Mr. Morris to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I regret to be obliged to announce the reappearance of cholera at Constantinople. It broke out a few days since at Ortakeui, a neighboring village on the Bosphorus, and out of twelve cases reported from that locality up to this date, eight have terminated fatally. Four cases and two deaths have also occurred at the arsenal on the Golden Horn, whence it extended itself, in the summer of 1865, over the whole city. One death of the apoplectic or “fondroyant” cholera is reported from Bebek. The disease at present threatens to take an epidemic form. If it should become epidemical, it must be very fatal, as the winter here is generally rude in temperature, and much suffering exists in consequence among the population, the great bulk of which live in miserable tenements and are scantily clad, and illy provided with the necessaries of life. It is to be hoped we are not to witness a repetition of the horrors of 1865, when fully 50,000 people were swept off in six weeks by this scourge of humanity.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.