It Is A Great Pity That The Number Of Our Gun-Boats At This Port
(Gibraltar) Is So Limited, As
A larger number of them, and a few other
small vessels kept in readiness here, and well appointed, would
protect
Our commerce, and prevent our suffering so much from the
Spanish boats, and several small French cruizers, which infest this
part of the world, and almost daily capture some of our merchantmen,
which they carry into Algesiras in sight of this garrison.
APPENDIX.
No. I.
Copy of a Letter from JOHN TURNBULL, Esquire, Chairman to the Board of
Trade, to E. COOKE, Esquire, Under Secretary of State, &c. &c. &c.
SIR,
In my capacity of General Chairman of the Merchants trading to the
Mediterranean, and in consequence of the commercial relations which I
have long maintained with Gibraltar, I think it my duty to submit,
with great deference, to the consideration of Lord Castlereagh certain
observations respecting the late dreadful calamity, which afflicted
that garrison. The great mortality which then prevailed, and which
carried off almost the whole of the civil inhabitants, was in a great
degree to be imputed to the want of medical assistance for the poorer
classes of the people, who are chiefly foreigners. The physicians and
surgeons attached to the army, had every moment of their time fully
occupied by the care of the troops immediately under their charge. If
even they could have spared a little attention to the miserable
objects just mentioned, it could probably have produced but a very
inadequate effect. As the medical gentlemen could not be supposed to
be acquainted with the various foreign dialects that these people
could only make use of, they were therefore obliged to be abandoned to
their fate; and by their numerous deaths, and the intercourse they had
with one another, necessarily occasioned a deplorable increase of
contagion. It is therefore respectfully suggested, that, as the return
of such a disorder ought at any rate to be guarded against, it would
be highly desirable, that a medical gentleman, conversant with the
languages of the southern parts of Europe, should be appointed as
physician to the civil inhabitants of Gibraltar, and for their express
and immediate care. There is now in London, a gentleman (Doctor
Buffa), Physician to His Majesty's Forces, who appears to be
peculiarly well qualified for such an appointment. He is possessed of
superior medical abilities, and particularly in the disorders of the
plague and yellow-fever, in the treatment of which he has had much
experience and success; and having been born in Piedmont, he is well
acquainted with the southern languages of Europe. If Lord Castlereagh
should be pleased to approve of Doctor Buffa being placed at
Gibraltar, in the situation which I have taken the liberty to suggest,
it would occasion no extraordinary expense to Government, Doctor Buffa
being now one of the Physicians to the Army, and might eventually be
productive of the most beneficial effects.
I have the honour to be, most respectfully,
SIR,
Your most obedient and
Most humble servant,
(Signed) JOHN TURNBULL.
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