Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/214

 which I have ſeen of the preceding Viſitations which have been in London, nothing has been like it; the Number in the Weekly Bill amounting to almoſt 40,000 from the 22d of Auguſt, to the 26th of September, being but five Weeks, the particulars of the Bills are as follows, (viz.)

This was a prodigious Number of itſelf, but if I ſhould add the Reaſons which I have to believe that this Account was deficient, and how deficient it was, you would with me, make no Scruple to believe that there died above ten Thouſand a Week for all thoſe Weeks, one Week with another, and a proportion for ſeveral Weeks both before and after: The Confuſion among the People, eſpecially within the City at that time, was inexpreſſible; the Terror was ſo great at laſt, that the Courage of the People appointed to carry away the Dead, began to fail them; nay, ſeveral of them died altho’ they had the Diſtemper before, and were recover’d; and ſome of them drop’d down when they have been carrying the Bodies even at the Pitſide, and juſt ready to throw them in; and this Confuſion was greater in the City, becauſe they had flatter’d themſelves with Hopes of eſcaping: And thought the bitterneſs of Death was paſt: One Cart they told us, going up Shoreditch, was forſaken of the Drivers, or being left to one Man to drive, he died in the Street, and the Horſes going on, overthrew the Cart, and left the Bodies, ſome thrown out here, ſome there, in a diſmal manner; Another Cart was it ſeems found in the great