"Even the very
nets and tackle of these poor fishermen, I heard, were pawned, and,
unless they be assisted to redeem them, they will be unable to take
advantage of the herring shoals, even when they approach their coast. In
order to ascertain the truth of this statement, I went into two or three
of the largest pawnshops, the owners of which fully confirmed it and
said they had in pledge at least a thousand pounds' worth of such
property and saw no likelihood of its being redeemed."
In a rural district which he revisited after an interval, he paints a
scene which can scarcely be matched in the annals of a mediaeval plague:
"One poor woman whose cabin I visited said, 'There will be nothing for
us but to lie down and die.' I tried to give her hope of English aid,
but alas! her prophecy has been too true. Out of a population of two
hundred forty I found thirteen already dead from want. The survivors
were like walking skeletons; the men gaunt and haggard, stamped with the
livid mark of hunger; the children crying with pain; the women in some
of the cabins too weak to stand.
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