Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/182

 the unhappy Wanderers might die ſo all alone, ever ſometimes for want of Help, as particularly in one Tent or Hutt, was found a Man dead, and on the Gate of a Field juſt by, was cut with his Knife in uneven Letters, the following Words, by which it may be ſuppos'd the other Man eſcap’d, or that one dying firſt, the other bury’d him as well as he could;

I have given an Account already of what I found to ha’ been the Caſe down the River among the Sea-faring Men, how the Ships lay in the Offing, as ’tis call’d, in Rows or Lines a-ſtern of one another, quite down from the Pool as far as I could ſee, I have been told, that they lay in the ſame manner quite down the River as low as Graveſend, and ſome far beyond, even every where, or in every Place where they cou’d ride with Safety as to Wind and Weather; Nor did I ever hear that the Plague reach’d to any of the People on board thoſe Ships, except ſuch as lay up in the Pool, or as high as Deptford Reach, altho’ the People went frequently on Shoar to the Country Towns and Villages, and Farmers Houſes, to buy freſh Proviſions, Fowls, Pigs, Calves, and the like for their Supply.

Likewiſe I found that the Watermen on the River above the Bridge, found means to convey themſelves away up the River as far as they cou’d go; and that they had, many of them, their whole Families in their Boats, cover’d with Tilts and Bales, as they call them, and furniſh’d with Straw within for their Lodging; and that they lay thus all along by the Shoar in the Marſhes, ſome of them ſetting _ up little Tents with their Sails, and ſo lying under them on Shoar in the Day, and going into their