Mr. Hale to Mr. Seward
Sir: I am gratified to be able to report that since my last despatch the mortality at this place has continued to diminish daily; the number of deaths from cholera reported yesterday was only eighteen; and there have been none in the American community since the two previously mentioned.
The number of deaths from cholera in Alexandria since the outbreak of the malady, until yesterday, inclusive—a period of thirty-seven days—according to the official bulletins, has been three thousand nine hundred and thirty-one. The number of deaths, from other diseases in the same period, has been one thousand three hundred and sixty-nine. The aggregate mortality within this period accordingly has been five thousand three hundred. The population of Alexandria may be estimated at one hundred and seventy-five thousand.
In Cairo the malady did not declare itself until eight days after its [Page 325] appearance at Alexandria. The number of deaths at that place to the 17th instant, inclusive, a period of twenty-eight days, according to the official bulletins, has been the following: From cholera, five thousand two hundred and forty-nine; from other diseases, two thousand three hundred; total, seven thousand five hundred and forty-nine. The population at Cairo may be estimated at four hundred thousand.
In Damietta, a place with a population of about forty thousand, the number of deaths from cholera between the 26th of June and 9th of July, inclusive, a period of fourteen days, was one thousand four hundred and eighty-five; and in the same period one hundred and three deaths from other diseases were reported.
Similar reports are received from many other places in lower and middle Egypt, but there have been very few cases at Suez, and none, it is believed, in upper Egypt.
The mortality obtained its maximum in Alexandria on the 3d instant, when the number of deaths reported from cholera was two hundred and twenty-eight; in Cairo on the 14th, when the number was four hundred and fifty-seven; in Damietta on the 5th, when the number was one hundred and seventy-two, a rate of mortality which, had it continued, would have wiped that town out of existence in eight months. Since these dates, happily, the amelioration has been constant and rapid.
The depth of water in the Nile was officially reported on the 10th instant to be eight pics and nine kerats. It had not been so low at the same date for four years certainly, and I believe for a much longer period. It has gained nearly two kerats each day since that date, or about eight inches in the space of a week. These measurements are made at the Nileometer near Cairo.
I have the honor to enclose tables showing the mortality, according to the official bulletins, for every day since the outbreak of the malady, both at Alexandria and Cairo, and a portion of a similar table for Damietta. It may be interesting to trace the progress of the disease at each of these places. In these tables the deaths are set down against the date when they were reported; in my previous despatches I have mentioned the same numbers with dates a day earlier. In point of fact, I believe the official bulletin each day includes the morning of the same day with the afternoon of the preceding day, and the night between.
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.