At the Lieutenant's return he told Whitelocke that the Grave, when he heard but one gun fired for a good while together, began to be highly offended, saying that his master, the King, was slighted and himself dishonoured, to be sent away with one gun only fired, and he wondered the Ambassador carried it in such a manner; but afterwards, when the rest of the guns went off, the Grave said he would tell the King how highly the English Ambassador had honoured his Majesty and his servant by the most magnificent entertainment that ever was made on ship-board, and by the number of guns at his going away, and that this was the greatest honour he ever received, with much to the like purpose; and he gave to the Lieutenant for his pains two pieces of plate of silver gilt, and ten rix-dollars to the boat's company, and twenty rix-dollars more to the ship's company. _June 23, 1654._ This was the seventh day that Whitelocke had lain on the Elbe, which was tedious to him; and now, fresh provisions failing, he sent Captain Crispe to Glueckstadt to buy more, whose diligence and discretion carried him through his employments to the contentment of his master. He brought good provisions at cheap rates. [SN: Whitelocke agrees to convoy four English cloth ships.] The four captains of the English cloth-ships came on board Whitelocke to visit him; they were sober, experienced sea commanders; their ships lay at anchor close to Whitelocke. After dinner they told Whitelocke that if their ships had been three leagues lower down the river, they could not have anchored in this bad weather without extreme danger, the sea being there much higher, and the tide so strong that their cables would not have held their ships; and that if they had been at sea in this weather, they had been in imminent peril of shipwreck, and could not have returned into the river, nor have put into the Weser nor any other harbour. Whitelocke said that they and he were the more bound to God, who had so ordered their affairs as to keep them, during all the storms wherein they had been, in a safe and good harbour; he wished them, in this and all their voyages, to place their confidence in God, who would be the same God to them as now, and in all their affairs of this life.