I am not physician enough to enter into the particular reasons and

manner of these differing effects of one and the same distemper, and of

its differing operation in several bodies; nor is it my business here to

record the observations which I really made, because the doctors

themselves have done that part much more effectually than I can do, and

because my opinion may in some things differ from theirs. I am only

relating what I know, or have heard, or believe, of the particular

cases, and what fell within the compass of my view, and the different

nature of the infection as it appeared in the particular cases which I

have related; but this may be added too, that though the former sort of

those cases, namely, those openly visited, were the worst for themselves

as to pain (I mean those that had such fevers, vomitings, headaches,

pains, and swellings), because they died in such a dreadful manner, yet

the latter had the worst state of the disease; for in the former they

frequently recovered, especially if the swellings broke; but the latter

was inevitable death. No cure, no help, could be possible; nothing could

follow but death. And it was worse, also, to others; because, as above,

it secretly and unperceived by others or by themselves, communicated

death to those they conversed with, the penetrating poison insinuating

itself into their blood in a manner which it was impossible to describe,

or indeed conceive.

This infecting and being infected without so much as its being known to

either person is evident from two sorts of cases which frequently

happened at that time; and there is hardly anybody living, who was in

London during the infection, but must have known several of the cases of

both sorts.

1. Fathers and mothers have gone about as if they had been well, and

have believed themselves to be so, till they have insensibly infected

and been the destruction of their whole families; which they would have

been far from doing if they had had the least apprehensions of their

being unsound and dangerous themselves. A family, whose story I have

heard, was thus infected by the father, and the distemper began to

appear upon some of them even before he found it upon himself; but,

searching more narrowly, it appeared he had been infected some time,

and, as soon as he found that his family had been poisoned by himself,

he went distracted, and would have laid violent hands upon himself, but

was kept from that by those who looked to him; and in a few days he

died.

2. The other particular is, that many people, having been well to the

best of their own judgment, or by the best observation which they could

make of themselves for several days, and only finding a decay of

appetite, or a light sickness upon their stomachs,--nay, some whose

appetite has been strong, and even craving, and only a light pain in

their heads,--have sent for physicians to know what ailed them, and have

been found, to their great surprise, at the brink of death, the tokens

upon them, or the plague grown up to an incurable height.

It was very sad to reflect how such a person as this last mentioned

above had been a walking destroyer, perhaps for a week or fortnight

before that; how he had ruined those that he would have hazarded his

life to save, and had been breathing death upon them, even perhaps in

his tender kissing and embracings of his own children. Yet thus

certainly it was, and often has been, and I could give many particular

cases where it has been so. If, then, the blow is thus insensibly

striking; if the arrow flies thus unseen, and cannot be discovered,--to

what purpose are all the schemes for shutting up or removing the sick

people? Those schemes cannot take place but upon those that appear to

be sick or to be infected; whereas there are among them at the same time

thousands of people who seem to be well, but are all that while carrying

death with them into all companies which they come into.

This frequently puzzled our physicians, and especially the apothecaries

and surgeons, who knew not how to discover the sick from the sound. They

all allowed that it was really so; that many people had the plague in

their very blood, and preying upon their spirits, and were in themselves

but walking putrefied carcasses, whose breath was infectious, and their

sweat poison, and yet were as well to look on as other people, and even

knew it not themselves,--I say they all allowed that it was really true

in fact, but they knew not how to propose a discovery.[272]

My friend Dr. Heath was of opinion that it might be known by the smell

of their breath; but then, as he said, who durst smell to that breath

for his information, since to know it he must draw the stench of the

plague up into his own brain in order to distinguish the smell? I have

heard it was the opinion of others that it might be distinguished by the

party's breathing upon a piece of glass, where, the breath condensing,

there might living creatures be seen by a microscope, of strange,

monstrous, and frightful shapes, such as dragons, snakes, serpents, and

devils, horrible to behold. But this I very much question the truth of,

and we had no microscopes at that time, as I remember, to make the

experiment with.[273]

It was the opinion, also, of another learned man that the breath of such

a person would poison and instantly kill a bird, not only a small bird,

but even a cock or hen; and that, if it did not immediately kill the

latter, it would cause them to be roupy,[274] as they call it;

particularly that, if they had laid any eggs at that time, they would be

all rotten. But those are opinions which I never found supported by any

experiments, or heard of others that had seen it,[275] so I leave them

as I find them, only with this remark, namely, that I think the

probabilities are very strong for them.

Some have proposed that such persons should breathe hard upon warm

water, and that they would leave an unusual scum upon it, or upon

several other things, especially such as are of a glutinous substance,

and are apt to receive a scum, and support it.

But, from the whole, I found that the nature of this contagion was such

that it was impossible to discover it at all, or to prevent it spreading

from one to another by any human skill.

Here was indeed one difficulty, which I could never thoroughly get over

to this time, and which there is but one way of answering that I know

of, and it is this; viz., the first person that died of the plague was

on December 20th, or thereabouts, 1664, and in or about Longacre: whence

the first person had the infection was generally said to be from a

parcel of silks imported from Holland, and first opened in that house.

But after this we heard no more of any person dying of the plague, or of

the distemper being in that place, till the 9th of February, which was

about seven weeks after, and then one more was buried out of the same

house. Then it was hushed, and we were perfectly easy as to the public

for a great while; for there were no more entered in the weekly bill to

be dead of the plague till the 22d of April, when there were two more

buried, not out of the same house, but out of the same street; and, as

near as I can remember, it was out of the next house to the first. This

was nine weeks asunder; and after this we had no more till a fortnight,

and then it broke out in several streets, and spread every way. Now, the

question seems to lie thus: Where lay the seeds of the infection all

this while? how came it to stop so long, and not stop any longer? Either

the distemper did not come immediately by contagion from body to body,

or, if it did, then a body may be capable to continue infected, without

the disease discovering itself, many days, nay, weeks together; even not

a quarantine[276] of days only, but a soixantine,[277]--not only forty

days, but sixty days, or longer.

It is true there was, as I observed at first, and is well known to many

yet living, a very cold winter and a long frost, which continued three

months; and this, the doctors say, might check the infection. But then

the learned must allow me to say, that if, according to their notion,

the disease was, as I may say, only frozen up, it would, like a frozen

river, have returned to its usual force and current when it thawed;

whereas the principal recess of this infection, which was from February

to April, was after the frost was broken and the weather mild and warm.

But there is another way of solving all this difficulty, which I think

my own remembrance of the thing will supply; and that is, the fact is

not granted, namely, that there died none in those long intervals, viz.,

from the 20th of December to the 9th of February, and from thence to the

22d of April. The weekly bills are the only evidence on the other side,

and those bills were not of credit enough, at least with me, to support

an hypothesis, or determine a question of such importance as this; for

it was our received opinion at that time, and I believe upon very good

grounds, that the fraud lay in the parish officers, searchers, and

persons appointed to give account of the dead, and what diseases they

died of; and as people were very loath at first to have the neighbors

believe their houses were infected, so they gave money to procure, or

otherwise procured, the dead persons to be returned as dying of other

distempers; and this I know was practiced afterwards in many places, I

believe I might say in all places where the distemper came, as will be

seen by the vast increase of the numbers placed in the weekly bills

under other articles[278] of diseases during the time of the infection.

For example, in the months of July and August, when the plague was

coming on to its highest pitch, it was very ordinary to have from a

thousand to twelve hundred, nay, to almost fifteen hundred, a week, of

other distempers. Not that the numbers of those distempers were really

increased to such a degree; but the great number of families and houses

where really the infection was, obtained the favor to have their dead be

returned of other distempers, to prevent the shutting up their houses.

For example:--

_Dead of other Diseases besides the Plague._

From the 18th to the 25th of July 942

To the 1st of August 1,004

To the 8th 1,213

To the 15th 1,439

To the 22d 1,331

To the 29th 1,394

To the 5th of September 1,264

To the 12th 1,056

To the 19th 1,132

To the 26th 927

Now, it was not doubted but the greatest part of these, or a great part

of them, were dead of the plague; but the officers were prevailed with

to return them as above, and the numbers of some particular articles of

distempers discovered is as follows:--

Aug. 1-8. Aug. 8-15. Aug. 15-22. Aug. 22-29.

Fever 314 353 348 383

Spotted fever 174 190 166 165

Surfeit 85 87 74 99

Teeth 90 113 111 133

--- --- --- ---

663 743 699 780

Aug. 29-Sept. 5. Sept. 5-12. Sept. 12-19. Sept. 19-26.

Fever 364 332 309 268

Spotted Fever 157 97 101 65

Surfeit 68 45 49 36

Teeth 138 128 121 112

--- --- --- ---

727 602 580 481

There were several other articles which bore a proportion to these, and

which it is easy to perceive were increased on the same account; as

aged,[279] consumptions, vomitings, imposthumes,[280] gripes, and the

like, many of which were not doubted to be infected people; but as it

was of the utmost consequence to families not to be known to be

infected, if it was possible to avoid it, so they took all the measures

they could to have it not believed, and if any died in their houses, to

get them returned to the examiners, and by the searchers, as having died

of other distempers.

This, I say, will account for the long interval which, as I have said,

was between the dying of the first persons that were returned in the

bills to be dead of the plague, and the time when the distemper spread

openly, and could not be concealed.

Besides, the weekly bills themselves at that time evidently discover

this truth; for while there was no mention of the plague, and no

increase after it had been mentioned, yet it was apparent that there was

an increase of those distempers which bordered nearest upon it. For

example, there were eight, twelve, seventeen, of the spotted fever in a

week when there were none or but very few of the plague; whereas before,

one, three, or four were the ordinary weekly numbers of that distemper.

Likewise, as I observed before, the burials increased weekly in that

particular parish and the parishes adjacent, more than in any other

parish, although there were none set down of the plague; all which tell

us that the infection was handed on, and the succession of the distemper

really preserved, though it seemed to us at that time to be ceased, and

to come again in a manner surprising.

It might be, also, that the infection might remain in other parts of the

same parcel of goods which at first it came in, and which might not be,

perhaps, opened, or at least not fully, or in the clothes of the first

infected person; for I cannot think that anybody could be seized with

the contagion in a fatal and mortal degree for nine weeks together, and

support his state of health so well as even not to discover it to

themselves:[281] yet, if it were so, the argument is the stronger in

favor of what I am saying, namely, that the infection is retained in

bodies apparently well, and conveyed from them to those they converse

with, while it is known to neither the one nor the other.

Great were the confusions at that time upon this very account; and when

people began to be convinced that the infection was received in this

surprising manner from persons apparently well, they began to be

exceeding shy and jealous of every one that came near them. Once, on a

public day, whether a sabbath day or not I do not remember, in Aldgate

Church, in a pew full of people, on a sudden one fancied she smelt an

ill smell. Immediately she fancies the plague was in the pew, whispers

her notion or suspicion to the next, then rises and goes out of the pew.

It immediately took with the next, and so with them all; and every one

of them, and of the two or three adjoining pews, got up and went out of

the church, nobody knowing what it was offended them, or from whom.

This immediately filled everybody's mouths with one preparation or

other, such as the old women directed, and some, perhaps, as physicians

directed, in order to prevent infection by the breath of others;

insomuch, that if we came to go into a church when it was anything full

of people, there would be such a mixture of smells at the entrance, that

it was much more strong, though perhaps not so wholesome, than if you

were going into an apothecary's or druggist's shop: in a word, the whole

church was like a smelling bottle. In one corner it was all perfumes; in

another, aromatics,[282] balsamics,[283] and a variety of drugs and

herbs; in another, salts and spirits, as every one was furnished for

their own preservation. Yet I observed that after people were possessed,

as I have said, with the belief, or rather assurance, of the infection

being thus carried on by persons apparently in health, the churches and

meetinghouses were much thinner of people than at other times, before

that, they used to be; for this is to be said of the people of London,

that, during the whole time of the pestilence, the churches or meetings

were never wholly shut up, nor did the people decline coming out to the

public worship of God, except only in some parishes, when the violence

of the distemper was more particularly in that parish at that time, and

even then[284] no longer than it[285] continued to be so.

Indeed, nothing was more strange than to see with what courage the

people went to the public service of God, even at that time when they

were afraid to stir out of their own houses upon any other occasion

(this I mean before the time of desperation which I have mentioned

already). This was a proof of the exceeding populousness of the city at

the time of the infection, notwithstanding the great numbers that were

gone into the country at the first alarm, and that fled out into the

forests and woods when they were further terrified with the

extraordinary increase of it. For when we came to see the crowds and

throngs of people which appeared on the sabbath days at the churches,

and especially in those parts of the town where the plague was abated,

or where it was not yet come to its height, it was amazing. But of this

I shall speak again presently. I return, in the mean time, to the

article of infecting one another at first. Before people came to right

notions of the infection and of infecting one another, people were only

shy of those that were really sick. A man with a cap upon his head, or

with cloths round his neck (which was the case of those that had

swellings there),--such was indeed frightful; but when we saw a

gentleman dressed, with his band[286] on, and his gloves in his hand,

his hat upon his head, and his hair combed,--of such we had not the

least apprehensions; and people conversed a great while freely,

especially with their neighbors and such as they knew. But when the

physicians assured us that the danger was as well from the sound (that

is, the seemingly sound) as the sick, and that those people that thought

themselves entirely free were oftentimes the most fatal; and that it

came to be generally understood that people were sensible of it, and of

the reason of it,--then, I say, they began to be jealous of everybody;

and a vast number of people locked themselves up, so as not to come

abroad into any company at all, nor suffer any that had been abroad in

promiscuous company to come into their houses, or near them (at least

not so near them as to be within the reach of their breath, or of any

smell from them); and when they were obliged to converse at a distance

with strangers, they would always have preservatives in their mouths and

about their clothes, to repel and keep off the infection.

It must be acknowledged that when people began to use these cautions

they were less exposed to danger, and the infection did not break into

such houses so furiously as it did into others before; and thousands of

families were preserved, speaking with due reserve to the direction of

Divine Providence, by that means.

But it was impossible to beat anything into the heads of the poor. They

went on with the usual impetuosity of their tempers, full of outcries

and lamentations when taken, but madly careless of themselves,

foolhardy, and obstinate, while they were well. Where they could get

employment, they pushed into any kind of business, the most dangerous

and the most liable to infection; and if they were spoken to, their

answer would be, "I must trust to God for that. If I am taken, then I am

provided for, and there is an end of me;" and the like. Or thus, "Why,

what must I do? I cannot starve. I had as good have the plague as perish

for want. I have no work: what could I do? I must do this, or beg."

Suppose it was burying the dead, or attending the sick, or watching

infected houses, which were all terrible hazards; but their tale was

generally the same. It is true, necessity was a justifiable, warrantable

plea, and nothing could be better; but their way of talk was much the

same where the necessities were not the same. This adventurous conduct

of the poor was that which brought the plague among them in a most

furious manner; and this, joined to the distress of their circumstances

when taken, was the reason why they died so by heaps; for I cannot say

I could observe one jot of better husbandry[287] among them (I mean the

laboring poor) while they were all well and getting money than there was

before; but[288] as lavish, as extravagant, and as thoughtless for

to-morrow as ever; so that when they came to be taken sick, they were

immediately in the utmost distress, as well for want as for sickness, as

well for lack of food as lack of health.

The misery of the poor I had many occasions to be an eyewitness of, and

sometimes, also, of the charitable assistance that some pious people

daily gave to such, sending them relief and supplies, both of food,

physic, and other help, as they found they wanted. And indeed it is a

debt of justice due to the temper of the people of that day, to take

notice here, that not only great sums, very great sums of money, were

charitably sent to the lord mayor and aldermen for the assistance and

support of the poor distempered people, but abundance of private people

daily distributed large sums of money for their relief, and sent people

about to inquire into the condition of particular distressed and visited

families, and relieved them. Nay, some pious ladies were transported

with zeal in so good a work, and so confident in the protection of

Providence in discharge of the great duty of charity, that they went

about in person distributing alms to the poor, and even visiting poor

families, though sick and infected, in their very houses, appointing

nurses to attend those that wanted attending, and ordering apothecaries

and surgeons, the first to supply them with drugs or plasters, and such

things as they wanted, and the last to lance and dress the swellings and

tumors, where such were wanting; giving their blessing to the poor in

substantial relief to them, as well as hearty prayers for them.

I will not undertake to say, as some do, that none of those charitable

people were suffered to fall under the calamity itself; but this I may

say, that I never knew any one of them that miscarried, which I mention

for the encouragement of others in case of the like distress; and

doubtless if they that give to the poor lend to the Lord, and he will

repay them, those that hazard their lives to give to the poor, and to

comfort and assist the poor in such misery as this, may hope to be

protected in the work.

Nor was this charity so extraordinary eminent only in a few; but (for I

cannot lightly quit this point) the charity of the rich, as well in the

city and suburbs as from the country, was so great, that in a word a

prodigious number of people, who must otherwise have perished for want

as well as sickness, were supported and subsisted by it; and though I

could never, nor I believe any one else, come to a full knowledge of

what was so contributed, yet I do believe, that, as I heard one say that

was a critical observer of that part,[289] there was not only many

thousand pounds contributed, but many hundred thousand pounds, to the

relief of the poor of this distressed, afflicted city. Nay, one man

affirmed to me that he could reckon up above one hundred thousand pounds

a week which was distributed by the churchwardens at the several parish

vestries, by the lord mayor and the aldermen in the several wards and

precincts, and by the particular direction of the court and of the

justices respectively in the parts where they resided, over and above

the private charity distributed by pious hands in the manner I speak of;

and this continued for many weeks together.

I confess this is a very great sum; but if it be true that there was

distributed, in the parish of Cripplegate only, seventeen thousand eight

hundred pounds in one week to the relief of the poor, as I heard

reported, and which I really believe was true, the other may not be

improbable.

It was doubtless to be reckoned among the many signal good providences

which attended this great city, and of which there were many other worth

recording. I say, this was a very remarkable one, that it pleased God

thus to move the hearts of the people in all parts of the kingdom so

cheerfully to contribute to the relief and support of the poor at

London; the good consequences of which were felt many ways, and

particularly in preserving the lives and recovering the health of so

many thousands, and keeping so many thousands of families from perishing

and starving.

And now I am talking of the merciful disposition of Providence in this

time of calamity, I cannot but mention again, though I have spoken

several times of it already on other accounts (I mean that of the

progression of the distemper), how it began at one end of the town, and

proceeded gradually and slowly from one part to another, and like a dark

cloud that passes over our heads, which, as it thickens and overcasts

the air at one end, clears up at the other end: so, while the plague

went on raging from west to east, as it went forwards east, it abated in

the west; by which means those parts of the town which were not seized,

or who[290] were left, and where it had spent its fury, were (as it

were) spared to help and assist the other: whereas, had the distemper

spread itself over the whole city and suburbs at once, raging in all

places alike, as it has done since in some places abroad, the whole body

of the people must have been overwhelmed, and there would have died

twenty thousand a day, as they say there did at Naples, nor would the

people have been able to have helped or assisted one another.

For it must be observed that where the plague was in its full force,

there indeed the people were very miserable, and the consternation was

inexpressible; but a little before it reached even to that place, or

presently after it was gone, they were quite another sort of people; and

I cannot but acknowledge that there was too much of that common temper

of mankind to be found among us all at that time, namely, to forget the

deliverance when the danger is past. But I shall come to speak of that

part again.

It must not be forgot here to take some notice of the state of trade

during the time of this common calamity; and this with respect to

foreign trade, as also to our home trade.

As to foreign trade, there needs little to be said. The trading nations

of Europe were all afraid of us. No port of France, or Holland, or

Spain, or Italy, would admit our ships, or correspond with us. Indeed,

we stood on ill terms with the Dutch, and were in a furious war with

them, though in a bad condition to fight abroad, who had such dreadful

enemies to struggle with at home.

Our merchants were accordingly at a full stop. Their ships could go

nowhere; that is to say, to no place abroad. Their manufactures and

merchandise, that is to say, of our growth, would not be touched abroad.

They were as much afraid of our goods as they were of our people; and

indeed they had reason, for our woolen manufactures are as retentive of

infection as human bodies, and, if packed up by persons infected, would

receive the infection, and be as dangerous to the touch as a man would

be that was infected; and therefore when any English vessel arrived in

foreign countries, if they did take the goods on shore, they always

caused the bales to be opened and aired in places appointed for that

purpose. But from London they would not suffer them to come into port,

much less to unload their goods, upon any terms whatever; and this

strictness was especially used with them in Spain and Italy. In Turkey

and the islands of the Arches,[291] indeed, as they are called, as well

those belonging to the Turks as to the Venetians, they were not so very

rigid. In the first there was no obstruction at all, and four ships

which were then in the river loading for Italy (that is, for Leghorn and

Naples) being denied product, as they call it, went on to Turkey, and

were freely admitted to unlade their cargo without any difficulty, only

that when they arrived there, some of their cargo was not fit for sale

in that country, and other parts of it being consigned to merchants at

Leghorn, the captains of the ships had no right nor any orders to

dispose of the goods; so that great inconveniences followed to the

merchants. But this was nothing but what the necessity of affairs

required; and the merchants at Leghorn and Naples, having notice given

them, sent again from thence to take care of the effects which were

particularly consigned to those ports, and to bring back in other ships

such as were improper for the markets at Smyrna[292] and

Scanderoon.[293]

The inconveniences in Spain and Portugal were still greater; for they

would by no means suffer our ships, especially those from London, to

come into any of their ports, much less to unlade. There was a report

that one of our ships having by stealth delivered her cargo, among which

were some bales of English cloth, cotton, kerseys, and such like goods,

the Spaniards caused all the goods to be burned, and punished the men

with death who were concerned in carrying them on shore. This I believe

was in part true, though I do not affirm it; but it is not at all

unlikely, seeing the danger was really very great, the infection being

so violent in London.

I heard likewise that the plague was carried into those countries by

some of our ships, and particularly to the port of Faro, in the kingdom

of Algarve,[294] belonging to the King of Portugal, and that several

persons died of it there; but it was not confirmed.

On the other hand, though the Spaniards and Portuguese were so shy of

us, it is most certain that the plague, as has been said, keeping at

first much at that end of the town next Westminster, the merchandising

part of the town, such as the city and the waterside, was perfectly

sound till at least the beginning of July, and the ships in the river

till the beginning of August; for to the 1st of July there had died but

seven within the whole city, and but sixty within the liberties; but one

in all the parishes of Stepney, Aldgate, and Whitechapel, and but two in

all the eight parishes of Southwark. But it was the same thing abroad,

for the bad news was gone over the whole world, that the city of London

was infected with the plague; and there was no inquiring there how the

infection proceeded, or at which part of the town it was begun or was

reached to.

Besides, after it began to spread, it increased so fast, and the bills

grew so high all on a sudden, that it was to no purpose to lessen the

report of it, or endeavor to make the people abroad think it better than

it was. The account which the weekly bills gave in was sufficient; and

that there died two thousand to three or four thousand a week was

sufficient to alarm the whole trading part of the world: and the

following time being so dreadful also in the very city itself, put the

whole world, I say, upon their guard against it.

You may be sure also that the report of these things lost nothing in the

carriage. The plague was itself very terrible, and the distress of the

people very great, as you may observe of what I have said, but the rumor

was infinitely greater; and it must not be wondered that our friends

abroad, as my brother's correspondents in particular, were told there

(namely, in Portugal and Italy, where he chiefly traded), that in London

there died twenty thousand in a week; that the dead bodies lay unburied

by heaps; that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead, or the

sound to look after the sick; that all the kingdom was infected

likewise, so that it was an universal malady such as was never heard of

in those parts of the world. And they could hardly believe us when we

gave them an account how things really were; and how there was not above

one tenth part of the people dead; that there were five hundred thousand

left that lived all the time in the town; that now the people began to

walk the streets again, and those who were fled to return; there was no

miss of the usual throng of people in the streets, except as every

family might miss their relations and neighbors; and the like. I say,

they could not believe these things; and if inquiry were now to be made

in Naples, or in other cities on the coast of Italy, they would tell you

there was a dreadful infection in London so many years ago, in which, as

above, there died twenty thousand in a week, etc., just as we have had

it reported in London that there was a plague in the city of Naples in

the year 1656, in which there died twenty thousand people in a day, of

which I have had very good satisfaction that it was utterly false.

But these extravagant reports were very prejudicial to our trade, as

well as unjust and injurious in themselves; for it was a long time after

the plague was quite over before our trade could recover itself in those

parts of the world; and the Flemings[295] and Dutch, but especially the

last, made very great advantages of it, having all the market to

themselves, and even buying our manufactures in the several parts of

England where the plague was not, and carrying them to Holland and

Flanders, and from thence transporting them to Spain and to Italy, as if

they had been of their own making.

But they were detected sometimes, and punished, that is to say, their

goods confiscated, and ships also; for if it was true that our

manufactures as well as our people were infected, and that it was

dangerous to touch or to open and receive the smell of them, then those

people ran the hazard, by that clandestine trade, not only of carrying

the contagion into their own country, but also of infecting the nations

to whom they traded with those goods; which, considering how many lives

might be lost in consequence of such an action, must be a trade that no

men of conscience could suffer themselves to be concerned in.

I do not take upon me to say that any harm was done, I mean of that

kind, by those people; but I doubt I need not make any such proviso in

the case of our own country; for either by our people of London, or by

the commerce, which made their conversing with all sorts of people in

every county, and of every considerable town, necessary,--I say, by this

means the plague was first or last spread all over the kingdom, as well

in London as in all the cities and great towns, especially in the

trading manufacturing towns and seaports: so that first or last all the

considerable places in England were visited more or less, and the

kingdom of Ireland in some places, but not so universally. How it fared

with the people in Scotland, I had no opportunity to inquire.

It is to be observed, that, while the plague continued so violent in

London, the outports, as they are called, enjoyed a very great trade,

especially to the adjacent countries and to our own plantations.[296]

For example, the towns of Colchester, Yarmouth, and Hull, on that

side[297] of England, exported to Holland and Hamburg the manufactures

of the adjacent counties for several months after the trade with London

was, as it were, entirely shut up. Likewise the cities of Bristol[298]

and Exeter, with the port of Plymouth, had the like advantage to Spain,

to the Canaries, to Guinea, and to the West Indies, and particularly to

Ireland. But as the plague spread itself every way after it had been in

London to such a degree as it was in August and September, so all or

most of those cities and towns were infected first or last, and then

trade was, as it were, under a general embargo, or at a full stop, as I

shall observe further when I speak of our home trade.

One thing, however, must be observed, that as to ships coming in from

abroad (as many, you may be sure, did), some who were out in all parts

of the world a considerable while before, and some who, when they went

out, knew nothing of an infection, or at least of one so

terrible,--these came up the river boldly, and delivered their cargoes

as they were obliged to do, except just in the two months of August and

September, when, the weight of the infection lying, as I may say, all

below bridge, nobody durst appear in business for a while. But as this

continued but for a few weeks, the homeward-bound ships, especially such

whose cargoes were not liable to spoil, came to an anchor, for a time,

short of the Pool, or freshwater part of the river, even as low as the

river Medway, where several of them ran in; and others lay at the Nore,

and in the Hope below Gravesend: so that by the latter end of October

there was a very great fleet of homeward-bound ships to come up, such as

the like had not been known for many years.

Two particular trades were carried on by water carriage all the while of

the infection, and that with little or no interruption, very much to the

advantage and comfort of the poor distressed people of the city; and

those were the coasting trade for corn, and the Newcastle trade for

coals.

The first of these was particularly carried on by small vessels from the

port of Hull, and other places in the Humber, by which great quantities

of corn were brought in from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire; the other part

of this corn trade was from Lynn in Norfolk, from Wells, and Burnham,

and from Yarmouth, all in the same county; and the third branch was from

the river Medway, and from Milton, Feversham, Margate, and Sandwich, and

all the other little places and ports round the coast of Kent and

Essex.[299]

There was also a very good trade from the coast of Suffolk, with corn,

butter, and cheese. These vessels kept a constant course of trade, and

without interruption came up to that market known still by the name of

Bear Key, where they supplied the city plentifully with corn when land

carriage began to fail, and when the people began to be sick of coming

from many places in the country.

This also was much of it owing to the prudence and conduct of the lord

mayor, who took such care to keep the masters and seamen from danger

when they came up, causing their corn to be bought off at any time they

wanted a market (which, however, was very seldom), and causing the

cornfactors[300] immediately to unlade and deliver the vessels laden

with corn, that they had very little occasion to come out of their ships

or vessels, the money being always carried on board to them, and put it

into a pail of vinegar before it was carried.

The second trade was that of coals from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, without

which the city would have been greatly distressed; for not in the

streets only, but in private houses and families, great quantities of

coal were then burnt, even all the summer long, and when the weather was

hottest, which was done by the advice of the physicians. Some, indeed,

opposed it, and insisted that to keep the houses and rooms hot was a

means to propagate the distemper, which was a fermentation and heat

already in the blood; that it was known to spread and increase in hot

weather, and abate in cold; and therefore they alleged that all

contagious distempers are the worst for heat, because the contagion was

nourished, and gained strength, in hot weather, and was, as it were,

propagated in heat.

Others said they granted that heat in the climate might propagate

infection, as sultry hot weather fills the air with vermin, and

nourishes innumerable numbers and kinds of venomous creatures, which

breed in our food, in the plants, and even in our bodies, by the very

stench of which infection may be propagated; also that heat in the air,

or heat of weather, as we ordinarily call it, makes bodies relax and

faint, exhausts the spirits, opens the pores, and makes us more apt to

receive infection or any evil influence, be it from noxious,

pestilential vapors, or any other thing in the air; but that the heat of

fire, and especially of coal fires, kept in our houses or near us, had

quite a different operation, the heat being not of the same kind, but

quick and fierce, tending not to nourish, but to consume and dissipate,

all those noxious fumes which the other kind of heat rather exhaled, and

stagnated than separated, and burnt up. Besides, it was alleged that the

sulphureous and nitrous particles that are often found to be in the

coal, with that bituminous substance which burns, are all assisting to

clear and purge the air, and render it wholesome and safe to breathe

in, after the noxious particles (as above) are dispersed and burnt up.

The latter opinion prevailed at that time, and, as I must confess, I

think with good reason; and the experience of the citizens confirmed it,

many houses which had constant fires kept in the rooms having never been

infected at all; and I must join my experience to it, for I found the

keeping of good fires kept our rooms sweet and wholesome, and I do

verily believe made our whole family so, more than would otherwise have

been.

But I return to the coals as a trade. It was with no little difficulty

that this trade was kept open, and particularly because, as we were in

an open war with the Dutch at that time, the Dutch capers[301] at first

took a great many of our collier ships, which made the rest cautious,

and made them to stay to come in fleets together. But after some time

the capers were either afraid to take them, or their masters, the

States, were afraid they should, and forbade them, lest the plague

should be among them, which made them fare the better.

For the security of those northern traders, the coal ships were ordered

by my lord mayor not to come up into the Pool above a certain number at

a time; and[302] ordered lighters and other vessels, such as the

woodmongers (that is, the wharf keepers) or coal sellers furnished, to

go down and take out the coals as low as Deptford and Greenwich, and

some farther down.

Others delivered great quantities of coals in particular places where

the ships could come to the shore, as at Greenwich, Blackwall, and other

places, in vast heaps, as if to be kept for sale; but[303] were then

fetched away after the ships which brought them were gone; so that the

seamen had no communication with the river men, nor so much as came near

one another.[304]

Yet all this caution could not effectually prevent the distemper

getting among the colliery, that is to say, among the ships, by which a

great many seamen died of it; and that which was still worse was, that

they carried it down to Ipswich and Yarmouth, to Newcastle-upon-Tyne,

and other places on the coast, where, especially at Newcastle and at

Sunderland, it carried off a great number of people.

The making so many fires as above did indeed consume an unusual quantity

of coals; and that upon one or two stops of the ships coming up (whether

by contrary weather or by the interruption of enemies, I do not

remember); but the price of coals was exceedingly dear, even as high as

four pounds a chaldron;[305] but it soon abated when the ships came in,

and, as afterwards they had a freer passage, the price was very

reasonable all the rest of that year.

The public fires which were made on these occasions, as I have

calculated it, must necessarily have cost the city about two hundred

chaldron of coals a week, if they had continued, which was indeed a very

great quantity; but as it was thought necessary, nothing was spared.

However, as some of the physicians cried them down, they were not kept

alight above four or five days. The fires were ordered thus:--

One at the Custom House; one at Billingsgate; one at Queenhithe, and one

at the Three Cranes; one in Blackfriars, and one at the gate of

Bridewell; one at the corner of Leadenhall Street and Gracechurch; one

at the north and one at the south gate of the Royal Exchange; one at

Guildhall, and one at Blackwell Hall gate; one at the lord mayor's door

in St. Helen's; one at the west entrance into St. Paul's; and one at the

entrance into Bow Church. I do not remember whether there was any at the

city gates, but one at the bridge foot there was, just by St. Magnus

Church.

I know some have quarreled since that at the experiment, and said that

there died the more people because of those fires; but I am persuaded

those that say so offer no evidence to prove it, neither can I believe

it on any account whatever.

It remains to give some account of the state of trade at home in England

during this dreadful time, and particularly as it relates to the

manufactures and the trade in the city. At the first breaking out of the

infection there was, as it is easy to suppose, a very great fright among

the people, and consequently a general stop of trade, except in

provisions and necessaries of life; and even in those things, as there

was a vast number of people fled and a very great number always sick,

besides the number which died, so there could not be above two thirds,

if above one half, of the consumption of provisions in the city as used

to be.

It pleased God to send a very plentiful year of corn and fruit, and not

of hay or grass, by which means bread was cheap by reason of the plenty

of corn, flesh was cheap by reason of the scarcity of grass, but butter

and cheese were dear for the same reason; and hay in the market, just

beyond Whitechapel Bars, was sold at four pounds per load; but that

affected not the poor. There was a most excessive plenty of all sorts of

fruit, such as apples, pears, plums, cherries, grapes; and they were the

cheaper because of the wants of the people; but this made the poor eat

them to excess, and this brought them into surfeits and the like, which

often precipitated them into the plague.

But to come to matters of trade. First, foreign exportation being

stopped, or at least very much interrupted and rendered difficult, a

general stop of all those manufactures followed of course, which were

usually brought for exportation; and, though sometimes merchants abroad

were importunate for goods, yet little was sent, the passages being so

generally stopped that the English ships would not be admitted, as is

said already, into their port.

This put a stop to the manufactures that were for exportation in most

parts of England, except in some outports; and even that was soon

stopped, for they all had the plague in their turn. But though this was

felt all over England, yet, what was still worse, all intercourse of

trade for home consumption of manufactures, especially those which

usually circulated through the Londoners' hands, was stopped at once,

the trade of the city being stopped.

All kinds of handicrafts in the city, etc., tradesmen and mechanics,

were, as I have said before, out of employ; and this occasioned the

putting off and dismissing an innumerable number of journeymen and

workmen of all sorts, seeing nothing was done relating to such trades

but what might be said to be absolutely necessary.

This caused the multitude of single people in London to be unprovided

for, as also of families whose living depended upon the labor of the

heads of those families. I say, this reduced them to extreme misery; and

I must confess it is for the honor of the city of London, and will be

for many ages, as long as this is to be spoken of, that they were able

to supply with charitable provision the wants of so many thousands of

those as afterwards fell sick and were distressed; so that it may be

safely averred that nobody perished for want, at least that the

magistrates had any notice given them of.

This stagnation of our manufacturing trade in the country would have put

the people there to much greater difficulties, but that the master

workmen, clothiers, and others, to the uttermost of their stocks and

strength, kept on making their goods to keep the poor at work, believing

that, as soon as the sickness should abate, they would have a quick

demand in proportion to the decay of their trade at that time; but as

none but those masters that were rich could do thus, and that many were

poor and not able, the manufacturing trade in England suffered greatly,

and the poor were pinched all over England by the calamity of the city

of London only.

It is true that the next year made them full amends by another terrible

calamity upon the city; so that the city by one calamity impoverished

and weakened the country, and by another calamity (even terrible, too,

of its kind) enriched the country, and made them again amends: for an

infinite quantity of household stuff, wearing apparel, and other

things, besides whole warehouses filled with merchandise and

manufactures, such as come from all parts of England, were consumed in

the fire of London the next year after this terrible visitation. It is

incredible what a trade this made all over the whole kingdom, to make

good the want, and to supply that loss; so that, in short, all the

manufacturing hands in the nation were set on work, and were little

enough for several years to supply the market, and answer the demands.

All foreign markets also were empty of our goods, by the stop which had

been occasioned by the plague, and before an open trade was allowed

again; and the prodigious demand at home falling in, joined to make a

quick vent[306] for all sorts of goods; so that there never was known

such a trade all over England, for the time, as was in the first seven

years after the plague, and after the fire of London.

It remains now that I should say something of the merciful part of this

terrible judgment. The last week in September, the plague being come to

its crisis, its fury began to assuage. I remember my friend Dr. Heath,

coming to see me the week before, told me he was sure the violence of it

would assuage in a few days; but when I saw the weekly bill of that

week, which was the highest of the whole year, being 8,297 of all

diseases, I upbraided him with it, and asked him what he had made his

judgment from. His answer, however, was not so much to seek[307] as I

thought it would have been. "Look you," says he: "by the number which

are at this time sick and infected, there should have been twenty

thousand dead the last week, instead of eight thousand, if the

inveterate mortal contagion had been as it was two weeks ago; for then

it ordinarily killed in two or three days, now not under eight or ten;

and then not above one in five recovered, whereas I have observed that

now not above two in five miscarry. And observe it from me, the next

bill will decrease, and you will see many more people recover than used

to do; for though a vast multitude are now everywhere infected, and as

many every day fall sick, yet there will not so many die as there did,

for the malignity of the distemper is abated;" adding that he began now

to hope, nay, more than hope, that the infection had passed its crisis,

and was going off. And accordingly so it was; for the next week being,

as I said, the last in September, the bill decreased almost two

thousand.

It is true, the plague was still at a frightful height, and the next

bill was no less than 6,460, and the next to that 5,720; but still my

friend's observation was just, and it did appear the people did recover

faster, and more in number, than they used to do; and indeed if it had

not been so, what had been the condition of the city of London? For,

according to my friend, there were not fewer than 60,000 people at that

time infected, whereof, as above, 20,477 died, and near 40,000

recovered; whereas, had it been as it was before, 50,000 of that number

would very probably have died, if not more, and 50,000 more would have

sickened; for in a word the whole mass of people began to sicken, and it

looked as if none would escape.

But this remark of my friend's appeared more evident in a few weeks

more; for the decrease went on, and another week in October it decreased

1,843, so that the number dead of the plague was but 2,665; and the next

week it decreased 1,413 more, and yet it was seen plainly that there was

abundance of people sick, nay, abundance more than ordinary, and

abundance fell sick every day; but, as above, the malignity of the

disease abated.

Such is the precipitant disposition of our people (whether it is so or

not all over the world, that is none of my particular business to

inquire; but I saw it apparently here), that, as upon the first sight of

the infection they shunned one another, and fled from one another's

houses and from the city with an unaccountable, and, as I thought,

unnecessary fright, so now, upon this notion spreading, viz., that the

distemper was not so catching as formerly, and that if it was catched it

was not so mortal, and seeing abundance of people who really fell sick

recover again daily, they took to such a precipitant courage, and grew

so entirely regardless of themselves and of the infection, that they

made no more of the plague than of an ordinary fever, nor indeed so

much. They not only went boldly into company with those who had tumors

and carbuncles upon them that were running, and consequently contagious,

but eat and drank with them, nay, into their houses to visit them, and

even, as I was told, into their very chambers where they lay sick.

This I could not see rational. My friend Dr. Heath allowed, and it was

plain to experience, that the distemper was as catching as ever, and as

many fell sick, but only he alleged that so many of those that fell sick

did not die; but I think that while many did die, and that at best the

distemper itself was very terrible, the sores and swellings very

tormenting, and the danger of death not left out of the circumstance of

sickness, though not so frequent as before,--all those things, together

with the exceeding tediousness of the cure, the loathsomeness of the

disease, and many other articles, were enough to deter any man living

from a dangerous mixture[308] with the sick people, and make them[309]

as anxious almost to avoid the infection as before.

Nay, there was another thing which made the mere catching of the

distemper frightful, and that was the terrible burning of the caustics

which the surgeons laid on the swellings to bring them to break and to

run; without which the danger of death was very great, even to the last;

also the insufferable torment of the swellings, which, though it might

not make people raving and distracted, as they were before, and as I

have given several instances of already, yet they put the patient to

inexpressible torment; and those that fell into it, though they did

escape with life, yet they made bitter complaints of those that had told

them there was no danger, and sadly repented their rashness and folly in

venturing to run into the reach of it.

Nor did this unwary conduct of the people end here; for a great many

that thus cast off their cautions suffered more deeply still, and though

many escaped, yet many died; and at least it[310] had this public

mischief attending it, that it made the decrease of burials slower than

it would otherwise have been; for, as this notion ran like lightning

through the city, and the people's heads were possessed with it, even as

soon as the first great decrease in the bills appeared, we found that

the two next bills did not decrease in proportion: the reason I take to

be the people's running so rashly into danger, giving up all their

former cautions and care, and all shyness which they used to practice,

depending that the sickness would not reach them, or that, if it did,

they should not die.

The physicians opposed this thoughtless humor of the people with all

their might, and gave out printed directions, spreading them all over

the city and suburbs, advising the people to continue reserved, and to

use still the utmost caution in their ordinary conduct, notwithstanding

the decrease of the distemper; terrifying them with the danger of

bringing a relapse upon the whole city, and telling them how such a

relapse might be more fatal and dangerous than the whole visitation that

had been already; with many arguments and reasons to explain and prove

that part to them, and which are too long to repeat here.

But it was all to no purpose. The audacious creatures were so possessed

with the first joy, and so surprised with the satisfaction of seeing a

vast decrease in the weekly bills, that they were impenetrable by any

new terrors, and would not be persuaded but that the bitterness of death

was passed; and it was to no more purpose to talk to them than to an

east wind; but they opened shops, went about streets, did business, and

conversed with anybody that came in their way to converse with, whether

with business or without, neither inquiring of their health, or so much

as being apprehensive of any danger from them, though they knew them not

to be sound.

This imprudent, rash conduct cost a great many their lives who had with

great care and caution shut themselves up, and kept retired, as it were,

from all mankind, and had by that means, under God's providence, been

preserved through all the heat of that infection.

This rash and foolish conduct of the people went so far, that the

ministers took notice to them of it, and laid before them both the folly

and danger of it; and this checked it a little, so that they grew more

cautious. But it had another effect, which they could not check: for as

the first rumor had spread, not over the city only, but into the

country, it had the like effect; and the people were so tired with being

so long from London, and so eager to come back, that they flocked to

town without fear or forecast, and began to show themselves in the

streets as if all the danger was over. It was indeed surprising to see

it; for though there died still from a thousand to eighteen hundred a

week, yet the people flocked to town as if all had been well.

The consequence of this was, that the bills increased again four hundred

the very first week in November; and, if I might believe the physicians,

there were above three thousand fell sick that week, most of them

newcomers too.

One John Cock, a barber in St. Martin's-le-Grand, was an eminent example

of this (I mean of the hasty return of the people when the plague was

abated). This John Cock had left the town with his whole family, and

locked up his house, and was gone into the country, as many others did;

and, finding the plague so decreased in November that there died but 905

per week of all diseases, he ventured home again. He had in his family

ten persons; that is to say, himself and wife, five children, two

apprentices, and a maidservant. He had not been returned to his house

above a week, and began to open his shop and carry on his trade, but the

distemper broke out in his family, and within about five days they all

died except one: that is to say, himself, his wife, all his five

children, and his two apprentices; and only the maid remained alive.

But the mercy of God was greater to the rest than we had reason to

expect; for the malignity, as I have said, of the distemper was spent,

the contagion was exhausted, and also the wintry weather came on apace,

and the air was clear and cold, with some sharp frosts; and this

increasing still, most of those that had fallen sick recovered, and the

health of the city began to return. There were indeed some returns of

the distemper, even in the month of December, and the bills increased

near a hundred; but it went off again, and so in a short while things

began to return to their own channel. And wonderful it was to see how

populous the city was again all on a sudden; so that a stranger could

not miss the numbers that were lost, neither was there any miss of the

inhabitants as to their dwellings. Few or no empty houses were to be

seen, or, if there were some, there was no want of tenants for them.

I wish I could say, that, as the city had a new face, so the manners of

the people had a new appearance. I doubt not but there were many that

retained a sincere sense of their deliverance, and that were heartily

thankful to that Sovereign Hand that had protected them in so dangerous

a time. It would be very uncharitable to judge otherwise in a city so

populous, and where the people were so devout as they were here in the

time of the visitation itself; but, except what of this was to be found

in particular families and faces, it must be acknowledged that the

general practice of the people was just as it was before, and very

little difference was to be seen.

Some, indeed, said things were worse; that the morals of the people

declined from this very time; that the people, hardened by the danger

they had been in, like seamen after a storm is over, were more wicked

and more stupid, more bold and hardened in their vices and immoralities,

than they were before; but I will not carry it so far, neither. It would

take up a history of no small length to give a particular of all the

gradations by which the course of things in this city came to be

restored again, and to run in their own channel as they did before.

Some parts of England were now infected as violently as London had been.

The cities of Norwich, Peterborough, Lincoln, Colchester, and other

places, were now visited, and the magistrates of London began to set

rules for our conduct as to corresponding with those cities. It is true,

we could not pretend to forbid their people coming to London, because

it was impossible to know them asunder; so, after many consultations,

the lord mayor and court of aldermen were obliged to drop it. All they

could do was to warn and caution the people not to entertain in their

houses, or converse with, any people who they knew came from such

infected places.

But they might as well have talked to the air; for the people of London

thought themselves so plague-free now, that they were past all

admonitions. They seemed to depend upon it that the air was restored,

and that the air was like a man that had had the smallpox,--not capable

of being infected again. This revived that notion that the infection was

all in the air; that there was no such thing as contagion from the sick

people to the sound; and so strongly did this whimsey prevail among

people, that they run altogether promiscuously, sick and well. Not the

Mohammedans, who, prepossessed with the principle of predestination,

value[311] nothing of contagion, let it be in what it will, could be

more obstinate than the people of London. They that were perfectly

sound, and came out of the wholesome air, as we call it, into the city,

made nothing of going into the same houses and chambers, nay, even into

the same beds, with those that had the distemper upon them, and were not

recovered.

Some, indeed, paid for their audacious boldness with the price of their

lives. An infinite number fell sick, and the physicians had more work

than ever, only with this difference, that more of their patients

recovered, that is to say, they generally recovered; but certainly there

were more people infected and fell sick now, when there did not die

above a thousand or twelve hundred a week, than there was[312] when

there died five or six thousand a week, so entirely negligent were the

people at that time in the great and dangerous case of health and

infection, and so ill were they able to take or except[313] of the

advice of those who cautioned them for their good.

The people being thus returned, as it were, in general, it was very

strange to find, that, in their inquiring after their friends, some

whole families were so entirely swept away that there was no remembrance

of them left. Neither was anybody to be found to possess or show any

title to that little they had left; for in such cases what was to be

found was generally embezzled and purloined, some gone one way, some

another.

It was said such abandoned effects came to the King as the universal

heir; upon which we are told, and I suppose it was in part true, that

the King granted all such as deodands[314] to the lord mayor and court

of aldermen of London, to be applied to the use of the poor, of whom

there were very many. For it is to be observed, that though the

occasions of relief and the objects of distress were very many more in

the time of the violence of the plague than now, after all was over, yet

the distress of the poor was more now a great deal than it was then,

because all the sluices of general charity were shut. People supposed

the main occasion to be over, and so stopped their hands; whereas

particular objects were still very moving, and the distress of those

that were poor was very great indeed.

Though the health of the city was now very much restored, yet foreign

trade did not begin to stir; neither would foreigners admit our ships

into their ports for a great while. As for the Dutch, the

misunderstandings between our court and them had broken out into a war

the year before, so that our trade that way was wholly interrupted; but

Spain and Portugal, Italy and Barbary,[315] as also Hamburg, and all the

ports in the Baltic,--these were all shy of us a great while, and would

not restore trade with us for many months.

The distemper sweeping away such multitudes, as I have observed, many if

not all of the outparishes were obliged to make new burying grounds,

besides that I have mentioned in Bunhill Fields, some of which were

continued, and remain in use to this day; but others were left off, and,

which I confess I mention with some reflection,[316] being converted

into other uses, or built upon afterwards, the dead bodies were

disturbed, abused, dug up again, some even before the flesh of them was

perished from the bones, and removed like dung or rubbish to other

places. Some of those which came within the reach of my observations are

as follows:--

First, A piece of ground beyond Goswell Street, near Mountmill, being

some of the remains of the old lines or fortifications of the city,

where abundance were buried promiscuously from the parishes of

Aldersgate, Clerkenwell, and even out of the city. This ground, as I

take it, was since[317] made a physic garden,[318] and, after[319] that,

has been built upon.

Second, A piece of ground just over the Black Ditch, as it was then

called, at the end of Holloway Lane, in Shoreditch Parish. It has been

since made a yard for keeping hogs and for other ordinary uses, but is

quite out of use as a burying ground.

Third, The upper end of Hand Alley, in Bishopsgate Street, which was then

a green field, and was taken in particularly for Bishopsgate Parish,

though many of the carts out of the city brought their dead thither also,

particularly out of the parish of St. Allhallows-on-the-Wall. This place

I cannot mention without much regret. It was, as I remember, about two or

three years after the plague was ceased, that Sir Robert Clayton[320]

came to be possessed of the ground. It was reported, how true I know not,

that it fell to the King for want of heirs (all those who had any right

to it being carried off by the pestilence), and that Sir Robert Clayton

obtained a grant of it from King Charles II. But however he came by it,

certain it is the ground was let out to build on, or built upon by his

order. The first house built upon it was a large fair house, still

standing, which faces the street or way now called Hand Alley, which,

though called an alley, is as wide as a street. The houses in the same

row with that house northward are built on the very same ground where the

poor people were buried; and the bodies, on opening the ground for the

foundations, were dug up, some of them remaining so plain to be seen,

that the women's skulls were distinguished by their long hair, and of

others the flesh was not quite perished; so that the people began to

exclaim loudly against it, and some suggested that it might endanger a

return of the contagion; after which the bones and bodies, as fast as

they[321] came at them, were carried to another part of the same ground,

and thrown altogether into a deep pit, dug on purpose, which now is to be

known[322] in that it is not built on, but is a passage to another house

at the upper end of Rose Alley, just against the door of a meetinghouse,

which has been built there many years since; and the ground is

palisadoed[323] off from the rest of the passage in a little square.

There lie the bones and remains of near two thousand bodies, carried by

the dead carts to their grave in that one year.

Fourth, Besides this, there was a piece of ground in Moorfields, by the

going into the street which is now called Old Bethlem, which was

enlarged much, though not wholly taken in, on the same occasion.

N.B. The author of this journal lies buried in that very ground, being

at his own desire, his sister having been buried there a few years

before.

Fifth, Stepney Parish, extending itself from the east part of London to

the north, even to the very edge of Shoreditch churchyard, had a piece

of ground taken in to bury their dead, close to the said churchyard; and

which, for that very reason, was left open, and is since, I suppose,

taken into the same churchyard. And they had also two other burying

places in Spittlefields,--one where since a chapel or tabernacle has

been built for ease to this great parish, and another in Petticoat Lane.

There were no less than five other grounds made use of for the parish of

Stepney at that time; one where now stands the parish church of St.

Paul, Shadwell, and the other where now stands the parish church of St.

John, at Wapping, both which had not the names of parishes at that time,

but were belonging to Stepney Parish.

I could name many more; but these coming within my particular knowledge,

the circumstance, I thought, made it of use to record them. From the

whole, it may be observed that they were obliged in this time of

distress to take in new burying grounds in most of the outparishes for

laying the prodigious numbers of people which died in so short a space

of time; but why care was not taken to keep those places separate from

ordinary uses, that so the bodies might rest undisturbed, that I cannot

answer for, and must confess I think it was wrong. Who were to blame, I

know not.

I should have mentioned that the Quakers[324] had at that time also a

burying ground set apart to their use, and which they still make use of;

and they had also a particular dead cart to fetch their dead from their

houses. And the famous Solomon Eagle, who, as I mentioned before,[325]

had predicted the plague as a judgment, and run naked through the

streets, telling the people that it was come upon them to punish them

for their sins, had his own wife died[326] the very next day of the

plague, and was carried, one of the first, in the Quakers' dead cart to

their new burying ground.

I might have thronged this account with many more remarkable things

which occurred in the time of the infection, and particularly what

passed between the lord mayor and the court, which was then at Oxford,

and what directions were from time to time received from the government

for their conduct on this critical occasion; but really the court

concerned themselves so little, and that little they did was of so small

import, that I do not see it of much moment to mention any part of it

here, except that of appointing a monthly fast in the city, and the

sending the royal charity to the relief of the poor, both which I have

mentioned before.

Great was the reproach thrown upon those physicians who left their

patients during the sickness; and, now they came to town again, nobody

cared to employ them. They were called deserters, and frequently bills

were set up on their doors, and written, "Here is a doctor to be let!"

So that several of those physicians were fain for a while to sit still

and look about them, or at least remove their dwellings and set up in

new places and among new acquaintance. The like was the case with the

clergy, whom the people were indeed very abusive to, writing verses and

scandalous reflections upon them; setting upon the church door, "Here is

a pulpit to be let," or sometimes "to be sold," which was worse.

It was not the least of our misfortunes, that with our infection, when

it ceased, there did not cease the spirit of strife and contention,

slander and reproach, which was really the great troubler of the

nation's peace before. It was said to be the remains of the old

animosities which had so lately involved us all in blood and

disorder;[327] but as the late act of indemnity[328] had lain asleep the

quarrel itself, so the government had recommended family and personal

peace, upon all occasions, to the whole nation.

But it[329] could not be obtained; and particularly after the ceasing

of the plague in London, when any one had seen the condition which the

people had been in, and how they caressed one another at that time,

promised to have more charity for the future, and to raise no more

reproaches,--I say, any one that had seen them then would have thought

they would have come together with another spirit at last. But, I say,

it could not be obtained. The quarrel remained, the Church[330] and the

Presbyterians were incompatible. As soon as the plague was removed, the

dissenting ousted ministers who had supplied the pulpits which were

deserted by the incumbents, retired. They[331] could expect no other but

that they[332] should immediately fall upon them[331] and harass them

with their penal laws; accept their[331] preaching while they[332] were

sick, and persecute them[331] as soon as they[332] were recovered again.

This even we that were of the Church thought was hard, and could by no

means approve of it.

But it was the government, and we could say nothing to hinder it. We

could only say it was not our doing, and we could not answer for it.

On the other hand, the dissenters reproaching those ministers of the

Church with going away, and deserting their charge, abandoning the

people in their danger, and when they had most need of comfort, and the

like,--this we could by no means approve; for all men have not the same

faith and the same courage, and the Scripture commands us to judge the

most favorably, and according to charity.

A plague is a formidable enemy, and is armed with terrors that every man

is not sufficiently fortified to resist, or prepared to stand the shock

against.[333] It is very certain that a great many of the clergy who

were in circumstances to do it withdrew, and fled for the safety of

their lives; but it is true, also, that a great many of them staid, and

many of them fell in the calamity, and in the discharge of their duty.

It is true, some of the dissenting turned-out ministers staid, and

their courage is to be commended and highly valued; but these were not

abundance. It cannot be said that they all staid, and that none retired

into the country, any more than it can be said of the Church clergy that

they all went away. Neither did all those that went away go without

substituting curates[334] and others in their places, to do the offices

needful, and to visit the sick as far as it was practicable. So that,

upon the whole, an allowance of charity might have been made on both

sides, and we should have considered that such a time as this of 1665 is

not to be paralleled in history, and that it is not the stoutest courage

that will always support men in such cases. I had not said this, but had

rather chosen[335] to record the courage and religious zeal of those of

both sides who did hazard themselves for the service of the poor people

in their distress, without remembering that any failed in their duty on

either side; but the want of temper among us has made the contrary to

this necessary: some that staid, not only boasting too much of

themselves, but reviling those that fled, branding them with cowardice,

deserting their flocks, and acting the part of the hireling, and the

like. I recommend it to the charity of all good people to look back and

reflect duly upon the terrors of the time; and whoever does so will see

that it is not an ordinary strength that could support it. It was not

like appearing in the head of an army, or charging a body of horse in

the field; but it was charging death itself on his pale horse.[336] To

stay was indeed to die; and it could be esteemed nothing less,

especially as things appeared at the latter end of August and the

beginning of September, and as there was reason to expect them at that

time; for no man expected, and I dare say believed, that the distemper

would take so sudden a turn as it did, and fall immediately two

thousand in a week, when there was such a prodigious number of people

sick at that time as it was known there was; and then it was that many

shifted[337] away that had staid most of the time before.

Besides, if God gave strength to some more than to others, was it to

boast of their ability to abide the stroke, and upbraid those that had

not the same gift and support, or ought they not rather to have been

humble and thankful if they were rendered more useful than their

brethren?

I think it ought to be recorded to the honor of such men, as well clergy

as physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, magistrates, and officers of

every kind, as also all useful people, who ventured their lives in

discharge of their duty, as most certainly all such as staid did to the

last degree; and several of these kinds did not only venture, but lost

their lives on that sad occasion.

I was once making a list of all such (I mean of all those professions

and employments who thus died, as I call it, in the way of their duty),

but it was impossible for a private man to come at a certainty in the

particulars. I only remember that there died sixteen clergymen, two

aldermen, five physicians, thirteen surgeons, within the city and

liberties, before the beginning of September. But this being, as I said

before, the crisis and extremity of the infection, it can be no complete

list. As to inferior people, I think there died six and forty constables

and headboroughs[338] in the two parishes of Stepney and Whitechapel;

but I could not carry my list on, for when the violent rage of the

distemper, in September, came upon us, it drove us out of all measure.

Men did then no more die by tale[339] and by number: they might put out

a weekly bill, and call them seven or eight thousand, or what they

pleased. It is certain they died by heaps, and were buried by heaps;

that is to say, without account. And if I might believe some people who

were more abroad and more conversant with those things than I (though I

was public enough for one that had no more business to do than I

had),--I say, if we may believe them, there was not many less buried

those first three weeks in September than twenty thousand per week.

However the others aver the truth of it, yet I rather choose to keep to

the public account. Seven or eight thousand per week is enough to make

good all that I have said of the terror of those times; and it is much

to the satisfaction of me that write, as well as those that read, to be

able to say that everything is set down with moderation, and rather

within compass than beyond it.

Upon all these accounts, I say, I could wish, when we were recovered,

our conduct had been more distinguished for charity and kindness, in

remembrance of the past calamity, and not so much in valuing ourselves

upon our boldness in staying; as if all men were cowards that fly from

the hand of God, or that those who stay do not sometimes owe their

courage to their ignorance, and despising the hand of their Maker, which

is a criminal kind of desperation, and not a true courage.

I cannot but leave it upon record, that the civil officers, such as

constables, headboroughs, lord mayor's and sheriff's men, also parish

officers, whose business it was to take charge of the poor, did their

duties, in general, with as much courage as any, and perhaps with more;

because their work was attended with more hazards, and lay more among

the poor, who were more subject to be infected, and in the most pitiful

plight when they were taken with the infection. But then it must be

added, too, that a great number of them died; indeed, it was scarcely

possible it should be otherwise.

I have not said one word here about the physic or preparations that were

ordinarily made use of on this terrible occasion (I mean we that

frequently went abroad up and down the streets, as I did). Much of this

was talked of in the books and bills of our quack doctors, of whom I

have said enough already. It may, however, be added, that the College of

Physicians were daily publishing several preparations, which they had

considered of in the process of their practice; and which, being to be

had in print, I avoid repeating them for that reason.

One thing I could not help observing,--what befell one of the quacks,

who published that he had a most excellent preservative against the

plague, which whoever kept about them should never be infected, or

liable to infection. This man, who, we may reasonably suppose, did not

go abroad without some of this excellent preservative in his pocket, yet

was taken by the distemper, and carried off in two or three days.

I am not of the number of the physic haters or physic despisers (on the

contrary, I have often mentioned the regard I had to the dictates of my

particular friend Dr. Heath); but yet I must acknowledge I made use of

little or nothing, except, as I have observed, to keep a preparation of

strong scent, to have ready in case I met with anything of offensive

smells, or went too near any burying place or dead body.

Neither did I do, what I know some did, keep the spirits high and hot

with cordials and wine, and such things, and which, as I observed, one

learned physician used himself so much to, as that he could not leave

them off when the infection was quite gone, and so became a sot for all

his life after.

I remember my friend the doctor used to say that there was a certain set

of drugs and preparations which were all certainly good and useful in

the case of an infection, out of which or with which physicians might

make an infinite variety of medicines, as the ringers of bells make

several hundred different rounds of music by the changing and order of

sound but in six bells; and that all these preparations shall[340] be

really very good. "Therefore," said he, "I do not wonder that so vast a

throng of medicines is offered in the present calamity, and almost every

physician prescribes or prepares a different thing, as his judgment or

experience guides him; but," says my friend, "let all the prescriptions

of all the physicians in London be examined, and it will be found that

they are all compounded of the same things, with such variations only as

the particular fancy of the doctor leads him to; so that," says he,

"every man, judging a little of his own constitution and manner of his

living, and circumstances of his being infected, may direct his own

medicines out of the ordinary drugs and preparations. Only that," says

he, "some recommend one thing as most sovereign, and some another.

Some," says he, "think that Pill. Ruff., which is called itself the

antipestilential pill, is the best preparation that can be made; others

think that Venice treacle[341] is sufficient of itself to resist the

contagion; and I," says he, "think as both these think, viz., that the

first is good to take beforehand to prevent it, and the last, if

touched, to expel it." According to this opinion, I several times took

Venice treacle, and a sound sweat upon it, and thought myself as well

fortified against the infection as any one could be fortified by the

power of physic.

As for quackery and mountebank, of which the town was so full, I

listened to none of them, and observed often since, with some wonder,

that for two years after the plague I scarcely ever heard one of them

about the town. Some fancied they were all swept away in the infection

to a man, and were for calling it a particular mark of God's vengeance

upon them for leading the poor people into the pit of destruction merely

for the lucre of a little money they got by them; but I cannot go that

length, neither. That abundance of them died is certain (many of them

came within the reach of my own knowledge); but that all of them were

swept off, I much question. I believe, rather, they fled into the

country, and tried their practices upon the people there, who were in

apprehension of the infection before it came among them.

This, however, is certain, not a man of them appeared for a great while

in or about London. There were indeed several doctors who published

bills recommending their several physical preparations for cleansing the

body, as they call it, after the plague, and needful, as they said, for

such people to take who had been visited and had been cured; whereas, I

must own, I believe that it was the opinion of the most eminent

physicians of that time, that the plague was itself a sufficient purge,

and that those who escaped the infection needed no physic to cleanse

their bodies of any other things (the running sores, the tumors, etc.,

which were broken and kept open by the direction of the physicians,

having sufficiently cleansed them); and that all other distempers, and

causes of distempers, were effectually carried off that way. And as the

physicians gave this as their opinion wherever they came, the quacks got

little business.

There were indeed several little hurries which happened after the

decrease of the plague, and which, whether they were contrived to fright

and disorder the people, as some imagined, I cannot say; but sometimes

we were told the plague would return by such a time; and the famous

Solomon Eagle, the naked Quaker I have mentioned, prophesied evil

tidings every day, and several others, telling us that London had not

been sufficiently scourged, and the sorer and severer strokes were yet

behind. Had they stopped there, or had they descended to particulars,

and told us that the city should be the next year destroyed by fire,

then, indeed, when we had seen it come to pass, we should not have been

to blame to have paid more than common respect to their prophetic

spirits (at least, we should have wondered at them, and have been more

serious in our inquiries after the meaning of it, and whence they had

the foreknowledge); but as they generally told us of a relapse into the

plague, we have had no concern since that about them. Yet by those

frequent clamors we were all kept with some kind of apprehensions

constantly upon us; and if any died suddenly, or if the spotted fevers

at any time increased, we were presently alarmed; much more if the

number of the plague increased, for to the end of the year there were

always between two and three hundred[342] of the plague. On any of these

occasions, I say, we were alarmed anew.

Those who remember the city of London before the fire must remember that

there was then no such place as that we now call Newgate Market; but in

the middle of the street, which is now called Blow Bladder Street, and

which had its name from the butchers, who used to kill and dress their

sheep there (and who, it seems, had a custom to blow up their meat with

pipes, to make it look thicker and fatter than it was, and were punished

there for it by the lord mayor),--I say, from the end of the street

towards Newgate there stood two long rows of shambles for the

selling[343] meat.

It was in those shambles that two persons falling down dead as they were

buying meat, gave rise to a rumor that the meat was all infected; which

though it might affright the people, and spoiled the market for two or

three days, yet it appeared plainly afterwards that there was nothing of

truth in the suggestion: but nobody can account for the possession of

fear when it takes hold of the mind. However, it pleased God, by the

continuing of the winter weather, so to restore the health of the city,

that by February following we reckoned the distemper quite ceased, and

then we were not easily frighted again.

There was still a question among the learned, and[344] at first

perplexed the people a little; and that was, in what manner to purge the

houses and goods where the plague had been, and how to render them[345]

habitable again which had been left empty during the time of the plague.

Abundance of perfumes and preparations were prescribed by physicians,

some of one kind, some of another, in which the people who listened to

them put themselves to a great, and indeed in my opinion to an

unnecessary, expense; and the poorer people, who only set open their

windows night and day, burnt brimstone, pitch, and gunpowder, and such

things, in their rooms, did as well as the best; nay, the eager people

who, as I said above, came home in haste and at all hazards, found

little or no inconvenience in their houses, nor in their goods, and did

little or nothing to them.

However, in general, prudent, cautious people did enter into some

measures for airing and sweetening their houses, and burnt perfumes,

incense, benjamin,[346] resin, and sulphur in their rooms, close shut

up, and then let the air carry it all out with a blast of gunpowder;

others caused large fires to be made all day and all night for several

days and nights. By the same token that[347] two or three were pleased

to set their houses on fire, and so effectually sweetened them by

burning them down to the ground (as particularly one at Ratcliff, one in

Holborn, and one at Westminster, besides two or three that were set on

fire; but the fire was happily got out again before it went far enough

to burn down the houses); and one citizen's servant, I think it was in

Thames Street, carried so much gunpowder into his master's house, for

clearing it of the infection, and managed it so foolishly, that he blew

up part of the roof of the house. But the time was not fully come that

the city was to be purged with fire, nor was it far off; for within nine

months more I saw it all lying in ashes, when, as some of our quaking

philosophers pretend, the seeds of the plague were entirely destroyed,

and not before,--a notion too ridiculous to speak of here, since, had

the seeds of the plague remained in the houses, not to be destroyed but

by fire, how has it been that they have not since broken out, seeing all

those buildings in the suburbs and liberties, all in the great parishes

of Stepney, Whitechapel, Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Shoreditch, Cripplegate,

and St. Giles's, where the fire never came, and where the plague raced

with the greatest violence, remain still in the same condition they were

in before?

But to leave these things just as I found them, it was certain that

those people who were more than ordinarily cautious of their health did

take particular directions for what they called seasoning of their

houses; and abundance of costly things were consumed on that account,

which I cannot but say not only seasoned those houses as they desired,

but filled the air with very grateful and wholesome smells, which others

had the share of the benefit of, as well as those who were at the

expenses of them.

Though the poor came to town very precipitantly, as I have said, yet, I

must say, the rich made no such haste. The men of business, indeed, came

up, but many of them did not bring their families to town till the

spring came on, and that they saw reason to depend upon it that the

plague would not return.

The court, indeed, came up soon after Christmas; but the nobility and

gentry, except such as depended upon and had employment under the

administration, did not come so soon.

I should have taken notice here, that notwithstanding the violence of

the plague in London and other places, yet it was very observable that

it was never on board the fleet; and yet for some time there was a

strange press[348] in the river, and even in the streets, for seamen to

man the fleet. But it was in the beginning of the year, when the plague

was scarce begun, and not at all come down to that part of the city

where they usually press for seamen; and though a war with the Dutch was

not at all grateful to the people at that time, and the seamen went with

a kind of reluctancy into the service, and many complained of being

dragged into it by force, yet it proved, in the event, a happy violence

to several of them, who had probably perished in the general calamity,

and who, after the summer service was over, though they had cause to

lament the desolation of their families (who, when they came back, were

many of them in their graves), yet they had room to be thankful that

they were carried out of the reach of it, though so much against their

wills. We, indeed, had a hot war with the Dutch that year, and one very

great engagement[349] at sea, in which the Dutch were worsted; but we

lost a great many men and some ships. But, as I observed, the plague was

not in the fleet; and when they came to lay up the ships in the river,

the violent part of it began to abate.

I would be glad if I could close the account of this melancholy year

with some particular examples historically, I mean of the thankfulness

to God, our Preserver, for our being delivered from this dreadful

calamity. Certainly the circumstances of the deliverance, as well as the

terrible enemy we were delivered from, called upon the whole nation for

it. The circumstances of the deliverance were indeed very remarkable, as

I have in part mentioned already; and particularly the dreadful

condition which we were all in, when we were, to the surprise of the

whole town, made joyful with the hope of a stop to the infection.

Nothing but the immediate finger of God, nothing but omnipotent power,

could have done it. The contagion despised all medicine, death raged in

every corner; and, had it gone on as it did then, a few weeks more would

have cleared the town of all and everything that had a soul. Men

everywhere began to despair; every heart failed them for fear; people

were made desperate through the anguish of their souls; and the terrors

of death sat in the very faces and countenances of the people.

In that very moment, when we might very well say, "Vain was the help of

man,"[350]--I say, in that very moment it pleased God, with a most

agreeable surprise, to cause the fury of it to abate, even of itself;

and the malignity declining, as I have said, though infinite numbers

were sick, yet fewer died; and the very first week's bill decreased

1,843, a vast number indeed.

It is impossible to express the change that appeared in the very

countenances of the people that Thursday morning when the weekly bill

came out. It might have been perceived in their countenances that a

secret surprise and smile of joy sat on everybody's face. They shook one

another by the hands in the streets, who would hardly go on the same

side of the way with one another before. Where the streets were not too

broad, they would open their windows and call from one house to another,

and asked how they did, and if they had heard the good news that the

plague was abated. Some would return, when they said good news, and ask,

"What good news?" And when they answered that the plague was abated, and

the bills decreased almost two thousand, they would cry out, "God be

praised!" and would weep aloud for joy, telling them they had heard

nothing of it; and such was the joy of the people, that it was, as it

were, life to them from the grave. I could almost set down as many

extravagant things done in the excess of their joy as of their grief;

but that would be to lessen the value of it.

I must confess myself to have been very much dejected just before this

happened; for the prodigious numbers that were taken sick the week or

two before, besides those that died, was[351] such, and the lamentations

were so great everywhere, that a man must have seemed to have acted even

against his reason if he had so much as expected to escape; and as there

was hardly a house but mine in all my neighborhood but what was

infected, so, had it gone on, it would not have been long that there

would have been any more neighbors to be infected. Indeed, it is hardly

credible what dreadful havoc the last three weeks had made: for, if I

might believe the person whose calculations I always found very well

grounded, there were not less than thirty thousand people dead, and near

one hundred thousand fallen sick, in the three weeks I speak of; for the

number that sickened was surprising, indeed it was astonishing, and

those whose courage upheld them all the time before, sunk under it now.

In the middle of their distress, when the condition of the city of

London was so truly calamitous, just then it pleased God, as it were, by

his immediate hand, to disarm this enemy: the poison was taken out of

the sting. It was wonderful. Even the physicians themselves were

surprised at it. Wherever they visited, they found their patients

better,--either they had sweated kindly, or the tumors were broke, or

the carbuncles went down and the inflammations round them changed color,

or the fever was gone, or the violent headache was assuaged, or some

good symptom was in the case,--so that in a few days everybody was

recovering. Whole families that were infected and down, that had

ministers praying with them, and expected death every hour, were revived

and healed, and none died at all out of them.

Nor was this by any new medicine found out, or new method of cure

discovered, or by any experience in the operation which the physicians

or surgeons attained to; but it was evidently from the secret invisible

hand of Him that had at first sent this disease as a judgment upon us.

And let the atheistic part of mankind call my saying what they please,

it is no enthusiasm: it was acknowledged at that time by all mankind.

The disease was enervated, and its malignity spent; and let it proceed

from whencesoever it will, let the philosophers search for reasons in

nature to account for it by, and labor as much as they will to lessen

the debt they owe to their Maker, those physicians who had the least

share of religion in them were obliged to acknowledge that it was all

supernatural, that it was extraordinary, and that no account could be

given of it.

If I should say that this is a visible summons to us all to

thankfulness, especially we that were under the terror of its increase,

perhaps it may be thought by some, after the sense of the thing was

over, an officious canting of religious things, preaching a sermon

instead of writing a history, making myself a teacher instead of giving

my observations of things (and this restrains me very much from going on

here, as I might otherwise do); but if ten lepers were healed, and but

one returned to give thanks, I desire to be as that one, and to be

thankful for myself.

Nor will I deny but there were abundance of people who, to all

appearance, were very thankful at that time: for their mouths were

stopped, even the mouths of those whose hearts were not extraordinarily

long affected with it; but the impression was so strong at that time,

that it could not be resisted, no, not by the worst of the people.

It was a common thing to meet people in the street that were strangers,

and that we knew nothing at all of, expressing their surprise. Going one

day through Aldgate, and a pretty many people being passing and

repassing, there comes a man out of the end of the Minories; and,

looking a little up the street and down, he throws his hands abroad:

"Lord, what an alteration is here! Why, last week I came along here, and

hardly anybody was to be seen." Another man (I heard him) adds to his

words, "'Tis all wonderful; 'tis all a dream."--"Blessed be God!" says a

third man; "and let us give thanks to him, for 'tis all his own doing."

Human help and human skill were at an end. These were all strangers to

one another, but such salutations as these were frequent in the street

every day; and, in spite of a loose behavior, the very common people

went along the streets, giving God thanks for their deliverance.

It was now, as I said before, the people had cast off all apprehensions,

and that too fast. Indeed, we were no more afraid now to pass by a man

with a white cap upon his head, or with a cloth wrapped round his neck,

or with his leg limping, occasioned by the sores in his groin,--all

which were frightful to the last degree but the week before. But now the

street was full of them, and these poor recovering creatures, give them

their due, appeared very sensible of their unexpected deliverance, and I

should wrong them very much if I should not acknowledge that I believe

many of them were really thankful; but I must own that for the

generality of the people it might too justly be said of them, as was

said of the children of Israel after their being delivered from the host

of Pharaoh, when they passed the Red Sea, and looked back and saw the

Egyptians overwhelmed in the water, viz., "that they sang his praise,

but they soon forgot his works."[352]

I can go no further here. I should be counted censorious, and perhaps

unjust, if I should enter into the unpleasing work of reflecting,

whatever cause there was for it, upon the unthankfulness and return of

all manner of wickedness among us, which I was so much an eyewitness of

myself. I shall conclude the account of this calamitous year, therefore,

with a coarse but a sincere stanza of my own, which I placed at the end

of my ordinary memorandums the same year they were written:--

A dreadful plague in London was,

In the year sixty-five,

Which swept an hundred thousand souls

Away, yet I alive.