Disinfection : part 3

Abstract

There have been several references to the Lazaretto by travellers passing through Malta, and the earliest description is to be found in the diary of an Englishman - George Sandys, who in 1610, on his way back to England passed through Malta and was informed by the Port Sanitary Authorities that his quarantine period was forty days, before he had the freedom to visit towns in Malta, or to contact friends. (Quaranta = forty). However a French Captain intervened on his behalf with the Grand Master "soliciting the Grand Master on my behalf, as he sat in Council who with the assent of the Great Crosses granted me Pratick' and so Sandys the next morning was free. This was indeed an exceptional case, and Sandys was a very lucky man to escape quarantine in this manner, as the Government of the Order knowing through experience, the heavy death rate, the disruption to trade, with consequent enormous harm to the economy, and a threat to starvation, whenever there was plague in Malta, came to pin its faith more and more on the isolation of travellers entering the island. [excerpt]