The Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9), Now Commonly Known as the Black Death

CHAPTER I.

THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE EPIDEMIC.

The Great Pestilence, which first reached Europe in the autumn of 1347, is said to have originated in the East some three or four years previously. So far as actual history goes, however, the progress of the disease can be traced only from the ports of the Black Sea and possibly from those of the Mediterranean, to which traders alon...