the mob doing any mischief: one was, that really the rich themselves had not laid up stores of provisions in their houses, as, indeed, they ought to dave done, and which, if they had been wise enough to have done, and locked themselves entirely up, as some few did, they had perhaps escaped the disease better: but as it appeared they had not, so the mob had no notion of finding stores of provisions there, if they had broken in, as it is plain they were sometimes very near doing, and which, if they had, they had finished the ruin of the whole city, for there were no regular troops to have withstood them; nor could the trained bands have been brought together to defend the city, no men being to be found to bear arms. But the vigilance of the Lord Mayor, and such magistrates as could be had, (for some, even of the Aldermen, were dead, and some absent) prevented this; and they did it by the most kind and gentle methods they could think of, as particularly, by relieving the most desperate with money, and putting others into business, and particularly that employment of watching houses that were infected and shut up; and as the number of these were very great, for, it was said, there was at one time, ten thousand houses shut up, and every house had two watchmen to guard it, viz. one by night and the other by day; this gave opportunity to employ a very great number of poor men at a time.

The women and servants that were turned off from their places, were likewise employed as nurses to tend the sick in all places; and this took off a very great number of them.

And which, though a melancholy article in itself, yet was a deliverance in its kind, namely, the Plague, which raged in a dreadful manner from the middle of August to the middle of Octo

ber, carried off, in that time, thirty or forty thousand of these very people, which, had they been left, would certainly have been an insufferable burden, by their poverty: that is to say, the whole city could not have supported the expence of them, or have provided food for them; and they would, in time, have been even driven to the necessity of plundering either the city itself, or the country adjacent, to have subsisted themselves, which, would, first or last, have put the whole nation, as well as the city, into the utmost terror and confusion.

It was observable then, that this calamity of the people made them very humble; for now, for about nine weeks together, there died near a thousand in a day, one day with another, even by the account of the weekly bills, which, yet I have reason to be assured, never gave a full account, by many thousands, the confusion being such, and the carts working in the dark, when they carried the dead, that in some places no account at all was kept, but they worked on; the clerks and sextons not attending for weeks together, and not knowing what number they carried. This account is verified by the following bills of mortality.

Of all Diseases. Of the Plague. Aug. 8 to Aug. 15 --5319

to 12 5568
to 29-7496

3880

4237

6102

6988

6544

So that the gross of the people were carried off in these two months; for as the whole number which was brought in to die of the plague, was but 68,590, here is 50,000 of them, within a trifle, in two months; I say 50,000, because, as there wants 295 in the number above, so there wants two days of two months in the account of time.

Now, when I say that the parish officers did not give in a full account, or where not to be depended upon for their account, let any one but consider how men could be exact in such a time of dreadful distress, and when many of them were taken sick themselves, and perhaps died in the very time when their accounts were to be given in; I mean the parish clerks, besides inferior officers; for though these poor men ventured at all hazards, yet they were far from being exempt from the common calamity, especially if it be true, that the parish of Stepney had, within the year, one hundred and sixteen sextons, grave-diggers, and their assistants, that is to say, bearers, bellmen, and drivers of carts, for carrying off the dead bodies.

Indeed the work was not of a nature to allow them leisure to take an exact tale of the dead bodies, which were all huddled together in the dark into a pit; which pit, or trench, no man could come nigh but at the utmost peril. I observed often, that in the parishes of Aldgate or Cripplegate, Whitechapel, and Stepney, there were five, six, seven, and eight hundred in a week in the bills; whereas, if we may believe the opinion of those that lived in the city all the time, as well as I, there died sometimes 2000 a week in those parishes; and I saw it under the hand of one that made as strict an exemination into that part as he could, that there really died an hundred

G

thousand people of the Plague in it that one year, whereas the bills, the articles of the Plague was but 68,590.

If I may be allowed to give my opinion, by what I saw with my eyes, I heard from other people that were eye-witnensses, I doverily believe the same, viz. that there died, at least, 100,000 of the Plague only, besides other distempers, and besides those which died in the fields and highways, and secret places, out of the compass of the communication, as it was called, and who were not put down in the bills, though they really belonged to the body of the inhabitants. It was known to us all, that abundance of poor despairing creatures, who had the distemper upon them, and were grown stupid, or melancholy by their misery, as many were, wandered away into the fields and woods, and into several uncouth places, almost any where to creep into a bush, or hedge and

DIE.

The inhabitants of the villages adjacent would, in pity, carry them food, and set it at a distance, that they might fetch it, if they were able, and sometimes they were not able: and the next time they went, they should find the poor wretches lie dead, and the food untouched. The number of these miserable objects were many, and I know so many that perished thus, and so exactly where, that I believe I could go to the very place and dig their bones up still; for the country people would go and dig a hole at a distance from them, and then with long poles, and hooks at the end of them, drag the bodies into these pits, and then throw the earth in form as far as they could cast it, to cover them, taking notice how the wind blew, and so coming on that side which the seamen call to windward, that the scent of the bodies

might blow from them; and thus great numbers went out of the world, who were never known, or any account of them taken; as well within the bills of mortality as without.

This, indeed, I had, in the main, only from the relation of others; for I seldom walked into the fields, except towards Bethnal-green and Hackney; or has hereafter: but when I did walk, I always saw a great many poor wanderers at a distance; but I could know little of their cases; for whether it were in the street, or in the fields, if we had seen anybody coming, it was a general method to walk away; yet I believe the account is exactly true.

As this puts me upon mentioning my walking the streets and fields, I cannot omit taking notice what a desolate place the city was at that time: the great street I lived in, which is known to be one of the broadest of all the streets of London, I mean of the suburbs, as well as the liberties; all the side where the butchers lived, especially without the bars, was more like a green field than a paved street, and the people generally went in the middle with the horses and carts it is true, that the farthest end, towards Whitechapel church, was not all paved, but even the part that was paved was full of grass also; but this need not seem strange, since the great streets within the city, such as Leadenhall-street, Bishopsgate-street, Cornhill, and even the Exchange itself, had grass growing in them in several places; neither cart or coach were seen in the streets from morning to evening, except some country carts, to bring roots and beans, or pease, hay and straw to the market, and those but very few, compared to what was usual; as for coaches they were scarce used, but to carry sick people to the pest-house, and to