A Journal of the Plague Year

by Daniel Defoe

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;

And here I must observe again, that this Necessity of going out of our Houses to buy Provisions, was in a great Measure the Ruin of the whole City, for the People catch’d the Distemper, on those Occasions, one of another, and even the Provisions themselves were often tainted,

However, the poor People cou’d not lay up Provisions, and there was a necessity, that they must go to Market to buy, and others to send Servants or their Children; and as this was a Necessity which renew’d it self daily; it brought abundance of unsound People to the Markets, and a great many that went thither Sound, brought Death Home with them.

I took my Friend and Physician’s Advice, and lock’d my self up, and my Family, and resolv’d to suffer the hardship of Living a few Months without Flesh-Meat, rather than to purchase it at the hazard of our Lives.

People in the Rage of the Distemper, or in the Torment of their Swellings, which was indeed intollerable, running out of their own Government, raving and distracted, and oftentimes laying violent Hands upon themselves, throwing themselves out at their Windows, shooting themselves,&c. Mothers murthering their own Children,

It must be confest, that tho’ the Plague was chiefly among the Poor; yet, were the Poor the most Venturous and Fearless of it, and went about their Employment, with a Sort of brutal Courage; I must call it so, for it was founded neither on Religion or Prudence; scarse did they use any Caution, but run into any Business, which they could get Employment in, tho’ it was the most hazardous; such was that of tending the Sick, watching Houses shut up, carrying infected Persons to the Pest-House; and which was still worse, carrying the Dead away to their Graves.

John Hayward recovering himself said, Lord bless us. There’s some Body in the Cart not quite dead!

Where am I? Where are you! says Hayward; why, you are in the Dead-Cart, and we are a-going to bury you. But I an’t dead tho’, am I?

Surely never City, at least, of this Bulk and Magnitude, was taken in a Condition so perfectly unprepar’d for such a dreadful Visitation, whether I am to speak of the Civil Preparations, or Religious; they were indeed, as if they had had no Warning, no Expectation, no Apprehensions, and consequently the least Provision imaginable, was made for it in a publick Way;

It must be acknowledg’d that the absent Citizens, who, tho’ they were fled for Safety into the Country, were yet greatly interested in the Welfare of those who they left behind, forgot not to contribute liberally to the Relief of the Poor, and large Sums were also collected among Trading-Towns in the remotest Parts of England; and as I have heard also, the Nobility and the Gentry, in all Parts of England, took the deplorable Condition of the City into their Consideration, and sent up large Sums of Money in Charity, to the Lord Mayor and Magistrates, for the Relief of the Poor;

Certain it is, the greatest Part of the Poor, or Families, who formerly liv’d by their Labour, or by Retail-Trade, liv’d now on Charity; and had there not been prodigious Sums of Money given by charitable, well-minded Christians, for the Support of such, the City could never have subsisted.

I say, it may be of use to observe that by the Care of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, at that Time in distributing Weekly, great Sums of Money, for Relief of the Poor, a Multitude of People, who would otherwise have perished, were relieved, and their Lives preservd.

You may be sure, from that Hour, all Trade, except such as related to immediate Subsistence, was, as it were, at a full Stop.

All Families retrench’d their living as much as possible, as well those that fled, as those that stay’d; so that an innumerable Multitude of Footmen, serving Men, Shop-keepers, Journey-men, Merchants-Book-keepers, and such Sort of People, and especially poor Maid Servants were turn’d off, and left Friendless and Helpless without Employment, and without Habitation; and this was really a dismal Article.

these might be said to perish, not by the Infection it self, but by the Consequence of it; indeed, namely, by Hunger and Distress, and the Want of all Things; being without Lodging, without Money, without Friends, without Means to get their Bread, or without any one to give it them, for many of them were without what we call legal Settlements, and so could not claim of the Parishes,

Plague which raged in a dreadful Manner from the Middle of August to the Middle of October, carried off in that Time thirty or forty Thousand of these very People, which had they been left, would certainly have been an unsufferable Burden, by their Poverty, that is to say, the whole City could not have supported the Expence of them, or have provided Food for them; and they would in Time have been even driven to the Necessity of plundering either the City it self, or the Country adjacent, to have subsisted

many began to think, and even to say, that there would none escape; and indeed, I began to think so too; and therefore kept within Doors, for about a Fortnight, and never stirr’d out: But I cou’d not hold it: Besides, there were some People, who notwithstanding the Danger, did not omit publickly to attend the Worship of God, even in the most dangerous Times; and tho’ it is true, that a great many Clergymen did shut up their Churches, and fled as other People did, for the safety of their Lives; yet, all did not do so, some ventur’d to officiate, and to keep up the Assemblies of the People

It pleased God that I was still spar’d, and very hearty and sound in Health, but very impatient of being pent up within Doors without Air, as I had been for 14 Days or thereabouts; and I could not restrain my self, but I would go to carry a Letter for my Brother to the Post-House;

sure you cannot have so little pity left, as to put your self into my Boat if you were not Sound in Health, which would be nothing less than killing me,

And here I cannot but take notice that the strange Temper of the People of London at that Time contributed extremely to their own Destruction.

This, I say, made the People of Redriff and Wapping, Ratcliff and Lime-House so secure, and flatter themselves so much with the Plague’s going off, without reaching them, that they took no Care, either to fly into the Country, or shut themselves up; nay, so far were they from stirring, that they rather receiv’d their Friends and Relations from the City into their Houses, and several from other Places really took Sanctuary in that Part of the Town, as a Place of Safety, and as a Place which they thought God would pass over and not visit as the rest was visited.

for going about for Provision, and perhaps to get their Subsistence, the Infection got in among them and made a fearful Havock; many of the Watermen died alone in their Wherries, as they rid at their Roads, as well above-Bridge as below, and were not found sometimes till they were not in Condition for any Body to touch or come near them.

But alas! this was a Time when every one’s private Safety lay so near them, that they had no Room to pity the Distresses of others; for every one had Death, as it were, at his Door, and many even in their Families, and knew not what to do, or whither to fly.

For tho’ I am much for Peoples flying away and emptying such a Town as this, upon the first Appearance of a like Visitation, and that all People that have any possible Retreat, should make use of it in Time, and begone; yet, I must say, when all that will fly are gone, those that are left and must stand it, should stand stock still where they are, and not shift from one End of the Town, or one Part of the Town to the other; for that is the Bane and Mischief of the whole, and they carry the Plague from House to House in their very Clothes.

and how it was for Want of timely entring into Measures, and Managements, as well publick as private, that all the Confusions that followed were brought upon us; and that such a prodigious Number of People sunk in that Disaster, which if proper Steps had been taken, might, Providence concurring, have been avoided, and which, if Posterity think fit, they may take a Caution, and Warning from:

Another Plague Year would reconcile all these Differences, a close conversing with Death, or with Diseases that threaten Death, would scum off the Gall from our Tempers, remove the Animosities among us, and bring us to see with differing Eyes, than those which we look’d on Things

so that People went about their Business unconcern’d, carryed on their Trades, kept open their Shops, and conversed freely with one another in all the City, the East and North-East Suburbs, and in Southwark, almost as if the Plague had not been among us.

These breathed Death in every Place, and upon every Body who came near them; nay their very Cloaths retained the Infection, their Hands would infect the Things they touch’d, especially if they were warm and sweaty, and they were generally apt to sweat too.

This was indeed a faithful Monitor to all People, that the Plague is not to be avoided by those that converse promiscuously in a Town infected, and People have it when they know it not, and that they likewise give it to others when they know not that they have it themselves;

I have come near no Infection, or any infected Person, I am sure it is in the Air; We draw in Death when we breath, and therefore ’tis the Hand of God,

It was very sad to reflect, how such a Person as this last mentioned above, had been a walking Destroyer, perhaps for a Week or Fortnight before that; how he had ruin’d those, that he would have hazarded his Life to save, and had been breathing Death upon them, even perhaps in his tender Kissing and Embracings of his own Children:

they all allow’d that it was really so, that many People had the Plague in their very Blood, and preying upon their Spirits, and were in themselves but walking putrified Carcasses, whose Breath was infectious, and their Sweat Poison; and yet were as well to look on as other People, and even knew it not themselves:

Indeed nothing was more strange, than to see with what Courage the People went to the public Service of God, even at that time when they were afraid to stir out of their own Houses upon any other Occasion; this I mean before the time of Desperation, which I have mention’d already;

before People came to right Notions of the Infection, and of infecting one another, People were only shye of those that were really sick, a Man with a Cap upon his Head, or with Cloths round his Neck, which was the Case of those that had Swellings there; such was indeed frightful:

and People converse a great while freely, especially with their Neighbours and such as they knew. But when the Physicians assured us, that the Danger was as well from the Sound, that is the seemingly sound, as the Sick; and that those People, who thought themselves entirely free, were oftentimes the most fatal;

a vast Number of People lock’d themselves up, so as not to come abroad into any Company at all, nor suffer any, that had been abroad in promiscuous Company, to come into their Houses,

It must be acknowledg’d, that when People began to use these Cautions, they were less exposed to Danger, and the Infection did not break into such Houses so furiously as it did into others before, and thousands of Families were preserved, speaking with due Reserve to the Direction of Divine Providence, by that Means. But it was impossible to beat any thing into the Heads of the Poor, they went on with the usual Impetuosity

I must trust to God for that; if I am taken, then I am provided for, and there is an End of me, and the like: OR THUS, Why, What must I do? I can’t starve, I had as good have the Plague as perish for want. I have no Work, what could I do? I must do this or beg:

for I cannot say, I could observe one jot of better Husbandry among them, I mean the labouring Poor, while they were well and getting Money, than there was before, but as lavish, as extravagant, and as thoughtless for to Morrow as ever; so that when they came to be taken sick, they were immediately in the utmost Distress as well for want, as for Sickness, as well for lack of Food, as lack of Health.

It was doubtless to be reckon’d among the many signal good Providences which attended this great City, and of which there were many other worth recording; I say, this was a very remarkable one, that it pleased God thus to move the Hearts of the People in all parts of the Kingdom, so chearfully to contribute to the Relief and Support of the poor at London; the good Consequences of which were felt many ways, and particularly in preserving the Lives and recovering the Health of so many thousands, and keeping so many Thousands of Families from perishing

As to Foreign Trade, there needs little to be said; the trading Nations of Europe were all afraid of us, no Port of France, or Holland, or Spain, or Italy would admit our Ships or correspond with us; indeed we stood on ill Terms with the Dutch, and were in a furious War with them, but tho’ in a bad Condition to fight abroad, who had such dreadful Enemies to struggle with at Home.

as it is easie 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.

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 eat 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 cou’d not see rational;

my Friend Doctor Heath allow’d, and it was plain to Experience, that the Distemper was as catching as ever, and as many fell sick, but only he alledg’d, 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 it self was very terrible, the Sores and Swellings very tormenting, and the Danger of Death not left out of the Circumstance of Sickness, tho’

The Physicians oppos’d 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 reserv’d, 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 possess’d with the first Joy, and so surpriz’d 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 pass’d; and it was to no more purpose to talk to them, than to an East-wind; but they open’d Shops, went about Streets, did Business, and conversed with any Body that came in their Way to converse with, whether with Business, or wit...

This imprudent rash Conduct cost a great many their Lives, who had with great Care and Caution shut themselves up, and kept retir’d as it were from all Mankind, and had by that means, under God’s Providenc...

It was indeed surprising to see it, for tho’ there died still from a Thousand to eighteen Hundred a Week, yet the People flock’d to Town, as if all had been well. The Consequence of this was, that the Bills encreas’d again Four Hundred the very first Week in November; and if I might believe the Physicians, there was above three Thousand fell sick that Week, most of them new Comers too.

and the Magistrates of London began to set Rules for our Conduct, as to corresponding with those Cities: