But the great God, who is Lord of the sea and land, and who rideth
upon the wings of the wind, did by His power preserve us through many
and great dangers, when by extreme stress of weather our vessel was
many times likely to be upset, and much of her tackling broken. And
indeed we were sensible that the Lord was a God at hand, and that His
ear was open to the supplications of His people.
For when the winds were so strong and boisterous, and the storms
and tempests so great that the sailors knew not what to do, but let
the ship go which way she would, then did we pray unto the Lord,
who graciously heard us, calmed the winds and the seas, gave us
seasonable weather, and made us to rejoice in His salvation. Blessed
and praised be the holy name of the Lord, whose power hath dominion
over all, whom the winds and the seas obey.
We were between six and seven weeks in this passage from Jamaica to
Maryland. Some days before we came to land, after we had entered the
bay of Patuxent River, a great storm arose, which cast a boat upon us
for shelter, in which were several people of account in the world. We
took them in; but the boat was lost, with five hundred pounds' worth
of goods in it, as they said. They continued on board several days,
not having any means to get off; and we had a very good meeting with
them in the ship.
But provisions grew short, for they brought none in with them; and
ours, by reason of the length of our voyage, were well-nigh spent
when they came to us; so that with their living with us too, we had
now little or none left. Whereupon George Pattison took a boat, and
ventured his life to get to shore; the hazard was so great that all
but Friends concluded he would be cast away. Yet it pleased the Lord
to bring him safe to land, and in a short time after the Friends of
the place came to fetch us to land also, in a seasonable time, for
our provisions were quite spent.
We partook also of another great deliverance in this voyage, through
the good providence of the Lord, which we came to understand
afterwards. For when we were determined to come from Jamaica, we had
our choice of two vessels, that were both bound for the same coast.
One of these was a frigate, the other a yacht. The master of the
frigate, we thought, asked unreasonably for our passage, which made
us agree with the master of the yacht, who offered to carry us ten
shillings a-piece cheaper than the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account