The 19th, Persons are chosen in all the Parishes to make Broth for the sick Poor, and to distribute it among them; and a particular Hospital is established, which the most moving Accidents such a Calamity can produce, render absolutely necessary.
Many Women who suckled Children, dye of the Contagion; and the Infants are found crying in their Cradles, when the Bodies of the Mothers or Nurses are taken away; no Body will receive these Children, much less suckle, or feed them: There is no Pity stirring in the Time of a Plague, the Fear of catching the Contagion stifles all Sentiments of Charity, and even those of Humanity: To save as many as possible of these little Innocents, and of so many other unhappy Children of tender Age, whom the Pestilence has made Orphans, the Sheriffs take the Hospital of St. _James_ of _Galicia_, and the Convent of the Fathers of _Loretto_, which were become empty by the Death or Flight of all those Monks; and there Care is taken to feed them, with Spoon-Meat, or by holding them to Goats to suck. The Number of them is so great, that tho' 30 or 40 die in a Day, there are always 12 or 1300, by the Addition of those who are brought in successively every Day.
The 20th, Part of the Slaves, which had been received into the Town but Two Days before, are struck with the Plague, and disabled from Working; more are asked of the Officers of the Gallies, who grant Thirty Three.
This Day all the Millers and Bakers ceasing to work, because almost all their Servants have left them and fled, an Ordinance is issued at my Instance, requiring the Deserters to return, and to forbid those who remain to leave their Masters, on Pain of Death. Not one Mason is left in the Town, and divers Works are wanting to be done in the Church-Yards, and the Hospitals. A like Ordinance is published, to compel them to return; and another forbidding the carrying out of the Town, Meal or Brown Bread, designed for subsisting the Poor, on the Penalty of a Fine and Confiscation.
The 21st, the Pestilence begins to rage with so much Fury, and the Number of the dead is multiplied so suddenly, that it appears impossible to carry them off in Carts to the Pits without the Town; because the Carts cannot well go to the upper Quarter of St. _John_, nor to several others of the old Town, the Streets of which are narrow and steep, and yet the greatest Number of dead Bodies lies in those Streets, which are inhabited by Multitudes of the meanest People; and besides, it is so far from thence to the Pits without the Walls, that there is no doing so much Work without falling into the Inconvenience of leaving many Bodies behind, which would poison the Air, and breed a general Infection.