an incredible Number of People were ſurpriz'd there, who would otherwiſe have been in other Countries: So the Plague entred London, when an incredible Increaſe of People had happened occaſionally, by the particular Circumſtances abovenam'd: As this Conflux of the People, to a youthful and gay Court, made a great Trade in the City, eſpecially in every thing that belong'd to Faſhion and Finery; So it drew by Conſequence, a great Number of Work-men, Manufacturers, and the like, being moſtly poor People, who depended upon their Labour, And I remember in particular, that in a Repreſentation to my Lord Mayor, of the Condition of the Poor, it was eſtimated, that, there were no leſs than an Hundred Thouſand Ribband Weavers in and about the City; the chiefeſt Number of whom, lived then in the Pariſhes of Shoreditch, Stepney, White-chapel, and Biſhopſgate; that namely, about Spittle-fields; that is to ſay, as Spittle-fields was then; for it was not ſo large as now, by one fifth Part.
By this however, the Number of People in the whole may be judg'd of; and indeed, I often wondred, that after the prodigious Numbers of People that went away at firſt, there was yet ſo great a Multitude left, as it appear'd there was.
But I muſt go back again to the Beginning of this Surprizing Time, while the Fears of the People were young, they were encreas'd ſtrangely by ſeveral odd Accidents, which put altogether, it was realy a wonder the whole Body of the People did not riſe as one Man, and abandon their Dwellings, leaving the Place as a Space of Ground deſigned by Heaven for an Akeldama, doom'd to be deſtroy'd from the Face of the Earth; and that all that would be found in it, would periſh with it. I ſhall Name but a few of theſe Things; but ſure they were ſo many, andſo
