very hot in the summer causing discomfort to their occupants, and on one occasion some of them collapsed in a thunderstorm. many barracche were built in the ditches of fortifications, including the main ditch of the valletta land front, and the floriana lines ditches near porta sant'anna and porte des bombes. others were also built within valletta and floriana and at ta' xbiex, fort manoel, bighi, birkirkara, qormi, żebbuġ and outside the cottonera lines near birgu. a temporary hospital consisting of 59 huts was built at santa venera in september 1813. change of governor sir thomas maitland, governor from october 1813 in 1813, pursuant to the change of malta's status from a protectorate to a crown colony, and the office of civil commissioner was replaced by that of a governor. oakes was offered the new position, but he declined on the grounds of his own poor health. there have been suggestions that oakes' resignation was due to the plague outbreak, but a letter he wrote before the disease broke out already expressed his wishes to resign. the office of governor was given to sir thomas maitland, who arrived in the islands on 3 october and assumed office two days later. maitland took strict actions in order to eliminate the disease. restrictive measures were also imposed in the villages in order to prevent the disease from spreading. the population was not allowed to go to the countryside or to the ports, and cotton fields were abandoned. on 10 september, movement from settlements with high mortality rates was restricted, and soldiers surrounded and cordoned off qormi, żebbuġ and birkirkara to prevent any inhabitants from leaving. violations of this restriction were liable to the death penalty. the mortality rate had decreased to 196 people in october, and by then the epidemic was on the decline. on 13 november, maitland ordered houses and shops in valletta and floriana to be purified under the supervision of doctors and the police for a period of 15 days. people who had concealed potentially infected objects were pardoned if they revealed their items to the police within 10 days. in december, the number of districts in valletta was increased to 24, while floriana was divided into 7 districts. the situation had improved greatly by december 1813, and on 7 january 1814 the restrictions on valletta were lifted. restrictions on other towns and villages were removed in the following days, except in qormi which remained isolated until early march. the outbreak was said to be over by the end of january. on 27 january, the barracche were dismantled and burnt. outbreak in gozo the xagħra parish church, whose construction was delayed due to the epidemic while parts of malta were devastated by the plague, there was no outbreak of the plague on the island of gozo in 1813. communication with mainland malta was restricted when the outbreak occurred in valletta, which initially prevented the disease from reaching gozo. however, when restrictions were lifted upon the end of the epidemic in malta, an outbreak in gozo occurred, although it was much smaller than the one in malta. it is believed that the disease was imported to the island through infected clothing which had been concealed during the malta epidemic. angelo galea, a gozitan who was in qormi at the time out the outbreak, hid a box of clothes (including an għonnella) from the authorities and took them with him when he returned to gozo in late february 1814. he died in his house in xagħra on 22 february 1814, a couple of days after his arrival. like the first case in malta, it was not believed that he died of the plague and his funeral was held at the village's parish church. on 28 february, galea's daughter rosa became ill and died soon afterwards at the hospital at rabat. there were fears that the plague had reached gozo, and within a few days a number of xagħra residents died of the disease. an outbreak of fever was reported on 2 march 1814, and it was confirmed to be plague five days later. containment measures shrine build for thanksgiving in the aftermath of the plague. on 8 march, maitland cut off all communication between the islands, and the military was sent to cordon off xagħra to prevent the spread of the plague to the rest of gozo. the disease was successfully contained within the village, resulting in gozo having a much lower death toll than malta. on 13 march, joseph said wandered out of his house in a state of delirium after being infected, and he was shot dead by the police. another man was executed by firing squad for concealing the disease on 31 march. a farmhouse known as tal-qassam located south of the village was requisitioned and converted into a hospital by 19 march. known as the tal-fewdu plague hospital, it was led by the military doctor george mcadam. the dead were buried in a nearby field so as to limit the possibility of infection while transporting corpses. on 31 march, people who lived in houses where others had been infected were moved into a tented camp. the outbreak was already in decline by mid-april, but mcadam contracted the disease and died on 5 or 6 may. the last death from the plague on gozo was on 28 may. on 12 june, family members of plague victims were taken to ramla bay and were told to bathe in the sea three times a day under police supervision. this was believed to disinfect them from traces of the disease. the maltese islands were officially declared to be free from the disease on 8 september 1814, and communication between the islands was restored on 14 september. transmission plague is caused by microbes in rats, which spread to humans through infected fleas from the rats. at the time of the outbreak, this cause was not known, and this hampered containment efforts and led to speculation on the cause and spread of the disease. at the time, the miasma theory which believed that the disease was caused by "bad air" was popular, and those who believed that it was contagious traced it to unusual sources. hair, paper, feathers and straw were believed to be easily infected, so care was taken when these items were handled. mail was disinfected at the lazzaretto by slitting letters open and soaking them in vinegar or exposing them to fumes of a mixture of substances. during the outbreak, some wrote on wooden tablets instead of paper, and in january 1814 the registers of the monte di pietà were unbound, disinfected and rebound to ensure that they were not contaminated. in the valletta outbreak, it was observed that families of victims were more likely to contract the disease than neighbours, such that the disease spread whenever there was contact between people, but not between people who lived close but did not make contact with each other. this led to the realisation that the disease was not airborne. the fact that the plague devastated valletta but did not seriously affect the nearby three cities was also cited as proof of this. impact death toll and demographic impact 1815 document written in italian claiming 4,486 deaths and a further 3,826 infected the death toll of the plague outbreak on malta has been variously reported as being either 4487, 4549, 4572 or 4668. about 740 of the deaths were in the town of qormi. the death tolls in the three cities were 33 in birgu and 12 in cospicua; there were no deaths from the plague in senglea. despite the high death toll of civilians, the british garrison of around 3700 men only lost 20 men to the plague. the death toll in gozo was reported to either 96 or 104, out of a population of over 15,000. notable victims of the plague include xagħra's parish priest vincenzo cauchi, and george mcadam, the army surgeon who had volunteered to help set up the hospital in xagħra. at the time, the islands' population was about 97,000, so the plague is estimated to have killed approximately 5% of the population. in the 1820s, an author wrote that the disease "swept away more than one-twentieth of the inhabitants of one of the most populous islands under the british crown". the death toll played a role in reducing population pressure in the densely populated islands. cemeteries plague cemetery at lija, bearing the date "1813" due to the high death toll, a number of special cemeteries known as clausure were established for the victims. these were extramural cemeteries located outside settlements, contrasting with the usual practice of burying the dead within churches. dedicated cemeteries had been created for earlier epidemics such as the plagues of 1592 and 1675–1676, and they were also created for outbreaks of cholera and smallpox later on in the 19th century. some of these cemeteries were dedicated to saint roch due to the devotion to the saint in instances of plague, while others did not have a specific dedication. many of the 1813 cemeteries bore this date on the outside. tal-ftajjar chapel, in luqa, was used as a burial site. some of these cemeteries were later used for other burials, such that they became the main cemetery for a particular town or village. examples of these include the cemeteries of qormi and lija. other cemeteries, such as that of ta' gadaf near naxxar, were left in a state of abandonment. some victims were also buried in abandoned churches (such as the old parish church of st mary in birkirkara), in fields or in sealed tombs in crypts. economic impact the plague outbreak caused severe economic disruption as trade links and communication were cut off, both internally and with neighbouring countries. ties between malta and gozo were cut off for a long period of time, although there were instances where limited trade between the islands were allowed. fearing the disease, a number of foreign business people had left the island by august 1813. government expenditure also increased during the outbreak. the plague contributed to an economic depression which lasted until well after the disease was eradicated from the islands. some ports imposed quarantines on maltese ships until 1826, negatively impacting trade in the process. other factors such as the greek war of independence, growing popularity of egyptian cotton and the french conquest of algeria also contributed to the poor state of malta's economy in the 1820s and 1830s. religious and superstitious beliefs some regarded the plague as a form of divine punishment, and many who survived attributed this to grace. when the epidemic ended, a pilgrimage was held from valletta to the sanctuary of our lady of mellieħa. during the plague, some linked the year 1813 with the superstition that the number 13 is unlucky, regarding the 13th year of a century as an annus horribilis. legacy a hand-drawn hearse which was used in the 1813 plague outbreak still survives. it was rediscovered in 1992 in the crypt of the żabbar parish church, and it is now exhibited at the żabbar sanctuary museum. ex voto and other commemorations statue of st sebastian in qormi, built to commemorate deliverance from the plague a number of ex-votos were offered to churches by people who survived the outbreak. these are often examples of folk art which are not necessarily of a high artistic quality, but they have historical significance since they are primary sources which portray life during the course of the epidemic. churches which contain ex voto paintings include the church of saint barbara in valletta and the mensija sanctuary at san ġwann. a statue of saint sebastian, a patron saint of the plague-stricken, was erected on the outskirts of qormi (facing marsa and the harbour) after the outbreak. the statue was sculpted by ċikku and girolamo fabri (although it sometimes attributed to vincenzo dimech), and an inscription commemorates that it was given an indulgence in 1816. in the 1880s, a church dedicated to the same saint was built near the statue, and it became a separate parish in 1935. a much larger parish church was built nearby later on in the 20th century. in senglea, a statue of our lady was commissioned to commemorate deliverance of the city's inhabitants from the plague. salvatore