that died weekly, were from 4 to 6 or 8, whereas || plague, six of the spotted fever. It was, however, upon inquiry found that this Frenchman, who died in Bearbinder-lane, was one who, having lived in Long-acre, near the infected houses, had removed for fear of the distemper, not know. ing that he was already infected. The usual number of burials within the bills of mortality for a week was from about 240 or thereabouts, to 300. The last was esteemed a pretty high bill; but after this we found the bills successively increasing, as follows: From Dec. 20 to Dec. 27. Buried. Increased. This was the beginning of May, yet the weather was temperate, variable, and cool enough, and people had still some hopes. That which encouraged them was that the city was healthy, the whole 97 parishes buried but 54, and we began to hope, that as it was chiefly among the people at that end of the town, it might go no further; and the rather, because the next week, which was from the 9th of May to the 16th, there died but three, of which not one within the whole city or liberties, and St Andrew's buried but 15, which was very low. It is true St Giles's buried 32, but still as there was but one of the plague, people began to be easy; the whole bill also was very low, for the week before the bill was but 347, and the week above-mentioned but 343. We continued in these hopes for a few days; but it was but for a few, for the people were no more to be deceived thus; they searched the houses, and found that the plague was really spread every way, and that many died of it every day; so that now all our extenuations abated, and it was no more to be concealed, nay it quickly appeared that the infec tion had spread itself beyond all hopes of abatement; that in the parish of St Giles's, it was gotten into several streets, and several families lay all sick together; and, accordingly, in the weekly bill for the next week, the thing began to show itself; there was indeed but 14 set down of the plague, but this was all knavery and collusion, for in St Giles's parish they buried 40 in all, whereof it was certain most of them died of the plague, However, all this went off again, and the wea-though they were set down of other distempers; ther proving cold, and the frost, which began in December, still continuing very severe, even till near the end of February, attended with sharp though moderate winds, the bills decreased again, and the city grew healthy, and everybody began to look upon the danger as good as over; only that still the burials in St Giles's continued high: from the beginning of April especially they stood at 25 each week, till the week from the 18th to the 25th, when there was buried in St Giles's parish 30, whereof two of the plague, and eight of the spotted fever, which was looked upon as the same thing; likewise the number that died of the spotted fever in the whole increased, being eight the week before, and 12 the week abovenamed. 349 58 Jan. 3 to Jan. 10. 394 45 415 21 474 59 Jan. 10 to Jan. 17. Jan. 17 to Jan. 24. This last bill was really frightful, being a higher number than had been known to have been buried in one week, since the preceding visitation || of 1656. This alarmed us all again, and terrible apprehensions were among the people, especially the weather being now changed and growing warm, and the summer being at hand; however, the next week there seemed to be some hopes again, the bills were low, the number of the dead in all was but 388; there was none of the plague, and but four of the spotted fever. and though the number of all the burials was not increased above 32, and the whole bill being but 385, yet there were 14 of the spotted fever, as well as 14 of the plague; and we took it for granted upon the whole, that there were 50 died that week of the plague. The next bill was from the 23rd of May to the 30th, when the number of the plague was 17; but the burials in St Giles's were 53, a frightful number! of whom they set down but nine of the plague; but on an examination more strictly by the justices of the peace, and at the lord mayor's request, it was found there were 20 more, who were really dead of the plague in that parish, but had been set down of spotted fever or other distempers, besides others concealed. But those were trifling things to what followed immediately after; for now the weather set in hot, and from the first week in June the infection spread in a dreadful manner, and the bills rose high, the articles of the fever, spotted fever, and teeth, began to swell; for all that could conceal their distempers did it to prevent their neighbours shunning and refusing to converse with them; and also to prevent authority shutting up their houses, which, though it was not yet practised, yet was threatened, and people were extremely terrified at the thoughts of it. The se But the following week it returned again, and the distemper was spread into two or three other parishes, viz. St Andrew's Holborn, St Clement's Danes, and, to the affliction of the city, one died within the walls, in the parish of St Mary, Wool-cond week in June, the parish of St Giles's, where church, that is to say, in Bearbinder-lane, near still the weight of the infection lay, buried 120, the Stocks-market; in all there were nine of the whereof, though the bills said but 68 of the plague, everybody said there had been 100 at least, calculating it from the usual number of funerals in that parish as above. set this particular down so fully, because I know not but it may be of moment to those who come after me, if they come to be brought to the same Till this week the city continued free, there distress, and to the same manner of making their having never any died except that one French-choice, and, therefore, I desire this account may man, whom I mentioned before, within the whole 97 parishes. Now there died four within the city, one in Wood-street, one in Fenchurch-street. and two in Crooked-lane. Southwark was entirely free, having not one yet died on that side of the water. I lived without Aldgate, about mid-way between Aldgate church and Whitechapel-bars, on the left hand or north side of the street; and as the distemper had not reached to that side of the city, our neighbourhood continued very easy; but at the other end of the town, their consternation was very great; and the richer sort of people, especially the nobility and gentry, from the west part of the city, thronged out of town, with their families and servants, in an unusual manner; and this was more particularly seen in Whitechapel; that is to say, the broad street where I lived; indeed nothing was to be seen but waggons and carts, with goods, women, servants, children, &c. coaches filled with people of the better sort, and horsemen attending them, all hurrying away; then empty waggons and carts appeared, and spare horses with servants, who it was apparent were returning or sent from the country to fetch more people; besides innumerable numbers of men on horseback, some alone, others with servants, and generally speaking, all loaded with baggage and fitted out for travelling, as any one might perceive by their appearance. This was a very terrible and melancholy thing to see, and as it was a sight which I could not but look on from morning to night, for indeed there was nothing else of moment to be seen, it filled me with very serious thoughts of the misery that was coming upon the city, and the unhappy condition of those that would be left in it. This hurry of the people was such for some weeks, that there was no getting in at the Lord Mayor's door without exceeding difficulty; there was such pressing and crowding there to get passes and certificates of health for such as traveiled abroad; for without these, there was no being admitted to pass through the towns on the road, or to lodge in any inn. Now as there had none died in the city for all this time, my Lord Mayor gave certificates of health without any difficulty to all those who lived in the 97 parishes, and to those within the liberties too for a while. This hurry, I say, continued some weeks, that is to say, all the month of May and June, and the more because it was rumoured that an order of the government was to be issued out, to place turnpikes and barriers on the road to prevent people's travelling; and that the towns on the road would not suffer people from London to pass, for fear of bringing the infection along with them, though neither of these rumours had any foundation but in the imagination, especially at first. I now began to consider seriously with myself, concerning my own case, and how I should dispose of myself; that is to say, whether I should resolve to stay in London, or shut up my house and flee, as many of my neighbours did. I have pass with them, rather for a direction for themselves to act by than a history of my actings, seeing it may not be of one farthing value to them to note what became of me. I had two important things before me the one was the carrying on my business and shop, which was considerable, and in which was embarked all my effects in the world; and the other was the preservation of my life in so dismal a calamity as I saw apparently was coming upon the city; and which, however, great as it was, my fears, perhaps, as well as other people's, represented to be much greater than it could be. The first consideration was of great moment to me; my trade was a saddler, and as dealings were not chiefly by a shop or chance trade, but among the merchants trading to the English colonies in America, so my effects lay very much in the hands of such. I was a single man, it is true, but I had a family of servants, whom I kept at my business, had a house, shop, and warehouses filled with goods; and, in short, to leave them all as things in such a case must be left, that is to say, without any overseer or person fit to be trusted with them, had been to hazard the loss not only of my trade but of my goods, and indeed of all I had in the world. I had an elder brother at the same time in London, and not many years before come over from Portugal; and advising with him, his answer was in three words, the same that was given in another case quite different, viz., Master, save thyself." In a word, he was for my retiring into the country, as he resolved to do himself, with his family; telling me what he had, it seems, heard abroad, that the best preparation for the plague was to run away from it." As to my argument of losing my trade, my goods or debts, he quite confuted me; he told me the same thing, which I argued for my staying, viz., that I would trust God with my safety and health, was the strongest repulse to my pretensions of losing my trade and my goods; "for," says he, "is it not as reasonable that you should trust God with the chance or risk of losing your trade, as that you should stay in so imminent a point of danger, and trust him with your life?" I could not argue that I was in any strait as to a place where to go, having several friends in Northamptonshire, whence our family first came from; and particularly, I had an only sister in Lincolnshire, very willing to receive and entertain me. My brother, who had already sent his wife and two children into Bedfordshire, and resolved to follow them, pressed my going very earnestly; and I had once resolved to comply with his desires, but at that time could get no horse; for though, it is true, all the city did not go out o the city of London, yet I may venture to say, that, in a manner, all the horses did; for there was hardly a horse to be bought or hired in the whole city for some weeks. Once I resolved to travel on foot with one servant, and, as many did, lie at no inn, but carry a soldier's tent with us, and so lie in the fields, the weather being very warm, and no danger from taking cold. I say, as many || his providence, and which was not; but that I did, because several did so at last, especially those who had been in the armies in the war, which had not been many years past; and I must needs say, that speaking of second causes, had most of the people that travelled done so, the plague had not been carried into so many country towns and houses as it was, to the great damage, and indeed to the ruin of abundance of people. But then my servant, whom I had intended to take down with me, deceived me; and being frightened at the increase of the distemper, and not knowing when I should go, he took other measures, and left me, so I was put off for that time; and one way or other, I always found, that to appoint to go away was always crossed by some accident or other, so as to disappoint and put it off again; and this brings in a story, which otherwise might be thought a needless digression, viz. about these disappointments being from heaven. should take it as an intimation from heaven, that I should not go out of town, only because I could not hire a horse to go, or my fellow was run away that was to attend me, was ridiculous, since, at the same time, I had my health and limbs, and other servants, and might with ease travel a day or two on foot, and having a good certificate of being in perfect health, might either hire a horse or take post on the road, as I thought fit. Then he proceeded to tell me of the mischievous consequences which attended the presumption of the Turks and Mahometans in Asia and other places where he had been (for my brother being a merchant, was, a few years before, as I have already observed, returned from abroad, coming last from Lisbon), and how, presuming upon their professed predestinating notions, and of every man's end being predetermined and unalterably before-hand decreed, they would go unconcerned into infected places, and converse with infected persons, by which means they died at the rate of ten or fifteen thousand a week, whereas the Europeans or Christian merchants, who kept themselves retired and reserved, generally escaped the contagion. the bills were risen to almost 700 a week, and my brother told me he would venture to stay no longer. I desired him to let me consider of it but till the next day, and I would resolve; and, as I had already prepared everything as well as I could, as to my business, and whom to intrust my affairs with, I had little to do but to resolve. I mention this story also as the best method I can advise any person to take in such a case, especially if he be one that makes conscience of his duty, and would be directed what to do in it, namely, that he should keep his eye upon the particular providences which occur at that time, and look at Upon these arguments my brother changed them complexly, as they regard one another, and my resolutions again, and I began to resolve to as altogether regard the question before him, and go, and accordingly made all things ready, for, then I think he may safely take them for inti-in short, the infection increased round me, and mations from heaven of what is his unquestioned duty to do in such a case; I mean as to going away from, or staying in the place where, we dwell, when visited with an infectious distemper. It came very warmly into my mind, one morning, as I was musing on this particular thing, that, as nothing attended us without the direction or permission of Divine power, so these disap. pointments must have something in them extraordinary; and I ought to consider whether it did not evidently point out or intimate to me, that it was the will of heaven I should not go. It immediately followed in my thoughts, that if it really was from God that I should stay, he was able effectually to preserve me in the midst of all the death and danger that would surround me; and that if I attempted to secure myself by fleeing from my habitation, and acted contrary to these intimations, which I believed to be divine, it was a kind of flying from God, and that he would cause his justice to overtake me when and where he thought fit. These thoughts quite turned my resolutions again, and when I came to discourse with my brother again, I told him I was inclined to stay and take my lot in that station in which God had placed me; and that it seemed to be made more especially my duty on account of what I have said. My brother, though a very religious man himself, laughed at all I had suggested about its being an intimation from heaven, and told me several stories about such fool-hardy people, as he called them, as I was; that I ought to submit to it as a work of heaven, if I had been any way disabled by distempers or diseases, and that then not being able to go, I ought to acquiesce in the direction of him, who having been my Maker, had an undisputed right of sovereignty in disposing of me; and that then there had been no difficulty to determine which was the call of I went home that evening greatly oppressed in my mind, irresolute, and not knowing what to do. I had set the evening wholly apart to consider seriously about it, and was all alone; for already people had, as it were, by a general consent, taken up the custom of not going out of doors after sunset, the reasons I shall have occasion to say more of by and by. In the retirement of this evening I endeavoured to resolve first what was my duty to do, and I stated the arguments with which my brother had pressed me to go into the country, and I set against them the strong impression which I had on my mind for staying; the visible call I seemed to have from the particular circumstance of my calling, and the care due from me for the preservation of my effects, which were, as I may say, my estate also the intimations which I thought I had from heaven, that to me signified a kind of direction to venture; and it occurred to me, that if I had what I might call a direction to stay, I ought to suppose it contained a promise of being preserved if I obeyed. This lay close to me, and my mind seemed more and more encouraged to stay than ever, and supported with a secret satisfaction that I should be kept; add to this, that turning over the Bible which lay before me, and while my thoughts were more than ordinarily serious upon the question, I cried out, "Well, I know not what to do; Lord, direct me!" and the like; and, at that juncture, I happened to stop turning over the book at the ninety-first Psalm, and casting my eyes on the second verse, I read on to the seventh verse exclusive; and after that included the tenth, as follows: "I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon day. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befal thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling," &c. I scarce need tell the reader, that from that moment I resolved that I would stay in the town, and casting myself entirely upon the goodness and protection of the Almighty, would not seek any other shelter whatever, and that as my times were in his hands, he was able to keep me in a time of infection as in a time of health; and if he did not think fit to deliver me, still I was in his hands, and it was meet he should do with me as should seem good to him. With this resolution I went to bed; and was further confirmed in it the next day, by the woman being taken ill with whom I had intended to intrust my house and all my affairs; but I had a farther obligation laid on me on the same side, for the next day I found myself very much out of order also, so that if I would have gone away I could not, and I continued ill three or four days, and this entirely determined my stay; so I took my leave of my brother, who went away to Dorking, in Surrey, and afterwards fetched a round further into Buckinghamshire, or Bedfordshire, to a retreat he had found out there for his family. It was a very ill time to be sick in, for if any one complained, it was immediately said he had the plague; and though I had, indeed, no symptoms of that distemper, yet, being very ill, both in my head and in my stomach, I was not without apprehension that I really was affected; but in about three days I grew better. The third night I rested well, sweated a little, and was much refreshed; the apprehensions of its being the infection went also quite away with my illness, and I went about my business as usual. These things, however, put off all my thoughts of going into the country; and my brother also being gone, I had no more debate, either with him or with myself, on that subject It was now mid-July, and the plague, which had chiefly raged at the other end of the town, and as I said before, in the parishes of St Giles's, St Andrew's (Holborn), and towards Westminster, began now to come eastward, towards the part where I lived. It was to be observed, indeed, that it did not come straight on towards us; for the city, that is to say within the walls, was indifferently healthy still; nor was it got then very much over the water into Southwark, for though there died that week 1268, of all distempers, whereof it might be supposed above 900 died of the plague, yet there was but 28 in the whole city, within the walls, and but 19 in Southwark, Lambeth parish included; whereas, in the parishes of St Giles's and St Martin's in the Fields, alone, there died 421. But we perceived the infection kept chiefly in the out-parishes, which being very populous, and fuller also of poor, the distemper found more to prey upon than in the city, as I shall observe afterward: we perceived, I say, the distemper to draw our way, viz., by the parishes of Clerkenwell, Cripplegate, Shoreditch, and Bishopgate, which last two parishes joining to Aldgate, Whitechapel, and Stepney, the infection came at length to spread its utmost rage and violence in those parts, even when it abated at the western parishes where it began. It was very strange to observe, that in this particular week, from the fourth to the eleventh of July, when, as I observed, there died near 400 of the plague in the two parishes of St Martin's and St Giles's in the Fields only, there died in the parish of Aldgate but four, in the parish of Whitechapel three, and in the parish of Stepney but one. Likewise, in the next week, from the eleventh of July to the eighteenth, when the week's bill was 1,761, yet there died no more of the plague on the whole Southwark side of the river than 16. But this face of things soon changed, and it began to thicken in Cripplegate parish especially, and in Clerkenwell; so that by the second week in August, Cripplegate parish alone buried 886, and Clerkenwell 155; of the first, 850 might well be reckoned to die of the plague; and of the last, the bill itself said 145 were of the plague. During the month of July, and while, as I have observed, our part of the town seemed to be spared in comparison of the west part, I went ordinarily about the streets, as my business required, and particularly went, generally once in a day, or in two days, into the city, to my brother's house, which he had given me charge of, and to see if it was safe; and having the key in my pocket, I used to go over the house, and over most of the rooms, to see that all was well; for though it be something wonderful to tell, that any should have hearts so hardened, in the midst of such a calamity, as to rob and steal, yet certain it is, that all sorts of villanies, and even levities and debaucheries, were then practised in the town, as openly as ever, I will not say quite as frequently, because the numbers of people were many ways lessened. But the city itself began now to be visited too, I mean within the walls; but the number of people there were indeed extremely lessened by so great a multitude having been gone into the country; and even all this month of July, they continued to flee, although not in such multitudes as formerly. In August, indeed, they fled in such a manner that I began to think there would be really none but magistrates and servants left in the city. As they fled now out of the city, so I should observe that the court removed early, viz., in the month of June, and went to Oxford, where it pleased God to preserve them; and the distemper did not, as I heard of, so much as touch them; for which I cannot say that I ever saw they showed any great token of thankfulness, and hardly anything of reformation, though they did not want being told that their crying vices might, without breach of charity, be said to have gone far in bringing that terrible judgment upon the whole nation. The face of London was now, indeed, strangely altered, I mean the whole mass of buildings, city, liberties, suburbs, Westminster, Southwark, and altogether; for as to the particular part called the city, or within the walls, that was not yet much infected; but, in the whole, the face of things, I say, was much altered: sorrow and sadness sat upon every face; and though some parts were not yet overwhelmed, yet all looked deeply concerned; and as we saw it apparently coming on, so every one looked on himself and his family as in the utmost danger; were it possible to represent those times exactly to those that did not see them, and give the reader due ideas of the horror that everywhere presented itself, it must make just impressions upon their minds, and fill them with surprise. London might well be said to be all in tears; the mourners did not go about the streets, indeed, for noboby put on black, or made a formal dress of mourning for their nearest friends; but the voice of mourning was truly heard in the streets; the shrieks of women and children at the windows and doors of their houses where their dearest relations were perhaps dying, or just dead, were so frequent to be heard as we passed the streets, that it was enough to pierce the stoutest heart in the world to hear them. Tears and lamentations were seen in al most every house, especially in the first part of the visitation; for towards the latter end men's hearts were hardened, and death was so always before their eyes, that they did not so much concern themselves for the loss of their friends, expecting that themselves should be summoned the next hour. Business led me out sometimes to the other end of the town, even when the sickness was chiefly there; and as the thing was new to me, as well as to everybody else, it was a most surprising thing to see those streets, which were usually so thronged, now grown desolate, and so few people to be seen in them, that if I had been a stranger, and at a loss for my way, I might sometimes have gone the length of a whole street, I mean of the by-streets, and seen nobody to direct me, except watchmen, set at the doors of such houses as were shut up; of which I shall speak presently. One day, being at that part of the town, on some special business, curiosity led me to observe things more thun usually, and indeed I walked a great way where I had no business; I went up Holborn, and there the street was full of people; but they walked in the middle of the great street, neither on one side nor the other, because, as I suppose, they would not mingle with anybody that came out of houses, or meet with smells and scents from houses that might be infected. The inns of court were all shut up; nor were very many of the lawyers in the temple, or Lin| coln's inn, or Gray's inn, to be seen there. Everybody was at peace; there was no occasion for lawyers; besides, it being in the time of the vacation too, they were generally gone into the country. Whole rows of houses in some places were shut close up, the inhabitants all fled, and only a watchman or two left. When I speak of row of houses being shut up, I do not mean shut up by the magistrates, but that great numbers of persons followed the court, by the necessity of their employments, and other dependencies; and as others retired, really frighted with the distemper, it was a mere desolating of some of the streets; but the fright was not yet near so great in the city, abstractedly so called; and particularly because, though they were at first in a most inexpressible consternation, yet, as I have observed, that the distemper intermitted often at first, so they were as it were alarmed, and unalarmed again, and this several times, till it began to be familiar to them; and that even when it appeared violent, yet seeing it did not presently spread into the city, or the east and south parts, the people began to take courage, and to be, as I may say, a little hardened; it is true a vast many people fled, as I have observed, yet they were chiefly from the west end of the town; and from that we call the heart of the city, that is to say, among the wealthiest of the people, and such people as were unincumbered with trades and business; but of the rest, the generality staid, and seemed to abide the worst; so that in the place we call the liberties, and in the suburbs, in Southwark, and in the east part, such as Wapping, Ratcliff, Stepney, Rotherhithe, and the like, the people generally staid, except here and there a few wealthy families who, as above, did not depend upon their business. It must not be forgotten here, that the city and suburbs were prodigiously full of people at the time of this visitation, I mean at the time that it began; for though I have lived to see a farther increase, and mighty throngs of people settling in London, more than ever, yet we had always a notion that the numbers of people which, the wars being over, the armies disbanded, and the royal family and the monarchy being restored, had flocked to London to settle in business, or to depend upon, and attend the court for rewards of services, preferments, and the like, was such, that the town was computed to have in it above a hundred thousand people more than ever it held before; nay, some took upon them to say it had twice as many, because all the ruined families of the royal party flocked hither; all the old soldiers set up trades here, and abundance of families settled here; again, the court brought with them a great flux of pride and new fashions; all people were grown gay and luxurious; and the joy of the restoration had brought a vast many families to London. I often thought that, as Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans, when the Jews were assembled together to celebrate the passover, by which means an incredible number of people were surprised there, who would otherwise have been in other countries: so the plague entered London when an incredible increase of people |