814, people were allowed to leave their hometowns.

The restrictions were lifted and finally people could leave their respective towns… except for Qormi, which claimed the highest rate of plagued people, along with Żebbuġ and Birkirkara.

Sadly, a few months after the restrictions were lifted, the plague made its way to Gozo, where the first case was confirmed in March. This happened because, of something that, had it not been so tragic, would’ve been hilarious.

There was this guy who for the sake of the story we’ll call Kyle. Kyle was ordered to be quarantined during the plague in Malta.

Since there were a lot of robberies going on, he buried a box of clothes and precious stuff he really liked before going off to the Lazzaretto.

Kyle was eventually released from quarantine when he was cured. This guy really needed to go to Gozo for some reason, but not without his fancy box of what we assume was baggy pants, white wife beaters and a pair of ballistic sunglasses.

Kyle took the box with him to Gozo and totally reopened it when he got there, spreading the plague like wildfire.

Wow Kyle. Well done.

Malta was officially declared plague-free six months later. By then, the disease had claimed the lives of 4,500 people.

Tag a history buff and stay tuned for next week’s history episode

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