y
villages. Yarmouth looked like a pleasant little place, as it lay
north-northwest of us. We saw many ships sailing one way and the
other. Having waited for the ebb to run out we got under sail about
eight o'clock. We sailed by Sowls,[454] and came to anchor again about
three o'clock in the afternoon. The passengers had everything ready to
go ashore, and so overland to London. There was a signal made with the
flag from our ship, and a shot fired for a pilot or some one else to
come on board. Towards evening a small boat came with five men, but no
pilot. The flood making about nine or ten o'clock in the evening, and
running along the whole Scottish and English coast, from the Orkneys
to the Thames, we sailed on again until we came to another village
where our passengers went ashore. It was about midnight. The weather
was fine and the moon shone bright; we fired five or six guns. The
minister was sad and complained that it was Sunday, or Saturday
evening, and he dared not go ashore, lest he should break the Sabbath;
but finally he let his wishes override his scruples, and went off with
the passengers. We obtained a pilot and some refreshments, and then
sailed on till we came before Dunwich,[455] the oldest place in
England, and once the mightiest in commerce. We came again to anchor
in order to wait for the tide. The wind continued west-southwest.

[Footnote 454: Southwold, on the Suffolk coast.]

[Footnote 455: Dunwich, now mostly under the waters of the North Sea,
was once an important place, and one of considerable antiquity. The
bishopric of the East Saxons was established there in A.D. 630;
indeed, the town dates from Roman times (Sitomagus).]

_15th, Sunday._ The wind mostly as before. We were under sail about
ten o'clock, with the flood tide, and tacked along the land in seven
fathoms of water to the point of Aldborough,[456] to reach which we
made five or six short tacks. Running close to the shore, we came
among a fleet of, I think, full 200 coal ships, all beating up the
river, which made it difficult to avoid each other. We passed through
the King's Channel. I have never seen so many sunken ships as there
were in the mouth of the Thames, full eight or ten in different
places, from various causes. The tide being spent we came to anchor
before a village called St. Peter.

[Footnote 456: Still on the Suffolk coast. The King's Channel,
mentioned below, was the chief entrance into the estuary of the Thames
fro