A Journal of the Plague Year

D >> Daniel Defoe >> A Journal of the Plague Year


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
coals 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 temper, 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 worse 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 vapours 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
a quite 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
sulphurous 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 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 I the Dutch at that time, the Dutch capers 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 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 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.

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 exceeding dear, even as high
as 4 a chalder; 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 200 chalders
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 Queenhith, and
one at the Three Cranes; one in Blackfriars, and one at the gate of
Bridewell; one at the corner of Leadenhal Street and Gracechurch; one at
the north and one at the south gate of the Royal Exchange; one at Guild
Hall, 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 quarrelled 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, but 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 Whitechappel Bars was sold at 4 pound 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 want of people; but this made the poor eat them
to excess, and this brought them into fluxes, griping of the guts,
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 out-ports; 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 Londoner's hands, was stopped at once,
the trade of the city being stopped.

All kinds of handicrafts in the city, &c., 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 families whose living depended upon the labour of the heads
of those families; I say, this reduced them to extreme misery; and I
must confess it is for the honour 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 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 for all sort 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 judgement. 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 that 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 8297 of all
diseases, I upbraided him with it, and asked him what he had made
his judgement from. His answer, however, was not so much to seek 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 6460, and the next to that, 5720; 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
1843, so that the number dead of the plague was but 2665; and the next
week it decreased 1413 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's none of my particular business to
inquire), but I saw it apparently here, that as upon the first fright
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 tumours
and carbuncles upon them that were running, and consequently contagious,
but ate 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 circumstances 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 with the sick people, and make them as anxious
almost to avoid the infections 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 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 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 the shyness which they used to practise,
depending that the sickness would not reach them--or that if it did,
they should not die.

The physicians opposed this thoughtless humour 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 past; 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, I say, of the people went so far that the
ministers took notice to them of it at last, 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 rumour 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 1000 to 1800 a week, yet the
people flocked to town as if all had been well.

The consequence of this was, that the bills increased again 400 the very
first week in November; and if I might believe the physicians, there was
above 3000 fell sick that week, most of them new-comers, 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 in 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 maid-servant. He had not 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 winter weather came on apace,
and the air was clear and cold, with 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 were that 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 whimsy prevail among
people that they ran all together promiscuously, sick and well. Not
the Mahometans, who, prepossessed with the principle of predestination,
value 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 in a week, than there was 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 accept 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.