Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/137

 Well, Sir, ſays he, as your Charity has been mov'd to pity me and my poor Family; ſure you cannot have ſo little pity left, as to put your ſelf into my Boat if you were not Sound in Health, which would be nothing leſs than killing me, and ruining my whole Family. The poor Man troubled me ſo much, when he ſpoke of his Family with ſuch a ſenſible Concerns and in ſuch an affectionate Manner, that I cou’d not ſatisfy my ſelf at firſt to go at all. I told him, I would lay aſide my Curioſity, rather than make him uneaſy; tho’ I was ſure, and very thankful for its that I had no more Diſtemper upon me, than the freſheſt Man in the World: Well, he would not have me put it off neither, but to let me ſee how confident he was, that I was juſt to him, he now importuned me to go; ſo when the Tide came up to his Boat, I went in, and he carry’d me to Greenwich: While he bought the Things which he had in his Charge to buy, I walk’d up to the Top of the Hill, under which the Town ſtands, and on the Eaſt-Side of the Town, to get a Proſpect of the River: But it was a ſurpriſing Sight to ſee the Number of Ships which lay in Rows, two and two, and ſome Places, two or three ſuch Lines in the Breadth of the Rivers and this not only up quite to the Town, between the Houſes which we call Ratclif and Redriff, which they name the Pool, but even down the whole River; as far as the Head of Long-Reach, which is as far as the Hills give us Leave to ſee it.

I cannot gueſs at the Number of Ships, but I think there muſt be ſeveral Hundreds of Sail; and I could not but applaud the Contrivance; for ten thouſand People, and more, who attended Ship Affairs, were certainly ſheltered here from the Violence of the Contagion, and liv’d very ſafe and very eaſy. I returned to my own Dwelling very well ſatisfied with my Days Journey; and particularly with the poor Man; alſo I rejoyced to ſee that ſuch little Sanctuaries were provided for ſo many Families,in a Time