History of the Plague in London

by Daniel Defoe

to bring back in other shipssuch as were improper for the markets at Smyrna[292] andScanderoon.[293]

  The inconveniences in Spain and Portugal were still greater; for theywould by no means suffer our ships, especially those from London, tocome into any of their ports, much less to unlade. There was a reportthat one of our ships having by stealth delivered her cargo, among whichwere some bales of English cloth, cotton, kerseys, and such like goods,the Spaniards caused all the goods to be burned, and punished the menwith death who were concerned in carrying them on shore. This I believewas in part true, though I do not affirm it; but it is not at allunlikely, seeing the danger was really very great, the infection beingso violent in London.

  I heard likewise that the plague was carried into those countries bysome of our ships, and particularly to the port of Faro, in the kingdomof Algarve,[294] belonging to the King of Portugal, and that severalpersons died of it there; but it was not confirmed.

  On the other hand, though the Spaniards and Portuguese were so shy ofus, it is most certain that the plague, as has been said, keeping atfirst much at that end of the town next Westminster, the merchandisingpart of the town, such as the city and the waterside, was perfectlysound till at least the beginning of July, and the ships in the rivertill the beginning of August; for to the 1st of July there had died butseven within the whole city, and but sixty within the liberties; but onein all the parishes of Stepney, Aldgate, and Whitechapel, and but two inall 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 Londonwas infected with the plague; and there was no inquiring there how theinfection proceeded, or at which part of the town it was begun or wasreached to.

  Besides, after it began to spread, it increased so fast, and the billsgrew so high all on a sudden, that it was to no purpose to lessen thereport of it, or endeavor to make the people abroad think it better thanit was. The account which the weekly bills gave in was sufficient; andthat there died two thousand to three or four thousand a week wassufficient to alarm the whole trading part of the world: and thefollowing time being so dreadful also in the very city itself, put thewhole world, I say, upon their guard against it.

  You may be sure also that the report of these things lost nothing in thecarriage. The plague was itself very terrible, and the distress of thepeople very great, as you may observe of what I have said, but the rumorwas infinitely greater; and it must not be wondered that our friendsabroad, as my brother's correspondents in particular, were told there(namely, in Portugal and Italy, where he chiefly traded), that in Londonthere died twenty thousand in a week; that the dead bodies lay unburiedby heaps; that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead, or thesound to look after the sick; that all the kingdom was infectedlikewise, so that it was an universal malady such as was never heard ofin those parts of the world. And they could hardly believe us when wegave them an account how things really were; and how there was not aboveone tenth part of the people dead; that there were five hundred thousandleft that lived all the time in the town; that now the people began towalk the streets again, and those who were fled to return; there was nomiss of the usual throng of people in the streets, except as everyfamily might miss their relations and neighbors; and the like. I say,they could not believe these things; and if inquiry were now to be madein Naples, or in other cities on the coast of Italy, they would tell youthere was a dreadful infection in London so many years ago, in which, asabove, there died twenty thousand in a week, etc., just as we have hadit reported in London that there was a plague in the city of Naples inthe year 1656, in which there died twenty thousand people in a day, ofwhich I have had very good satisfaction that it was utterly false.

  But these extravagant reports were very prejudicial to our trade, aswell as unjust and injurious in themselves; for it was a long time afterthe plague was quite over before our trade could recover itself in thoseparts of the world; and the Flemings[295] and Dutch, but especially thelast, made very great advantages of it, having all the market tothemselves, and even buying our manufactures in the several parts ofEngland where the plague was not, and carrying them to Holland andFlanders, and from thence transporting them to Spain and to Italy, as ifthey had been of their own making.

  But they were detected sometimes, and punished, that is to say, theirgoods confiscated, and ships also; for if it was true that ourmanufactures as well as our people were infected, and that it wasdangerous to touch or to open and receive the smell of them, then thosepeople ran the hazard, by that clandestine trade, not only of carryingthe contagion into their own country, but also of infecting the nationsto whom they traded with those goods; which, considering how many livesmight be lost in consequence of such an action, must be a trade that nomen 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 thatkind, by those people; but I doubt I need not make any such proviso inthe case of our own country; for either by our people of London, or bythe commerce, which made their conversing with all sorts of people inevery county, and of every considerable town, necessary,--I say, by thismeans the plague was first or last spread all over the kingdom, as wellin London as in all the cities and great towns, especially in thetrading manufacturing towns and seaports: so that first or last all theconsiderable places in England were visited more or less, and thekingdom of Ireland in some places, but not so universally. How it faredwith the people in Scotland, I had no opportunity to inquire.

  It is to be observed, that, while the plague continued so violent inLondon, 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 thatside[297] of England, exported to Holland and Hamburg the manufacturesof the adjacent counties for several months after the trade with Londonwas, 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 toIreland. But as the plague spread itself every way after it had been inLondon to such a degree as it was in August and September, so all ormost of those cities and towns were infected first or last, and thentrade was, as it were, under a general embargo, or at a full stop, as Ishall observe further when I speak of our home trade.

  One thing, however, must be observed, that as to ships coming in fromabroad (as many, you may be sure, did), some who were out in all partsof the world a considerable while before, and some who, when they wentout, knew nothing of an infection, or at least of one soterrible,--these came up the river boldly, and delivered their cargoesas they were obliged to do, except just in the two months of August andSeptember, when, the weight of the infection lying, as I may say, allbelow bridge, nobody durst appear in business for a while. But as thiscontinued but for a few weeks, the homeward-bound ships, especially suchwhose 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 theriver 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 Octoberthere was a very great fleet of homeward-bound ships to come up, such asthe like had not been known for many years.

  Two particular trades were carried on by water carriage all the while ofthe infection, and that with little or no interruption, very much to theadvantage and comfort of the poor distressed people of the city; andthose were the coasting trade for corn, and the Newcastle trade forcoals.

  The first of these was particularly carried on by small vessels from theport of Hull, and other places in the Humber, by which great quantitiesof corn were brought in from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire; the other partof 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 fromthe river Medway, and from Milton, Feversham, Margate, and Sandwich, andall the other little places and ports round the coast of Kent andEssex.[2
99]

  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, andwithout interruption came up to that market known still by the name ofBear Key, where they supplied the city plentifully with corn when landcarriage began to fail, and when the people began to be sick of comingfrom many places in the country.

  This also was much of it owing to the prudence and conduct of the lordmayor, who took such care to keep the masters and seamen from dangerwhen they came up, causing their corn to be bought off at any time theywanted a market (which, however, was very seldom), and causing thecornfactors[300] immediately to unlade and deliver the vessels ladenwith corn, that they had very little occasion to come out of their shipsor vessels, the money being always carried on board to them, and put itinto a pail of vinegar before it was carried.

  The second trade was that of coals from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, withoutwhich the city would have been greatly