A journal of the plague year, or, Memorials of the great pestilence in London, in 1665 / by Daniel De Foe. Revised edition with historical notes by E. W. Brayley ... Also, some account of the great fire in London in 1666, by Gideon Harvey ... with an appendix containing the Earl of Clarendon's account of the fire. With illustrations on steel by George Cruikshank.
- Daniel Defoe
- Date:
- [1881]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A journal of the plague year, or, Memorials of the great pestilence in London, in 1665 / by Daniel De Foe. Revised edition with historical notes by E. W. Brayley ... Also, some account of the great fire in London in 1666, by Gideon Harvey ... with an appendix containing the Earl of Clarendon's account of the fire. With illustrations on steel by George Cruikshank. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.
![heard, without coffins, whose bodies were seen sometimes to drive up and down with the tide in the river. But, I believe, I may venture to say, that in those ships which were thus infected, it either happened where the people had recourse to them too late, and did not fly to the ship tUl they had stayed too long- on shore, and had the distemper upon them, though, perhaps, they might not perceive it; and so the distemper did not come to them on board the ships, but they really can-ied it with them: or, it was in those ships where the poor watermen said they had not had time to furnish themselves with pro- visions, but were obliged to send often on shore to buy what they had occasion for, or suffered boats to come to them from the shore: and so the distemper was brought insensibly among them. And here I cannot but take notice that the strauge temper of the people of London at that time contributed extremely to then* own destruction. The Plague began, as I have observed, at the other eud of the town, namely, in Long-acre, Drury-laue, &c., and came on towards the city very gradually and slowly. It was felt at first in December, then again in February, then again in April, and always but a very little at a time; then it stopt tUl May, and even the last Aveek in May there were but 17, and all at that end of the town [except two]; and all this while, even so long as till there died about 3000 a week, had the people in Redi-ift\ and in Wapping, and Eatcliff, on both sides the river, and almost all Southwark- side, a mighty fancy that they should not be visited, or at least, thtt it would not be so violent among them. Some people fancied the smell of the pitch and tar, and such other things, as oil, and resin, and brimstone, which is so much used by aU trades relating to shipping, would pre-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21224377_0184.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
