Cholera had by this time broken
out in the camp, and hundreds were dying daily. In the hope of
improving the sanitary condition of the army, the Emperor moved his
camp to some high ground a mile or so north of the town; but the
epidemic continued to rage with great virulence both in the camp
and in the town. The church was so completely choked up with dead
bodies that no more could be admitted, and the adjoining streets
offered the sad sight of countless corpses, surrounded by the
sorrowful relatives, awaiting for days and nights the hallowed grave
in the now crowded cemetery. Small-pox and typhus fever also made
their appearance, and claimed the victims cholera had spared.
On the 12th June we received orders to join the camp, as Theodore
intended to leave on the following day for the higher and more
healthy province of Begemder. On the 13th, at early morning, the
camp was struck, and we encamped in the evening on the banks of the
Gumare, a tributary of the Nile. The next day the march was resumed.
We had been more or less ascending since our departure from Kourata,
and Outoo (a beautiful plateau, our halting-place of the 14th) must
have been several thousand feet higher than the lake; nevertheless,
cholera, small-pox, and typhus fever continued unabated. His Majesty
inquired what was usually done in our country under similar
circumstances.
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