vidually, and the corpses were buried “en masse” in a common grave. This disease appears to have disappeared independently of human means, and the credit of its removal is given to a miraculous interposition of the Virgin. She had been publicly solicited to interpose for them during three days, and her image during that time had been carried in procession. On the last day, about two in the afternoon, the face of the sacred effigy was discovered to be in a state of profuse perspiration for a long time. This prodigy was immediately certified by two notaries who were present, and from that day the pestilence ceased, and the sick recovered.
The ravages of small-pox have at various times spread desolation through the city, and though considerably checked by vaccination, it still occasionally devastates. This distemper is said to have been introduced into Mexico in 1520, by a negro slave of Narvaez, one of the conquerors, when it carried off one half of its inhabitants, and among others the Sovereign.
It first appeared in Guatimala in 1733, when it swept away in one month 1500 persons. From that time until 1780, it does not seem to have shown itself; but at this last period it again raged with destructive malignity. We are told “that the infected might not die without the administration of the Sacrament, the viaticum
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