"This is our last stopping place," Joe Chambers said. "The morning
tide will carry us up to London Bridge."

"Then you will not go on with tonight's tide?" Geoffrey asked.

"No; the river gets narrower every mile, and I do not care to take
the risk of navigating it after dark, especially as there is always
a great deal of shipping moored above Greenwich. Tide will begin
to run up at about five o'clock, and by ten we ought to be safely
moored alongside near London Bridge. So we should not gain a great
deal by going on this evening instead of tomorrow morning, and I
don't suppose you are in a particular hurry."

"Oh, no," Lionel said. "We would much rather go on in the morning,
otherwise we should miss everything by the way; and there is the
Queen's Palace at Greenwich that I want to see above all things."

Within a few minutes of the hour the skipper had named for their
arrival, the Susan was moored alongside some vessels lying off one
of the wharves above the Tower. The boys' astonishment had risen with
every mile of their approach to the city, and they were perfectly
astounded at the amount of shipping that they now beheld. The great
proportion were of course coasters, like themselves, but there were
many large vessels among them, and of these fully half were flying
foreign colours. Here were traders from the Netherlands, with the
flag that the Spaniards had in vain endeavoured to lower, flying
at their mastheads. Here were caravels from Venice and Genoa, laden
with goods from the East. Among the rest Master Chambers pointed out
to the lads the ship in which Sir Francis Drake had circumnavigated
the world, and that in which Captain Stevens had sailed to India,