A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654 Part 41

_Wh._ Hast thou any ground to judge so, or dost thou see any probability of it?

_Bo._ I confess there is no probability for it; but G.o.d hath put it into my heart to tell your Excellence that He will appear our Deliverer when all other hopes and helps fail us, and He will save us by His own power; and let us trust in Him.

Upon this discourse with the honest boatswain, who walked up and down as quite unconcerned, Whitelocke forbade the throwing of the ordnance overboard; and as he was sitting on the deck, Mr. Ingelo, one of his chaplains, came to him, and said that he was glad to see him in so good a temper.

_Whitelocke._ I bless G.o.d, who keeps up my spirit.

_Ingelo._ My Lord, such composedness, and not being daunted in this distress, is a testimony of G.o.d's presence with you.

_Wh._ I have cause to thank G.o.d, whose presence hath been with me in all my dangers, and most in this greatest, which I hope and pray that He would fit us all to submit unto.

_Ing._ I hope He will; and I am glad to see your sons and others to have so much courage left in so high a danger.

_Wh._ G.o.d hath not suffered me, nor them, nor yourself, to be dejected in this great trial; and it gives me comfort at this time to observe it, nor doth it leave me without some hopes that G.o.d hath yet a mercy in store for us.

_Ing._ There is little hopes of continuance in this life, it is good to prepare ourselves for a better life; and therefore, if you please that the company may be called together into your cabin, it will be good to join in prayer, and recommending our souls to Him that gave them; I believe they are not to remain long in these bodies of clay.

_Wh._ I hope every one doth this apart, and it is very fit likewise to join together in doing it; therefore I pray send and call the people into my cabin to prayer.

Whilst Mr. Ingelo was gone to call the people together, a mariner came from the head of the s.h.i.+p, running hastily towards Whitelocke, and crying out to him, which caused Whitelocke to suspect that the s.h.i.+p had sprung a leak or was sinking. The mariner called out:--

[SN: The s.h.i.+p moves,]

_Mariner._ My Lord! my Lord! my Lord!

_Whitelocke._ What's the matter, mariner?

_Mar._ She wags! she wags!

_Wh._ Which way doth she wag?

_Mar._ To leeward.

_Wh._ I pray G.o.d that be true; and it is the best news that ever I heard in my life.

_Mar._ My Lord, upon my life the s.h.i.+p did wag; I saw her move.

_Wh._ Mr. Ingelo, I pray stay awhile before you call the people; it may be G.o.d will give us occasion to change the style of our prayers.

Fellow-seaman, show me where thou sawest her move.

_Mar._ My Lord, here, at the head of the frigate, I saw her move, and she moves now,--now she moves! you may see it.

_Wh._ My old eyes cannot discern it.

_Mar._ I see it plain, and so do others.

[SN: and rights.]

Whilst they were thus speaking and looking, within less than half a quarter of an hour, the s.h.i.+p herself came off from the sand, and miraculously floated on the water. The s.h.i.+p being thus by the wonderful immediate hand of G.o.d, again floating on the sea, the mariners would have been hoisting of their sails, but Whitelocke forbade it, and said he would sail no more that night. But as soon as the s.h.i.+p had floated a good way from the bank of sand, he caused them to let fall their anchors, that they might stay till morning, to see where they were, and spend the rest of the night in giving thanks to G.o.d for his most eminent, most miraculous deliverance.

Being driven by the wind about a mile from the sand, there they cast anchor, and fell into discourse of the providences and goodness of G.o.d to them in this unhoped-for preservation. One observed, that if Whitelocke had not positively overruled the seamen, and made them, contrary to their own opinions, to take down their sails, but that the s.h.i.+p had run with all her sails spread, and with that force had struck into the sand, it had been impossible for her ever to have come off again, but they must all have perished. Another observed, that the s.h.i.+p did strike so upon the bank of sand, that the wind was on that side of her where the bank was highest, and so the strength of the wind lay to drive the s.h.i.+p from the bank towards the deep water.

Another supposed, that the s.h.i.+p did strike on the shelving part of the bank of sand, and the wind blowing from the higher part of the bank, the weight of the s.h.i.+p thus pressed by the wind, and working towards the lower part of the shelving of the bank, the sand crumbled away from the s.h.i.+p, and thereby and with the wind she was set on-float again. Another observed, that if the s.h.i.+p had struck higher on the bank or deeper, when her sails had been spread, with the force of her way, they could not in the least probability have been saved.

Another observed, that through the goodness of G.o.d the wind rose higher, and came more to that side of the s.h.i.+p where the bank of sand was highest, after the s.h.i.+p was struck, which was a great means of her coming off; and that, as soon as she was floated, the wind was laid and came about again to another quarter. Another observed, that it being at that time ebbing water was a great means of their preservation; because the s.h.i.+p being so far struck into the sand, and so great a s.h.i.+p, a flowing water could not have raised her; but upon the coming in of the tide she would questionless have been broke in pieces.

The mariners said, that if G.o.d had not loved the landmen more than the seamen they should never have come off from this danger. Every one made his observations. Whitelocke concluded them to this purpose:

[SN: Whitelocke orders a thanksgiving to G.o.d.]

"Gentlemen,

"I desire that we may all join together in applying these observations and mercies to the praise of G.o.d, and to the good of our own souls. Let me exhort you never to forget this deliverance and this signal mercy. While the love of G.o.d is warm upon our hearts, let us resolve to retain a thankful memory of it to our lives' end, and, for the time to come, to employ those lives, which G.o.d hath now given to us and renewed to us, to the honour and praise of Him, who hath thus most wonderfully and most mercifully revived us, and as it were new created us. Let us become new creatures; forsake your former l.u.s.ts in your ignorance, and follow that G.o.d fully, who hath so eminently appeared for us, to save us out of our distress; and as G.o.d hath given us new lives, so let us live in newness of life and holiness of conversation."

Whitelocke caused his people to come into his cabin, where Mr. Ingelo prayed with them, and returned praises to the Lord for this deliverance: an occasion sufficient to elevate his spirit, and, meeting with his affections and abilities, tended the more to the setting forth His glory, whose name they had so much cause more than others to advance and honour.

Many of the seamen came in to prayers, and Whitelocke talked with divers of them upon the mercy they had received, who seemed to be much moved with the goodness of G.o.d to them; and Whitelocke sought to make them and all the company sensible of G.o.d's gracious dealings, and to bring it home to the hearts of them. He also held it a duty to leave to his own family this large relation, and remembrance of the Lord's signal mercy to him and his; whereby they might be induced the more to serve the G.o.d of their fathers, to trust in Him who never fails those that seek Him, and to love that G.o.d entirely who hath manifested so much love to them, and that in their greatest extremities; and hereby to endeavour that a grateful acknowledgment of the goodness and unspeakable love of G.o.d might be transmitted to his children's children; that as G.o.d never forgets to be gracious, so his servants may never forget to be thankful, but to express the thankfulness of their hearts by the actions of their lives.

Whitelocke spent this night in discourses upon this happy subject, and went not to bed at all, but expected the return of day; and, the more to express cheerfulness to the seamen, he promised that as soon as light did appear, if they would up to the shrouds and top, he that could first descry land should have his reward, and a bottle of good sack advantage.

_June 29, 1654._

[SN: They make the coast of Norfolk.]

As soon as day appeared, the mariners claimed many rewards and bottles of sack, sundry of them pretending to have first discovered land; and Whitelocke endeavoured to give them all content in this day of rejoicing, G.o.d having been pleased to turn their sorrow into joy, by preserving them in their great danger, and presently after by showing them their longed-for native country; making them, when they were in their highest expectation of joy to arrive in their beloved country, then to disappoint their hopes by casting them into the extremest danger--thus making them sensible of the uncertainty of this world's condition, and checking perhaps their too much earthly confidence, to let them see His power to control it, and to change their immoderate expectation of joy into a bitter doubt of present death. Yet again, when He had made them sensible thereof, to make his equal power appear for their deliverance when vain was the help of man, and to bring them to depend more on him, then was He pleased to rescue them by his own hand out of the jaws of death, and to restore them with a great addition to their former hopes of rejoicing, by showing them their native coast,--the first thing made known to them after their deliverance from peris.h.i.+ng.

The day being clear, they found themselves upon the coast of Norfolk, and, as they guessed, about eight leagues from Yarmouth, where they supposed their guns might be heard the last night. The wind being good, Whitelocke ordered to weigh anchor, and they sailed along the coast, sometimes within half a league of it, until they pa.s.sed Orfordness and came to Oseley Bay, where they again anch.o.r.ed, the weather being so thick with a great fog and much rain that they could not discern the marks and buoys to avoid the sands, and to conduct them to the mouth of the river.

A short time after, the weather began to clear again, which invited them to weigh anchor and put the s.h.i.+p under sail; but they made little way, that they might not hinder their sounding, which Whitelocke directed, the better to avoid the danger of the sands, whereof this coast is full.

Near the road of Harwich the 'Elizabeth' appeared under sail on-head of the 'President,' who overtaking her, Captain Minnes came on board to Whitelocke, who told him the condition they had been in the last night, and expostulated with him to this purpose.

_Whitelocke._ Being in this distress, we fired divers guns, hoping that you, Captain Minnes, could not but hear us and come in to our relief, knowing this to be the order of the sea in such cases.

_Minnes._ My Lord, I had not the least imagination of your being in distress; but I confess I heard your cannon, and believed them to be fired by reason of the fog, which is the custom of the sea in such weather, to advertise one another where they are.

_Wh._ Upon such an occasion as the fog, seamen use to give notice to one another by two or three guns, but I caused many more to be fired.

_Minnes._ I heard but four or five in all, and I answered your guns by firing some of mine.

_Wh._ We heard not one of your guns.

_Minnes._ That might be by reason we were to windward of you three leagues.

_Wh._ Why then did you not answer the lights which I caused to be set up?

_Minnes._ My Lord, those in my s.h.i.+p can witness that I set up lights again, and caused squibs and fireworks to be cast up into the air, that you might thereby discern whereabouts we were.