Bubonic plague

On p. 404 of vol. II, in the article Popular riots, we have already referred to the cases of bubonic plague that broke out in Funchal in November 1905 and to the extraordinary events that followed them. These were caused by the people’s conviction not only that the disease did not exist on the island, but that the patients admitted to the Lazareto (‘quarantine hospital’) were being murdered by Dr Balbino do Rêgo and the nursing staff, with the consent of the local authorities. To what we said then, we need only add now that the bacteriological tests carried out in Lisbon fully confirmed Dr António Balbino do Rêgo’s statement that bubonic plague was present in Madeira. The only strange thing was the secrecy in which everything that went on inside the Lazareto was shrouded, which allowed the absurd and fanciful reports mentioned in that article to circulate in the city and beyond. Had full and precise information been given to everyone who sought news of the condition of the patients in the establishment, it may be supposed that the events of 7 January 1906 would not have taken place. Those events, however, did not bring about the harm to public health that many had predicted.

It was said that the people had killed the plague, and indeed, after 7 January no new case of the disease was recorded in Funchal, even though the patients had been carried in the arms of their liberators and many dozens of people had flocked to their homes to see them and talk to them.

It was Regenerator Party politics, seeking to prepare the ground for a future electoral victory, that did most to make the people believe that the most heinous crimes were being committed in the Lazareto. What was established after the events we have described, however, is that the patients had always been well treated there, both by the director and by the nursing staff. Their only complaints were about the strictness of the isolation and the discomfort caused by the hygiene rules they were obliged to follow.