It might be that they were preserved even beyond expectation,though not to a miracle,that abundance went and came and were not touched;and that was much for the encouragement of the poor people of London,who had been completely miserable if the people that brought provisions to the markets had not been many times wonderfully preserved,or at least more preserved than could be reasonably expected.
But now these new inmates began to be disturbed more effectually,for the towns about them were really infected,and they began to be afraid to trust one another so much as to go abroad for such things as they wanted,and this pinched them very hard,for now they had little or nothing but what the charitable gentlemen of the country supplied them with.But,for their encouragement,it happened that other gentlemen in the country who had not sent them anything before,began to hear of them and supply them,and one sent them a large pig -that is to say,a porker another two sheep,and another sent them a calf.In short,they had meat enough,and sometimes had cheese and milk,and all such things.They were chiefly put to it for bread,for when the gentlemen sent them corn they had nowhere to bake it or to grind it.This made them eat the first two bushel of wheat that was sent them in parched corn,as the Israelites of old did,without grinding or making bread of it.
At last they found means to carry their corn to a windmill near Woodford,where they bad it ground,and afterwards the biscuit-maker made a hearth so hollow and dry that he could bake biscuit-cakes tolerably well;and thus they came into a condition to live without any assistance or supplies from the towns;and it was well they did,for the country was soon after fully infected,and about 120were said to have died of the distemper in the villages near them,which was a terrible thing to them.
On this they called a new council,and now the towns had no need to be afraid they should settle near them;but,on the contrary,several families of the poorer sort of the inhabitants quitted their houses and built huts in the forest after the same manner as they had done.But it was observed that several of these poor people that had so removed had the sickness even in their huts or booths;the reason of which was plain,namely,not because they removed into the air,but,()because they did not remove time enough;that is to say,not till,by openly conversing with the other people their neighbours,they had the distemper upon them,or (as may be said)among them,and so carried it about them whither they went.Or (2)because they were not careful enough,after they were safely removed out of the towns,not to come in again and mingle with the diseased people.
But be it which of these it will,when our travellers began to perceive that the plague was not only in the towns,but even in the tents and huts on the forest near them,they began then not only to be afraid,but to think of decamping and removing;for had they stayed they would have been in manifest danger of their lives.
It is not to be wondered that they were greatly afflicted at being obliged to quit the place where they had been so kindly received,and where they had been treated with so much humanity and charity;but necessity and the hazard of life,which they came out so far to preserve,prevailed with them,and they saw no remedy.John,however,thought of a remedy for their present misfortune:namely,that he would first acquaint that gentleman who was their principal benefactor with the distress they were in,and to crave his assistance and advice.
End of Part 4