I must here take further notice that nothing was more fatal to the inhabitants of this city than the supine negligence of the people themselves,who,during the long notice or warning they had of the visitation,made no provision for it by laying in store of provisions,or of other necessaries,by which they might have lived retired and within their own houses,as I have observed others did,and who were in a great measure preserved by that caution;nor were they,after they were a little hardened to it,so shy of conversing with one another,when actually infected,as they were at first:no,though they knew it.
I acknowledge I was one of those thoughtless ones that had made so little provision that my servants were obliged to go out of doors to buy every trifle by penny and halfpenny,just as before it began,even till my experience showing me the folly,I began to be wiser so late that Ihad scarce time to store myself sufficient for our common subsistence for a month.
I had in family only an ancient woman that managed the house,a maid-servant,two apprentices,and myself;and the plague beginning to increase about us,I had many sad thoughts about what course Ishould take,and how I should act.The many dismal objects which happened everywhere as I went about the streets,had filled my mind with a great deal of horror for fear of the distemper,which was indeed very horrible in itself,and in some more than in others.The swellings,which were generally in the neck or groin,when they grew hard and would not break,grew so painful that it was equal to the most exquisite torture;and some,not able to bear the torment,threw themselves out at windows or shot themselves,or otherwise made themselves away,and I saw several dismal objects of that kind.
Others,unable to contain themselves,vented their pain by incessant roarings,and such loud and lamentable cries were to be heard as we walked along the streets that would pierce the very heart to think of,especially when it was to be considered that the same dreadful scourge might be expected every moment to seize upon ourselves.
I cannot say but that now I began to faint in my resolutions;my heart failed me very much,and sorely I repented of my rashness.
When I had been out,and met with such terrible things as these I have talked of,I say I repented my rashness in venturing to abide in town.Iwished often that I had not taken upon me to stay,but had gone away with my brother and his family.
Terrified by those frightful objects,I would retire home sometimes and resolve to go out no more;and perhaps I would keep those resolutions for three or four days,which time I spent in the most serious thankfulness for my preservation and the preservation of my family,and the constant confession of my sins,giving myself up to God every day,and applying to Him with fasting,humiliation,and meditation.Such intervals as I had I employed in reading books and in writing down my memorandums of what occurred to me every day,and out of which afterwards I took most of this work,as it relates to my observations without doors.What I wrote of my private meditations I reserve for private use,and desire it may not be made public on any account whatever.
I also wrote other meditations upon divine subjects,such as occurred to me at that time and were profitable to myself,but not fit for any other view,and therefore I say no more of that.
I had a very good friend,a physician,whose name was Heath,whom I frequently visited during this dismal time,and to whose advice I was very much obliged for many things which he directed me to take,by way of preventing the infection when I went out,as he found Ifrequently did,and to hold in my mouth when I was in the streets.He also came very often to see me,and as he was a good Christian as well as a good physician,his agreeable conversation was a very great support to me in the worst of this terrible time.
It was now the beginning of August,and the plague grew very violent and terrible in the place where I lived,and Dr Heath coming to visit me,and finding that I ventured so often out in the streets,earnestly persuaded me to lock myself up and my family,and not to suffer any of us to go out of doors;to keep all our windows fast,shutters and curtains close,and never to open them;but first,to make a very strong smoke in the room where the window or door was to be opened,with rozen and pitch,brimstone or gunpowder and the like;and we did this for some time;but as I had not laid in a store of provision for such a retreat,it was impossible that we could keep within doors entirely.However,I attempted,though it was so very late,to do something towards it;and first,as I had convenience both for brewing and baking,I went and bought two sacks of meal,and for several weeks,having an oven,we baked all our own bread;also Ibought malt,and brewed as much beer as all the casks I had would hold,and which seemed enough to serve my house for five or six weeks;also I laid in a quantity of salt butter and Cheshire cheese;but I had no flesh-meat,and the plague raged so violently among the butchers and slaughter-houses on the other side of our street,where they are known to dwell in great numbers,that it was not advisable so much as to go over the street among them.