years
ago, in which, as above, there died twenty thousand in a week, &c., just
as we have had it reported in London that there was a plague in the city
of Naples in the year 1656, in which there died 20,000 people in a day,
of which I have had very good satisfaction that it was utterly false.

But these extravagant reports were very prejudicial to our trade, as
well as unjust and injurious in themselves, for it was a long time after
the plague was quite over before our trade could recover itself in those
parts of the world; and the Flemings and Dutch (but especially the last)
made very great advantages of it, having all the market to themselves,
and even buying our manufactures in several parts of England where the
plague was not, and carrying them to Holland and Flanders, and from
thence transporting them to Spain and to Italy as if they had been of
their own making.

But they were detected sometimes and punished: that is to say,
their goods confiscated and ships also; for if it was true that our
manufactures as well as our people were infected, and that it was
dangerous to touch or to open and receive the smell of them, then those
people ran the hazard by that clandestine trade not only of carrying the
contagion into their own country, but also of infecting the nations to
whom they traded with those goods; which, considering how many lives
might be lost in consequence of such an action, must be a trade that no
men of conscience could suffer themselves to be concerned in.

I do not take upon me to say that any harm was done, I mean of that
kind, by those people. But I doubt I need not make any such proviso in
the case of our own country; for either by our people of London, or by
the commerce which made their conversing with all sorts of people in
every country and of every considerable town necessary, I say, by this
means the plague was first or last spread all over the kingdom, as
well in London as in all the cities and great towns, especially in the
trading manufacturing towns and seaports; so that, first or last, all
the considerable places in England were visited more or less, and the
kingdom of Ireland in some places, but not so universally. How it fared
with the people in Scotland I had no opportunity to inquire.

It is to be observed that while the plague continued so violent in
London, the outports, as they are called, enjoyed a very great trade,
especially to the adjacent countries and to our own plantation