was no more; but it was not ſo far off from being a Reality, as it has been thought, for in a few Weeks more the poor People became ſo Deſperate by the Calamity they ſuffer’d, that they were with great difficulty kept from running out into the Fields and Towns, and tearing all in pieces where-ever they came; and, as I have obſerved before, nothing hinder’d them but that the Plague rag’d ſo violently, and fell in upon them ſo furiouſly, that they rather went to the Grave by Thouſands than into the Fields in Mobs by Thouſands: For in the Parts about the Pariſhes of St. Sepulchres, Clerkenwell, Cripplegate, Biſhopſgate and Shoreditch, which were the Places where the Mob began to threaten, the Diſtemper came on ſo furiouſly, that there died in thoſe few Pariſhes, even then, before the Plague was come to its height, no leſs than 5361 People in the firſt three Weeks in Auguſt, when at the ſame time, the Parts about Wapping, Radcliffe, and Rotherhith, were, as before deſcrib’d, hardly touch’d, or but very lightly; ſo that in a Word, tho’, as I ſaid before, the good Management of the Lord Mayor and Juſtices did much to prevent the Rage and Deſperation of the People from breaking out in Rabbles and Tumults, and in ſhort, from the Poor plundering the Rich; I ſay, tho’ they did much, the Dead Carts did more, for as I have ſaid, that in five Pariſhes only there died above 5000 in 20 Days, ſo there might be probably three times that Number Sick all that time; for ſome recovered, and great Numbers fell ſick every Day and died afterwards. Beſides, I muſt ſtill be allowed to ſay, that if the Bills of Mortality ſaid five Thouſand, I always believ’d it was near twice as many in reality; there being no room to believe that the Account they gave was right, or that indeed, they were, among ſuch Confuſions as I ſaw them in, in any Condition to keep an exact Account.
