 It is unclear exactly where the disease first struck but the initial contagion may have arrived with Dutch trading ships carrying bales of cotton from Amsterdam, which was ravaged by the disease in 1663–1664, with a mortality given of 50,000.The first areas to be struck are believed to be the dock areas just outside London, and the parish of St Giles.In both of these localities, poor workers were crowded into ill-kept structures.