 |
Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent spellings of proper names and non-English words have been retained as they appear in the original.
Obvious printer errors have been corrected.
Original Narratives of Early American History
JOURNAL OF JASPER DANCKAERTS
1679-1680
Edited by
BARTLETT BURLEIGH JAMES, B.D., PH.D.
of the Maryland Historical Society
and
J. FRANKLIN JAMESON, PH.D., LL.D.
Director of the Department of Historical Research in the Carnegie Institutions of Washington
With a Facsimile and Two Maps
Charles Scribner's Sons New York
Copyright, 1913, by Charles Scribner's Sons
CONTENTS
JOURNAL OF JASPER DANCKAERTS
EDITED BY BARTLETT BURLEIGH JAMES AND J. FRANKLIN JAMESON
PAGE
NOTE A ix
INTRODUCTION xiii
NOTE B xxv
VOYAGE TO NEW NETHERLAND 3 Preparations for the Voyage 3 Delays in Starting 5 On the Way to Texel; a Narrow Escape 8 On Board the Charles 10 They set Sail and run Aground 13 Description of Texel 15 Progress of the Voyage 18 At Falmouth; the Diarist at Church 25 A Visit to Pendennis Castle 28 The Market at Penryn 30 Again on Board; a Word about the Cat 32 Land is Seen; Sandy Hook 33 Indians come Aboard; Arrival at New York 35 Observations upon the Sea and the Voyage 37 Comments upon the Passengers and Crew 39
TRAVELS IN NEW NETHERLAND 43 In New York; Ministers of New Netherland 43 Fort Amsterdam is described 45 The First Male born of Europeans in New Netherland 47 A Visit to Long Island; through Brooklyn 50 At Gowanus; the Najack Indians 53 With Jacques Cortelyou at New Utrecht 57 Danckaerts makes a Sketch 58 A Visit with Jan Theunissen at Flatlands 60 Through Flatbush, Brooklyn, and Back in New York 62 Manhattan Island Explored; Broadway; the Bowery; New Harlem 64 The Labadists make some Calls; Danckaerts acts the Barber 67 On Staten Island 69 At Oude Dorp and Nieuwe Dorp 72 Some Plantations on the Island 74 A Visit from Jasper, the Indian 76 The Travellers meet Ephraim Herrman 80 In Communipaw and Bergen 82 Further Experiences 86 Preparations for the Journey Southward; the Duke's Laws 89
JOURNEY TO THE SOUTHWARD 93 The Stop at Woodbridge 93 At Piscataway; the Falls of the Delaware 94 Matinnaconk Island and Burlington 97 Tacony; Tinicum Island described 100 The Suit of Madame de la Grange against Madame Papegoia 101 A Visit from Some Quakers 104 The Episode of Anna Salters 105 The Journey Continued 107 At Fort Christina; the Stay in Newcastle 109 Indented Servants 111 St. Augustine's Manor 112 Entry into Maryland; Bohemia Manor; Augustine Herrman's Map 114 Plantations visited 116 The Journey to Virginia abandoned; Other Visits 120 The Travellers lose their Way 124 They stop with Mr. Frisby; Wild Geese 126 Transportation of Goods to and from Maryland 128 More Plantations visited 129 Again in Newcastle 131 The Grant of Maryland 132 The Tobacco Industry 133 Life in Maryland 135 The Attack on the Hoere Kill 136 Religion in Maryland 137 The Labadists hear Domine Tesschenmaker; Christina Kill 138 Property Arrangements of Augustine Herrman 141 Preparations for the Return to New Netherland 142 Description of Newcastle 143 Mr. Moll and his Wife 144 Some Account of the Herrmans; Peter Alrichs 145 At Upland 147 At Wicacoa and Burlington 148 On the Island of Peter Alrichs 149 The Delaware River described 150 The Settlement at Hoere Kill; New Sweden 152 East New Jersey and West New Jersey established 154 The Journey to Millstone Creek; Difficulties in crossing 156 A Visit with Some Indians 159 A Night with Cornelis van Langevelt near Nassau 160 Millstone Creek described 161 At Amboy; the Frenchman Le Chaudronnier 162 Governor Carteret and the Settlement of Piscataway and Woodbridge 164 End of the Journey to the Southward 165
IN NEW YORK 166 Visits to Governor Andros and Mayor Rombouts 167 Danckaerts follows Sluyter to Najack 169 Translations made by Danckaerts 170 The Party for Aquackanonck 171 Milford; Sandford; Captain Berry's Plantation 173 Conversation with Hans, the Indian 174 Aquackanonck is reached 175 Another Night with the Indians 177 At Gowanus; the Canticoy of the Indians 179 Affairs at Esopus; Small Pox among the Indians 181 Proclamation of Governor Andros; the Start for Nevesink 182 Trip to Nevesink abandoned 184 Another Call on the Governor 185 The Travellers dispose of their Stock 186 The Governor grants Permission to go to Albany 187 The Trials and Conversion of Theunis Idenszen 190 The Journey to Albany is begun 196 The Kaaterskill Falls; Arrival at Albany 198 The Falls at Cohoes 199 Sluyter becomes ill; Visit to Schenectady 201 The Story of Aletta, the Indian 201 The Story of Wouter, Aletta's Nephew 205 Interview with Aletta and Wouter 210 Wouter goes with the Labadists 211 Schenectady is described 213 A Visit with Madame van Rensselaer at Rensselaerswyck 214 A Visit to Fort Orange; Albany described 216 The Child of Luxury 217 At Claverack; Danckaerts sketches the Catskills 219 At Esopus 220 Back in New York; Preparations for Boston 222 A Visit to Theunis Idenszen 223 North River and the Country through which it flows 224 On the Way to Long Island; Visit from Domine van Zuuren 228 In Najack; More about Theunis 229 Another Meeting with the Governor 230 The Experiences of Marie Renard 231 Visit with Ephraim Herrman 233 Further Arrangements for the Boston Trip; Ascension Day 234 A Trip to Walebocht 235 The Boston Trip again postponed; Some Visitors 237 Leave is taken of Governor Andros 238 Military Tactics; Relations between Andros and Carteret 239 Trade with Barbados 244 Trade Observations 246 Conduct of Governor Andros 248 The Labadists take leave of their Friends 250
VOYAGE FROM NEW NETHERLAND 252 The Start for Boston 252 Martha's Vineyard; a Narrow Escape 253 Boston is reached 255 Description of East River 256 Elizabeth Islands; the Sow and Pigs; Cape Cod 258 A Call on Governor Bradstreet 259 No Word of Wouter; Passage engaged for London 260 John Eliot and the Indian Bible 263 A Visit to Cambridge; Harvard College 266 In Charlestown 268 Suspicions concerning the Travellers 269 A Second Visit to John Eliot at Roxbury 270 A Sham-fight in Boston 271 Beginning of the Voyage Home 272 The Diarist's Account of New England 273 His Description of Boston 275 Progress of the Voyage 276 A Reward for the First Sight of Land 278 The Orkney Islands are sighted 280 Fear of the Turks 281 On the Dogger Bank 284 Anchor at Yarmouth 286 The Landing at London; Whitehall; St. James's Park 288 The Duke of Monmouth is seen; London Tower 289 Witchcraft in Boston; at Church in London 290 A Glimpse of the Duke of York and Prince Karl 291 At Gravesend; the River of Chatham 292 At Harwich; Dispute with the Skipper 293 At Rotterdam, Delft, and the Hague 295 In Amsterdam; a Bible is bought for Ephraim Herrman 296 The End of the Journey 297
INDEX 299
MAPS AND FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION
NEW YORK FROM BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, 1679. From the original drawing by Jasper Danckaerts in the possession of the Long Island Historical Society Frontispiece
PAGE
THE NORTHEAST PORTION OF AUGUSTINE HERRMAN'S MAP OF MARYLAND, 1673. From Mr. P.L. Phillips's facsimile 98
PART OF THE MAP OF NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND IN MONTANUS'S "NIEUWE WEERELD," 1671. From a copy in the New York Public Library 160
NOTE A
The present translation is substantially that of Mr. Henry C. Murphy, as presented in his edition of 1867 (see the Introduction, post). Mr. Murphy was an excellent Dutch scholar. Careful comparisons have been made, at various points, between his translation and the original manuscript, of which the Long Island Historical Society, its present possessor, kindly permitted an examination to be made. These comparisons, made partly by the general editor of the series and partly by Mr. S. G. Nissensen of New York (to whom cordial thanks are rendered), showed that Mr. Murphy's translation was in the main excellent. Some revision and correction of it has been effected by Mr. Nissensen and by the general editor. In particular the spelling of the proper names has been brought into accord with that of the original manuscript, except that certain familiar names, after being once given in the original spelling, have thereafter been put into their modern forms.
Danckaerts's descriptions of his Atlantic voyages to America and back, especially the former, are excessively long, and at times tedious. It has been found possible to omit some portions of these without impairing the interest or value of the narrative or excluding any useful information.
Of the three illustrations, the frontispiece is a photographic reproduction of one of Danckaerts's pen-and-ink sketches accompanying the diary. It has never before been photographically reproduced, though lithographed in Mr. Murphy's book. It represents New York from the southeast, as seen in 1680 from Brooklyn Heights, and is obviously of great interest, being topographically accurate, and drawn with no slight degree of skill. Thanks are due to the Long Island Historical Society for permission to reproduce it, and to the society's secretary, Miss Emma J. Toedteberg.
That portion of the journal which relates to the Delaware River and northeastern Maryland is illustrated by a photographic reproduction of the northeast corner of the celebrated map of Maryland which Augustine Herrman made for Lord Baltimore, and which was published in 1673 (see infra, p. 114 and p. 297, note 2). The portion reproduced extends from the falls of the Delaware as far down the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay as our travellers went. It is photographed from the photolithographic copy made from the unique original in the British Museum by Mr. P. Lee Phillips, and published by him in 1912, but is reduced to dimensions about two-thirds of those of the original.
To illustrate the North River journey of the diarist, and the other parts of his narrative centring around New York, a section is presented of the map of 1671 entitled "Novi Belgii, quod nunc Novi Jorck vocatur, Novaeque Angliae et Partis Virginiae Accuratissima et Novissima Delineatio" (Most Accurate and Newest Delineation of New Belgium, now called New York, of New England, and of Part of Virginia). This map appeared both in Montanus's Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld (Amsterdam, 1671) and in Ogilby's America (London, 1671). It is N.J. Visscher's map of 1655 or 1656 (for which see the volume in this series entitled Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, etc., introductory note, and map opposite p. 170), with slight alterations made in order to adapt it more closely to the date 1671.
For the names of the two Labadist agents, Mr. Murphy adopted the forms Dankers and Sluyter. These he apparently took from references to them by others, for the journal, except once in the case of Sluyter, gives only the assumed names, Schilders and Vorstman, by which alone they were at first known in America. Domine Selyns of New York, in his letter to Willem a Brakel,[1] gives their true names. For the proper spelling of the diarist's name, it should seem that we should rely on his own signature to his note prefixed to his copy of Eliot's Indian Old Testament.[2] There the spelling is Danckaerts, and such is the form used by the family, still or till lately extant in Zeeland. But the form Dankers occurs often in contemporary references.
[Footnote 1: Murphy, Anthology of New Netherland, p. 95.]
[Footnote 2: See infra, p. 264, note 2.]
The case of his companion presents no difficulty. The register of students at the University of Leyden, Album Studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae (Hague, 1875), gives, under date of 1666, "Petrus Sluyter Vesaliensis, 21, T," i.e., Peter Sluyter of Wesel, 21 years old, student of theology, which no doubt is our traveller, known to have studied theology and, from Labadist sources relating to Herford, to have come originally from Wesel. Our traveller's will, dated January 20, 1722, the original of which is preserved in the court house of Cecil County at Elkton, Maryland, is signed in autograph, "Petrus Sluyter alias Vorsman," and it seems that this must be regarded as authoritative. The Maryland family descended from the Labadist leader's brother used the same spelling. Schluter is found in some contemporary sources, Schluyter and Sluter in others,[3] while on the title-page of a book translated by our traveller from French into Dutch, and printed at Herford in 1672,[4] presumably under his eye, the spelling is Sluiter. But his signature should be conclusive.
[Footnote 3: a. Paul Hackenberg's letter, see p. 291, note 2, post; Willem a Brakel, Trouwhertige Waerschouwinge (Leeuwarden, 1683), p. 63; Album Acad. Lugd.-Bat., 1650, "Henricus Schluterus," the brother. b. Brakel in Murphy's Anthology, p. 95. c. Letter from Herford in Schotel, Anna Maria van Schurman (Hertogenbosch, 1853), app., p. 40.]
[Footnote 4: Verklaringe van de Suiverheid des Geloofs en der Leere van Jean de Labadie.]
The annotations in this volume are by the general editor of the series.
J.F.J.
INTRODUCTION
In the year 1864 Mr. Henry C. Murphy, then corresponding secretary of the Long Island Historical Society, had the good fortune to find in an old book-store in Amsterdam a manuscript whose bearings upon the history of the middle group of American colonies made it, when translated and made accessible as a publication in the Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society,[5] an historical document of much interest and value. The Journal of two members of the Labadist sect who came over to this country in order to find a location for the establishment of a community has served to throw a flood of light upon what otherwise might have been a lost chapter in the history of Maryland. For so meagre are the sources of ready availability for a knowledge of the Labadist colony which was effected in Maryland that without this account the story of the first communal sect in America might have failed of adequate recording.
[Footnote 5: Volume I. Journal of a Voyage to New York and a Tour in Several of the American Colonies in 1679-80, by Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter of Wiewerd in Friesland (Brooklyn, 1867).]
But while the Journal of Jasper Danckaerts and Peter Sluyter, the two envoys—or of Jasper Danckaerts, who did the actual writing—is of especial interest in relation to an incident in the early settlement of Maryland, the gauge of its value may be applied as well in other directions. This extended narrative, often discursive and circumstantial, contains much that is suggestive upon the beginnings of the middle group of states, and, indeed, the narrative bears upon facts of importance in connection with Massachusetts as well.
The original manuscript of the Labadist narrators is now in the possession of the Long Island Historical Society. It was bought by the Society at the Murphy sale in 1884. It is written in a fine, good hand on paper of about 8-1/2 by 6-1/2 inches. The pages are numbered with three successive numberings: (A) 1-72, (B) 1-16, 25-192, 217-231, (C) 1-47, the first section corresponding to the voyage to America; the second, to the travels in the middle colonies; the third, to the experiences of the journalist and his companion in New England and on the voyage home. In the second division there is no gap between pages 16 and 25, but after page 192 there is a considerable hiatus. In narrative, this extends over a few days only, June 13-19, but the omitted portion probably also contained a description of the city of New York and the beginning of an account of the Indians. The remaining pages of this section, pages 216-231, proceed with this account, treating of the weapons of the Indians, their treaties with the whites, their intelligence, their burial customs, their virtues and vices, their knowledge of God and their worship, and finally of the beaver and his habits. As the journalist could have had no original contributions to make with regard to the American aborigines, his observations upon this subject have no especial value, and have been omitted.
The manuscript when found was accompanied with six sheets of pen-and-ink drawings. The text appears to be a carefully transcribed copy, plainly written in a different handwriting from that of the drawings. The latter, as the marks upon them show, are the original sketches made upon the spot. All are reproduced in Mr. Murphy's edition of the journal. The first shows the figure of an Indian woman and four fishes, two of them rare and two common. The second drawing shows the entrance to New York Bay at Sandy Hook as seen from the house of Jacques Cortelyou at Nayack (Fort Hamilton). The third is a detailed and exceedingly interesting view of New York as it was in 1679, taken from Brooklyn Heights; it is reproduced in the present volume. The fourth and fifth give views of New York from the east and from the north, while the sixth plate presents a map of the Delaware River from the Falls at the present site of Trenton down to Burlington.
The manuscript of the narrative reproduced in this volume is accompanied by a similar manuscript for a second voyage made in 1683, April 12-July 27, entered upon 16 pages of foolscap, and then copied upon 48 pages of quarto size, the former in a different and much more difficult hand than the journal of 1679-1680, the copy in a handwriting similar to that of the latter. Twelve pages of the 48 are verses, and the remainder do not carry the traveller beyond the completion of his voyage. As this second narrative includes nothing bearing directly upon the experiences of the chronicler after his arrival upon the shores of the New World, it has not seemed worth while to translate it and bring it into the present volume. It is much to be regretted that the continuation was never written, or has not been preserved, since it would record the actual settlement of the Labadist community in northeastern Maryland. With the fragment was found an interesting manuscript map of the Delaware River, which gives Philadelphia as in existence, and therefore belongs to the period of the second voyage.
Prior to the discovery of the Journal of Danckaerts it was indeed traditionally known that a sect of Labadists in the first half of the seventeenth century had located a colony on the estates of Augustine Herrman in Maryland. There were fragmentary references to these people in the early records of the state and in historical manuscripts, with isolated notices in contemporary writers. Yet this information would of itself have been too meagre for a critical valuation of the Labadists in the early history of Maryland. The publication of the manuscript secured by Mr. Murphy stimulated interest in the subject, and at various times monographic contributions appeared upon one or another phase of the Labadist settlement. Notable were those of General James Grant Wilson, whose paper on "An Old Maryland Manor" was published by the Maryland Historical Society in 1890, and his paper on "Augustine Herrman, Bohemian," by the New Jersey Historical Society in the same year, and of Reverend Charles Payson Mallary, whose monograph on the Ancient Families of Bohemia Manor, a publication of the Delaware Historical Society in 1888, disclosed the wide genealogical interest pertaining to the Labadist settlement. Thus there was built up a body of substantial information with regard to the environment and the relations of the Labadist colony in the New World. In 1899 was published, in the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, The Labadist Colony in Maryland, by the writer of the present introduction. This monograph was largely based upon fresh sources obtained from Europe, including contemporary works by Labadie, his associates and his antagonists, as well as studies of the subject by Dutch and German scholars. The literature of Labadism in the New World, which, in a manner, has been an outgrowth from the journal of the Labadist envoys, is now ample for all serviceable purposes.
The journal of the Labadists, while primarily of value as elucidating an obscure episode in the religious history of the New World, has worth as a human narrative bearing upon incidents and personages and social conditions in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Boston. Thus the student of social, economic, institutional, or geographical conditions in the early period of the settlements upon the Atlantic seaboard will find in this journal much of suggestive and pertinent contribution. Danckaerts viewed his surroundings through the eyes of a fanatical self-satisfaction. For this reason his criticisms or strictures upon persons and conditions are to be received with much discount. But he was an intelligent man, and a keen-eyed and assiduous note-taker; and the variety and fecundity of his material is not a little due to the trivial and relatively unimportant details which are embodied in the narrative.
The two agents came to North America in search of a suitable place to establish a colony of their sect. Two distinct sets of forces drew them toward Maryland. One of these was the religious toleration which, from the beginning, was established in that province. There is no warrant in the journal for a presumption that this was an inducing cause for their location within the domain of Lord Baltimore. There is much, however, in their antecedent history, and the pressure of persecution to which the Labadists were subjected, to make it exceedingly probable that this policy in the government of Maryland formed a circumstance in the selection that was made. The journalists, who travelled under pseudonyms for the express purpose of keeping their mission secret, might have established their colony in New York had it not been under the rule of Governor Andros, a Catholic, and therefore a subject of particular antipathy to the Labadists.
But the practical weave of circumstance that tended to attract the Labadists to Maryland centred in the fact that, as stated in their narrative, they met in New York one Ephraim Herrman, a young trader from Maryland and Delaware, then recently married. This was the son of Augustine Herrman, "first founder and seater of Bohemia Manor." Augustine Herrman was a Bohemian adventurer, born in Prague, who, after a career of much vicissitude, made his way to New Netherland. He became a force at New Amsterdam, and was an original member of the council of nine men instituted by Governor Stuyvesant in 1647. His connection with Maryland matters dates from his appointment by Governor Stuyvesant as a special commissioner, along with Resolved Waldron, to negotiate with Governor Fendall of Maryland concerning the eastern boundary of Lord Baltimore's province.[6] This mission effected, Herrman entered into negotiations with Lord Baltimore for the drafting of a map of Maryland and Virginia, which would be valuable to his lordship in bringing to a settlement the boundary dispute pending between the two colonies, and in other ways.[7] In this manner Herrman became invested with not less than 24,000 acres of the most desirable lands of what is now Cecil County, Maryland, and Newcastle County, Delaware, which he divided into several tracts under the names Bohemia Manor, St. Augustine Manor, Little Bohemia, and the Three Bohemia Sisters. It is of interest to note that among the acts passed by the Maryland Assembly is one dated 1666, which provides for the naturalization of "Augustine Herman of Prague, in the Kingdom of Bohemia, Ephraim Georgius and Casparus, Sonns to the said Augustine, Anna Margarita, Judith and Francina, his daughters," this being the first act of naturalization passed by any of the colonies.[8]
[Footnote 6: Journal of the Dutch Embassy to Maryland, 1659, by Augustine Herrman, in Narratives of Early Maryland, in this series, pp. 309-333.]
[Footnote 7: A copy of this map is in the British Museum. No other is known.]
[Footnote 8: Maryland Archives, II. 144.]
It was upon Bohemia Manor that the Labadists located their colony. Danckaerts and Sluyter, under the guidance of Ephraim Herrman, made their way to Delaware and Maryland. Upon meeting them the elder Herrman was at first so favorably impressed that he consented to deed to them a considerable tract, in pursuance of his ambition to colonize and develop his estates. On June 19, 1680, the Labadists, having accomplished their mission, set sail for Boston, to which fact are due such interesting recitals as that of their visit to John Eliot, the so-called apostle to the Indians, and their visit to and description of Harvard College. On the 23d day of July the Labadists set sail for Europe.
In 1683 the two Labadists returned again to Maryland, bringing with them the nucleus of a colony. In the meanwhile Augustine Herrman had repented of his bargain, and it was only by recourse to law that the Labadists compelled him to live up to its terms. The deed he executed, dated August 11, 1684, was to Peter Sluyter (alias Vorstman), Jasper Dankers (alias Schilders), of Friesland, Petrus Bayard, of New York, and John Moll and Arnold de la Grange.[9] The tract conveyed embraced four necks of land eastwardly from the first creek that empties into Bohemia River, and extended at the north or northeast to near the old St. Augustine or Manor Church. It contained 3,750 acres. Those engaging with Sluyter and Danckaerts in the transaction were all professed converts to the Labadist faith. It may be noted in passing that the Petrus Bayard named in the conveyance, and who for some time was an active member of the Labadist community, was an ancestor of the late Thomas F. Bayard, ambassador at the Court of St. James.
[Footnote 9: Baltimore County Land Records.]
When fairly settled upon Bohemia Manor, the Labadists undertook communal modes of life and industry, such as characterized them at the European centre of the church, which was Wieuwerd, in Friesland. They cultivated tobacco extensively, and engaged in the culture of corn, flax, and hemp, and in cattle-raising. Their expressed zeal for the conversion of the Indians did not take any practical form. At its most flourishing period the colony did not number as many as a hundred persons, and in the year 1698 a division of the tract occurred. Sluyter, who was the active head of the colony, reserved for himself one of the necks of land and became wealthy. He died in 1722. Some form of organization had been maintained among the Labadists even after the division of the land, but five years after the death of Sluyter the Labadists had ceased to exist as a community. The division in 1698 which marked the disintegration of the community occurred at about the same time as a similar division of the estates of the mother church at Wieuwerd. There the disintegration came about through consultative action; in Maryland, by the logic of events.
The founder of the system of religion which came to be known as Labadism, Jean de Labadie, was born in France, at Bourg near Bordeaux, on February 13, 1610. His father was a French noble and a soldier of fortune, who rose to be governor of Guienne. His parents entered him at the Jesuit College, where he completed his novitiate and took the first vows, and in 1635 he was ordained as a priest. Early manifestations of an erratic temperament, a mystical habit of mind, and physical frailty, led to his severance from the Society of Jesus. He entered upon a preaching mission, and, coming under the attention of Pere Gondran, second general of the Congregation of the Oratory at Paris, he received a call to that city, and, according to his own statement, the entire body of the Sorbonne united in the call.
Labadie soon acquired a fame that went beyond the borders of France, for oratorical ability and theological precision. His former associates, the Jesuits, originated stories against his morality and sought to bring him into trouble with the authorities. The attacks to which he was subjected led him to adopt a broad though wholly fanatical scheme of reforms for the Church.[10] During the lifetime of Cardinal Richelieu, who befriended him, he was safe from attack, but upon the succession of Cardinal Mazarin the Jesuits obtained an order of the court for his arrest, the execution of which was prevented by the death of the king. In the year 1645 he was cited to appear at court along with his friend, the Bishop of Amiens, and was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment, which sentence was modified on an appeal made by the assembly of the clergy of France then in session. He was, however, ordered to renounce his opinions and to refrain from preaching for a period of years. In one of his treatises he states that during a second forced retirement he obtained and read a copy of Calvin's Institutes. This had a determining influence upon his after career.[11] He summed up the result of his solitary reflections in the words, "This is the last time that Rome shall persecute me in her communion. Up to the present I have endeavored to help and to heal her, remaining within her jurisdiction; but now it is full time for me to denounce her and to testify against her."
[Footnote 10: Declaration de la Foi, pp. 84, 122, 123.]
[Footnote 11: Traite de la Solitude Chretienne.]
At Montauban in 1650 Labadie abjured his former faith and was later ordained a Protestant minister. According to Mollerus[12] the acquisition of the widely famous preacher was heralded as the greatest Protestant triumph since the days of Calvin. Banished from France in 1657, Labadie preached for two years at Orange (then independent) and for seven years at Geneva, whence he was called to the pastorate of the Walloon Reformed Church in Middelburg, Zeeland. At Middelburg he became embroiled with the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, because of controversial writings and because, filled with zeal to reform the Reformed Church in the Netherlands and to awaken it from its formalism, he carried his own congregation into positions and practices manifestly tending toward schism. Driven out of Middelburg, he established a church at Veere, which he styled the Evangelical. The States of Zeeland kept the troublesome preacher on the move, and Labadie journeyed to Amsterdam, where he had an opportunity to establish a communal society, of which the chief ornament was Anna Maria van Schurman of Utrecht, famed as the most learned woman of her day.[13]
[Footnote 12: Cimbria Litterata, III. 37.]
[Footnote 13: Her Eukleria seu Melioris Partis Electio (Altona, 1673) is perhaps the chief authority for the history of the Labadists from this point on.]
The church at Amsterdam grew and prospered, and overtures were received from many sectaries, including the Society of Friends, all of which Labadie declined to consider. It may here be remarked that similar overtures made by representatives of the Society of Friends to the colony later established in Maryland were likewise unfruitful. Certain disorders arising, the civil authorities placed such restrictions upon the church at Amsterdam that another removal became expedient. At this juncture, in 1670, an invitation was received from the Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Frederick V., Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia, and granddaughter of King James I. of England. Elizabeth[14] was Protestant abbess of Herford in Westphalia, and placed quarters in that town at the disposal of the Labadists, but on account of certain religious excesses and the suspicions aroused in the minds of townspeople and neighbors, the Imperial Diet caused the Labadists to remove. Some of them tarried for a while at Bremen but the majority sought refuge immediately at Altona, then under the King of Denmark, in 1672. At this place, in February, 1674, Labadie died. His death evoked estimates of his work and worth from high ecclesiastical sources, and much of this was of a laudatory nature. The Dutch historians are disposed to regard Labadie's chief work the leavening of the old lump by the many hundreds of his converts inspired with his evangelical zeal, who remained in connection with the Reformed Church.[15]
[Footnote 14: For this princess, see Guhrauer's article in the Historisches Taschenbuch for 1850, and Miss Elizabeth Godfrey's A Sister of Prince Rupert.]
[Footnote 15: H. van Berkum, De Labadie en de Labadisten (Sneek, 1851), II. 170 et seq. The history of the sect can be followed in Van Berkum, in the first volume of Ritschl's Geschichte des Pietismus (Bonn, 1880), and in Ypeij and Dermout, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk (Breda, 1827), vol. III.]
The next removal of the Labadists was to Wieuwerd in Friesland, the northernmost of the Dutch provinces, where they were established under the lead of Pierre Yvon on an estate called Thetinga or Waltha House, which was tendered to them by three ladies devotedly attached to their teachings, the three youngest daughters of the great diplomatist Francis Aarsen, Lord of Sommelsdyk. Here the communal sect attained its full measure of strength, declined, and died. For more than half a century Wieuwerd was the seat of the new church and from it feeble colonies were established at various centres. From Wieuwerd proceeded the colonists who settled in Maryland, and from Wieuwerd proceeded the voice of authority that controlled these colonists. The final disruption of the Labadists at Wieuwerd was due largely to the inevitable difficulties that have beset and destroyed almost every experiment in the establishment of an industrial community upon a footing of religion.
The system of faith and practice which came to fruition at Wieuwerd and was transplanted to the New World, did not have the catholicity necessary for adaptation to the conditions of an undeveloped country. Labadism, theologically, belonged to the school of Calvin; in its spirit it was in line with the vein of mysticism which is met throughout the history of the Christian Church. In general respects the theology of Labadism was that of the Reformed Church of the Netherlands. Like so many other adventitious but zealous movements, Labadism centred in its millennial hopes. These, however, were rather an expression of the spirit of pietism which pervaded the doctrines of the church than a fundamental positive proposition. Labadism, theologically, recognized a scheme of covenants extending from Adam to Christ. The symbols of the last covenant were baptism and the Lord's Supper. The church was to be a community of the elect kept separate from the world by its pure teachings.
The Labadists taught rigidly the doctrine of the separation of the believer from the unbeliever, and to this is attributable the communal mode of life they adopted. The rule of the sect made it necessary for a husband and wife to separate if either were not of the elect church, which came to be synonymous with the church of the Labadists. In compliance with this rule, a number of the converts to the faith in Maryland separated from wives or husbands. This was the case with Petrus Bayard, who later returned to his wife, and with Ephraim Herrman.
The Labadists came close to the Friends in their doctrine of the law of the spirit as being the only law to which they were to yield final subjection. They conceived this law to nullify the ceremonial system of the Old Testament, and even to reduce to a place of incidental importance specific moral injunctions. Sabbath observance was not fundamental, and while the reading of the Bible was a medium of communication by God's spirit, its importance was secondary to the immediate movements of the spirit. The works of the Labadists disclose a high form of faith and aspiration, but vitiated by many visionary and impracticable features, in Maryland by the mercenary instincts of their leader, Sluyter. Nor was the general state of religion in Maryland at the time of their experiment such as to foster a profoundly pietistical community. Some of the members of the Labadist community acquired prominence in Maryland affairs, and their company of thrifty and industrious persons, bent upon illustrating the virtues of religion, must have done good, however far they may have fallen short of their ideals; but of the personality of most of them we know little or nothing.[16]
[Footnote 16: An interesting description of the life of the community on Bohemia Manor is given in An Account of the Life, Travels, and Christian Experiences in the Work of the Ministry by Samuel Bownas (London, 1756).]
While the Journal of the Labadists has particular bearing upon Maryland by reason of the location within its bounds of the colony of the sectaries, the recital brings into the range of vivid and intimate knowledge some of the leading characters in the contemporary life of several of the sister colonies, and it has been recognized as a valuable aid to students of the early period of New York.
There are no material remains of the Labadists in this country. They did not affect either the institutions or the spirit of their times, nor leave memorials behind them. That Augustine Herrman's sentiments towards the strange visitants and settlers upon his estate became radically altered, before his death in 1686, is indicated by a codicil in his will in which he directs that certain of his neighbors administer his estate in the place of his son Ephraim, giving as his reason his son's alliance with the Labadists.
The Labadists abroad exerted an appreciable influence upon the life of their times, and did much to infuse a spirit of evangelical earnestness into the Reformed Church of the Netherlands, which, at the rise of Labadism, was formal and pedantic in its modes of worship and given to theological disputation. Labadie has importance in the history of that church, and is accorded honor in its records. The futility of the sect in the New World was due not wholly to its communal form of organization, but is to be attributed as well to the fact that the Labadists migrated in obedience to no high and lofty impulse, but because in their nomadic passage from place to place, under the pressure of religious and civil proscription, due in most cases to acts of insubordination, there seemed no place remaining for them except the shores of the New World. No history of communism can be complete that does not include the experiment entered upon by Jean de Labadie and his followers in the Old World, and by the Labadist colonists in America. It is unfortunate that more complete information with regard to the actual economic value of the Labadist community cannot be had, but such information could not greatly differ from the facts that are well known as to the economic and industrial character of the Maryland population in general.
BARTLETT B. JAMES.
NOTE B
Since Dr. James's introduction was written, I have come upon some facts of interest respecting the two Labadist travellers which were not known to Mr. Murphy, who indeed had practically nothing to say regarding their previous life.
Jasper Danckaerts was born at Flushing in Zeeland May 7, 1639, the son of Pieter Danckaerts and Janneke Schilders—which explains his using Schilders as a pseudonym during his American expedition. He became a cooper in the service of the East India Company at Middelburg.[17] A curious book in which Pierre Yvon, pastor of the Labadist church after Labadie's death, describes the death-bed conduct and speeches of members of the sect, gives us glimpses of the diarist's family life.[18] They may enable us to look more kindly upon that censorious writer. Under date of May, 1676, the pastor commemorates the death of "our sister Susanna Spykershof, wife of our brother Dankers. She came to us at Zonderen" (Sonderen, a temporary stopping-place near Herford) "with her husband, leaving without difficulty her birth-place and dwelling-place Middelburg and all her acquaintances.... The trials and dangers they underwent were common to the two.... Both were at the same time, at Altona, accepted as members of the body of Christ [the Labadist church].... She loved her husband tenderly, but when God called him elsewhere, to the service of His work and children, she embraced His will therein with much love; which was especially edifying in her, since before this, when she was living in the world, she was wont to be in great anxiety whenever he was away from home on their own concerns. At Bremen, when a portion of our community was there, then at Altona, and here in Friesland, God visited her with great sufferings," and she died at the age of thirty-three, soon after the death of their youngest child.[19]
[Footnote 17: F. Nagtglas, Levensberichten van Zeeuwen (Middelburg, 1890), I. 146.]
[Footnote 18: Getrouw Verhael van den Staet en de laetste Woorden en Dispositien sommiger Personen die God tot sich genomen heeft, uyt de Gereformeerde en van de Werelt afgesonderde Gemeynte, voor desen gegadert tot Herfort en Altena, en tegenwoordig tot Wiewert Vrieslant (second ed., in New York Public Library, Amsterdam, 1683), pp. 30-32. The original French, Fidelle Narre des Etats et des Dernieres Paroles (Amsterdam, 1681), and an English version (ibid., 1685), are in the British Museum.]
[Footnote 19: See p. 130, note 1, infra.]
When Cornelis van Sommelsdyk went out to Surinam as governor in 1683, a body of Labadists sought an asylum there. A little later Danckaerts, after his second voyage to New York, went out with reinforcements to their settlement of La Providence in Dutch Guiana, which soon proved a failure.[20] In 1684 he was naturalized by a Maryland act,[21] but this does not prove that he was then in the province or long remained there. Thereafter he seems to have lived mostly at Wieuwerd, but he died at Middelburg between 1702 and 1704. He left behind him an elaborate manuscript, which he was just about to publish at the time of his death, entitled "Triumf des Hebreeuwsche Bibels" (triumph of the Hebrew Bible over secular chronology) in which he styles himself "Jasper Danckaerts, lover of wisdom, of sacred emblems, history, and theology, at Middelburg in Zeeland." The antiquary from whose book this fact is derived says also, "In 1874 I bought at a book-stall in Middelburg a very neatly written translation of the Psalms, with musical notes, prepared by Danckaerts mostly during his American journey, dated at Wieuwerd, and perhaps revised by Anna Maria van Schurman."[22] This manuscript is now in the library of the Zeeland Academy of Sciences at Middelburg. I am greatly indebted to Mr. W.O. Swaving, librarian of that society, who has kindly furnished me with a copy of the preface to this manuscript, as also of Danckaerts's note on his Indian Bible.[23]
[Footnote 20: Some writers put the Surinam venture before the voyage of 1679, and it is noticeable that Danckaerts says he has been in the West Indies; p. 61, infra. But the little "book of saints" which has just been mentioned says, of a Juffrouw Huyghens, who died in January, 1680, a lady very zealous for the conversion of the Indians, that she said that "if any of us went out thither, she would wish to be one of the first." Evidently no such expedition or migration had yet taken place in 1680; van Sommelsdyk's going out as governor gave the opportunity, he being a brother of their patronesses.]
[Footnote 21: Maryland Archives, XIII. 126, also naturalizing Sluyter, Bayard, and de la Grange.]
[Footnote 22: F. Nagtglas, Levensberichten van Zeeuwen, I. 146; J. Kok, Vaderlandsche Woordenboek, XI. (1708) 41.]
[Footnote 23: See p. 264, note 2, infra.]
The manuscript is entitled "De CL Psalmen Davids op Nieus volgens de Nederduitschen Text in Nederduits Sangh-Rym gebracht door J.D., Liefhebber der Poesie tot Wiwert in Vrieslant," i.e., "The 150 Psalms of David, translated afresh into Dutch verse in accordance with the Dutch text, by J.D., lover of poetry, at Wieuwerd in Friesland." Explaining the deficiencies of the metrical version by Petrus Dathenus, the writer sets forth his wish to make a better translation (from French into Dutch), and narrates how the opportunity at last arrived "when I found myself called upon for the second time to make a journey to New Netherland in the year 1682-1683. And although such journeys by water and land seem to offer little good opportunity for composition, beyond the keeping of a good journal, yet I began with a good will, and by God's grace pursued and happily finished it.... After returning home and revising and correcting it, it was thought advisable to submit it for further revision to the Juffrouw N.N.,[24] which was done, and after two years I received it back with corrections," copied it again, kept it still longer, but then in view of the publication of Hendrick Ghysen's version (1690) found it useless to publish. In the next winter, however, he put it into its present form, for his own use and that of any who might be edified by it. The preface is dated at Wieuwerd, January 8, 1691, and signed Jasper Danckaerts.
[Footnote 24: Meaning Anna Maria van Schurman.]
With Sluiter we are perhaps somewhat less concerned, but he was a more important figure in the Labadist church. We have seen (Note A) that he came originally from Wesel, was born in 1645, and was studying theology at Leyden in 1666. With his brother Hendrik, who was also educated in theology and had preached at Wesel, he had joined the sect at Herford. His sister Elizabeth had already joined them at Amsterdam. The brother withdrew, the sister remained, and figures in Yvon's hagiology, having died at Altona in 1674, aet. 23.[25] Hendrik and Peter were "speaking brothers" in the church. Some editions of the Declaration issued at Herford[26] bear on the title-page, along with the names of Labadie, Yvon, and Dulignon as pastors, those of Hendrik and Peter Sluyter as preachers. Paul Hackenberg found him one of the chief disputants at the time of his visit.[27]
[Footnote 25: Schotel, Anna Maria van Schurman, app., p. 40; Schurman, Eukleria, II. 38; Getrouw Verhael, pp. 16-24.]
[Footnote 26: See p. 265, note 1, infra.]
[Footnote 27: See pp. 168, note 1, and 291, note 2, infra.]
It seems almost certain that it was Sluyter of whom William Penn speaks, in his account of his visit to Wieuwerd in 1677, when he had conferences with the Labadists marked on his part by appreciation of the affinity between them and the Friends. "With these two," he says, meaning Anna Maria van Schurman and one of the three ladies van Sommelsdyk, to whom the estate of Wieuwerd had belonged, "we had the Company of the Two Pastors [Yvon and Dulignon] and a Doctor of Physick.... After him the Doctor of Physick, that had been bred for a Priest [Quaker dialect for any minister], but voluntarily refused that Calling, exprest himself after this Manner: I can also bear my Testimony in the Presence of God, that tho' I lived in as much Reputation at the University, as any of my Colleagues or Companions, and was well reputed for Sobriety and Honesty, yet I never felt such a Living Sense of God, as when I heard the Servant of the Lord J. de Labadie: Adding, The first Day I heard him, ... it was to me as the Day of my Salvation;... Upon which I forsook the University, and resolved to be one of this Family."[28] This corresponds with what we know of "Dr. Vorstman."
[Footnote 28: Works of William Penn (London, 1726), I. 90, 91. See also p. 202, note 1, post. Sluyter is also mentioned as a leading disputant and exhorter by the neighboring minister, Willem a Brakel, in his Trouwhertige Waerschouwinge voor de Labadisten (Leeuwarden, 1683), p. 63.]
Sluyter's later life, to his death in 1722, is sufficiently set forth by Dr. James. It need only be added that in 1692 Lord Nottingham, then Secretary of State, writes from Whitehall to Governor Copley of Maryland that "the King being informed that Mr. Vorsman, Moll, Danckers, De la Grange, Bayert, and some others ... do live peaceably and religiously together upon a plantation on Bohemia River, and the said persons being in some Respect strangers may at one time or other stand in need of your particular protection and favour," His Majesty directs that such protection and favor be accorded;[29] also that in 1693 and 1695 governors Copley and Nicholson give "Peter Sluyter alias Vorsman" license to marry persons, as he "hath made it appear to me that he is an Orthodox Protestant Minister, ordained according to the Maxims of the Reformed Churches in Holland."[30]
J.F.J.
[Footnote 29: Maryland Archives, XX. 163.]
[Footnote 30: Ibid., pp. 398, 399.]
JOURNAL OF JASPER DANCKAERTS, 1679-1680
JOURNAL OF OUR VOYAGE TO NEW NETHERLAND
Begun in the Name of the Lord and for his Glory, the 8th of June, 1679, and undertaken in the small Flute-ship, the Charles of New York, of which Thomas Singelton was Master; but the superior Authority over both Ship and Cargo was in Margriete Flips,[31] who was the Owner of both, and with whom we agreed for our Passage from Amsterdam to New York, in New Netherland, at seventy-five Guilders for each Person, payable in Holland. We had ourselves registered, to wit: I, J. Schilders, and my good friend, P. Vorstman.
[Footnote 31: Margaret Filipse. See post, p. 5, note 1.]
On the eighth of June, 1679, we left home[32] at four o'clock in the morning, taking leave of those with whom God had joined us fast in spirit, they committing us, and we them, with tenderness of heart, unto the gracious protection of the Highest. Although for a time separated in body, we remained most closely united in soul, which is, always and everywhere, but one and the same. We went on foot to Oost[erend], expecting there to take the canal boat, which we did, at six or half past six o'clock, after waiting an hour. We took leave finally of those of our beloved and very worthy friends who had accompanied us, and thus far made it a pleasant journey for us. Our hearts had been strengthened in discoursing, on the road, of God and his will concerning us, and of the disposition and readiness of our hearts, as we then felt, to bear it whatever it might be, although we foresaw that it would be mortifying enough for us. We arrived at B[olsward] about eight o'clock, where we discovered the reason why there were so few people in the boat and tavern, for by the ringing of the bells we understood that it was a holiday, namely, Ascension Day,[33] which suited us very well, as we thus had an opportunity of being alone in the tavern, and eating out of our knapsack a little breakfast, while waiting for the canal boat to leave. We were greatly pleased, while we were in the tavern, to see several persons there, representatives of the schout,[34] who were going the rounds in all the taverns of the city, to see whether there were any drunkards or whether any other disorderly conduct subject to the penalty of any fine was being practised. When the time arrived, we stepped on board the canal boat, where we found few people: but these passed the whole way in tattling, principally about a certain miser who had died and cheated his friends, leaving them more than they themselves had hoped to find. As our own thoughts were otherwise employed, this talk was very annoying to us. We reached W[orkum][35] before the hour fixed for departure from there, so we went to the Amsterdam packet, on board of which there were different kinds of people, but all wicked. Among them was a family consisting of father, mother and children, who even after the manner of the world were not spoken of much better. They had two daughters of a very easy disposition. We had the good fortune to have the cabin to ourselves, where we could be perfectly accommodated. We left Workum at twelve o'clock with a strong head wind, but it soon became calm, so that it was six o'clock before we passed Enckhuysen.[36] We came to anchor before Amsterdam about eleven o'clock at night.
[Footnote 32: The manor-house of Thetinga, at Wieuwerd in Friesland, about seven miles southwest of Leeuwarden. By walking to Oosterend and a little beyond one found, as the canals then lay, a canal route to the Zuider Zee. The diarist, it will be observed, refrains from naming the place, and gives only the beginnings of the place-names mentioned just below.]
[Footnote 33: The chronology needs explanation. Thursday, June 8, 1679, new style (which was the style our travellers observed), was May 29, old style, and May 29, old style, was Ascension Day, the keepers of old style observing Easter this year on (their) April 20, though the keepers of new style observed it on (their) April 2. The new style had been adopted by the province of Holland in 1582, immediately upon its promulgation by Pope Gregory XIII., but in Friesland and the other provinces of the Dutch Republic the old style continued to prevail until 1700.]
[Footnote 34: The chief executive officer of a Dutch town.]
[Footnote 35: A port on the west coast of Friesland, where they took the packet to cross the Zuider Zee to Amsterdam.]
[Footnote 36: An important commercial town in North Holland, on the chief point they would pass on the west side of the Zuider Zee.]
9th, Friday. We stepped ashore early and went first to look after our ship, the Charles, which we found lying in the stream. When we went aboard, we found some passengers already on the ship. We inquired when they intended to sail. The mate, who like the captain was a Quaker, answered, "to-morrow," that is, Saturday. We went immediately to the house to which our chest had been directed, taking another with us. We lodged there as long as we were at Amsterdam. The proprietor made no objection to deliver us the chest which had arrived before us, upon our receipts which we had brought. This done, we went to Margaret's,[37] to whom we spoke of ourselves, voyage, and purpose, and who showed us some attention. All this was accomplished before noon-time, when we went to our lodgings to brace ourselves up. The house being full of people the whole time, it was very difficult for us, though we obtained a room, to be tolerably alone during the day; but as the people who carry on this business desire to have much money spent, and as it was not for us to do so, we went out a great deal into different parts of the city, and returned there in the evening, where we slept together.
[Footnote 37: Margaret Philipse. Frederick Philipse (1626-1702), who in 1674 was listed as the richest man in New York, and later owned the great Philipse manor and was for twenty years a member of the governor's council, had in 1662 married Margaret, widow of Pieter Rudolph de Vries, herself a well-to-do and enterprising merchant. She was the daughter of Adolf Hardenbroek of Bergen, and died before 1692. It is not necessary to accept in toto the diarist's estimate of her.]
10th, Saturday. We performed some errands, and also spoke again to Margaret, inquiring of her when the ship would leave. She answered she had given orders to have everything in readiness to sail to-day, but she herself was of opinion it would not be before Monday. We offered her the money to pay for our passage, but she refused to receive it at that time, saying she was tired and could not be troubled with it that day, about which we passed a little joke with her, and she asked us if we were not of such and such people, who lived at such a place, to which we most of the time answered, yes.[38]
[Footnote 38: I.e., if they were not Labadists of Wieuwerd.]
In the afternoon we took on board our chest and what we deemed necessary for the voyage, by means of an ordinary row-boat. We reached the boom without the least questioning, as the officers of the customs were employed with a lighter inspecting some wine of which they needs must taste. Coming on board, we selected our berth, put our bed-clothes in it, and requested the mate to keep the berth for us, which was next to the large hatchway, according to Margaret's orders. We then returned to our lodgings.
11th, Sunday. Not being able to do anything in the city, we determined to cross over the Y[39] to Buiksloot, where we went to hear the preaching, which was wretched. It was by an old minister and according to the doctrines of Voetius. His text was of the seed sown among thorns. We had hitherto eaten out of our provision basket without refreshment, and we therefore took the opportunity now to refresh ourselves a little. We went at noon to Niewendam and heard a sermon by a person who had recently come there. He gave a short exposition of his opinions, from which we clearly saw that he was a Cocceian;[40] and he seemed zealous, but not serious or earnest enough. We recrossed the river in the evening and went to our lodgings.
[Footnote 39: The Y (now spelled Ij) is the river or inlet on which Amsterdam is situated. Buiksloot and Nieuwendam are suburban places on its north side.]
[Footnote 40: The Voetians and the Cocceians were at this time the leading theological parties in the Reformed Church of the Netherlands. Gysbertus Voetius (1589-1676), professor of theology at Utrecht, was the pietistic, rigidly orthodox Calvinist; at first favorable to Labadie as to a man of earnest zeal to increase piety in the church, he turned against him as Labadie developed into separatism. Johannes Cocceius (1603-1669), professor at Leiden and one of the chief exponents of the "federal" theology (theology of covenants), represented a school more liberal in tendency and freer in exegesis, though still closely Biblical. Our travellers approved neither group.]
12th, Monday. This whole day we were in expectation of the ship's leaving, and therefore went out continually to see about it; but it was to no purpose. I went again to inquire at the house of Margaret, but could obtain no assurance. Our lodging house was the while constantly full of drunkards, and we did all that we could to avoid them.
13th, Tuesday. The ship still lying in the stream: we expected she would sail; but at the appointed time, nothing coming of it, we went on board and found there more passengers than before. We inquired again of the new mate when they had determined to leave, but we could obtain no information. The mates advised us to go to the Texel[41] and wait there for the ship, and this, for other reasons, we concluded to do. I saw to-day a certain cooper who had visited us several times at A[ltona][42] and who conducted himself very commonly chez la famme reforme,[43] and I believe comes also to the assembly of Mr. B. He looked at me, but made no recognition, and passed along. This is the only one of my acquaintance whom I have seen at Amsterdam.
[Footnote 41: A large island at the mouth of the Zuider Zee. Ships outgoing to America would pass between it and the Helder, or extreme north point of North Holland.]
[Footnote 42: The Labadists had dwelt at Altona, in Holstein, then Danish, from 1672 to their removal to Wieuwerd in 1675. Labadie died there.]
[Footnote 43: No doubt the allusion is to Antoinette Bourignon and her conventicles. Mlle. Bourignon (1616-1680), born in Lille, France, was a mystical enthusiast of tendencies not dissimilar from those of Labadie. Like him she wrote much, had temporarily a great vogue, and removed with her followers from place to place—Amsterdam, Schleswig, Holstein, Hamburg, East Friesland, Friesland. Their congregation was at Hamburg when the Labadists were at Altona, close by, and was now at Franeker, not far from Wieuwerd. Efforts had at first been made toward union, but by this time there was open opposition between the two sects. The "assembly of Mr. B." means the conventicle maintained at Amsterdam by a merchant named Bardowitz or Bardewisch. He had been one of the foremost followers of Labadie, had interpreted his discourses into Dutch for those who did not understand French, and when Labadie retired to Herford in 1670 had been left in charge of that portion of the congregation which remained in Amsterdam. There he for many years, without pretending to be a minister, held a conventicle of separatists in his own house.]
14th, Wednesday. Having resolved to go to Texel to-day, whether the ship left or not, we prepared ourselves for the journey. We took dinner with our host and paid him for our lodging there. About seven o'clock we went in the Texel barge, where we found many passengers, but it was ten o'clock at night before we got off. After leaving the piles we had a strong head wind, which gradually increased to blow so hard that we could scarcely keep before it, fearing to sail into others.
15th, Thursday. We passed Enckuisen early in the morning, and had then to proceed against the wind with hard weather. We kept tacking with great assiduity till about midday, when the tide compelled us to stop, and we came to anchor under the Vlieter.[44] The boat being full of drinking people, there had been no rest the whole night. My good friend[45] was sea-sick, and particularly suffered from the toothache, but felt better after taking a little of his usual medicine. The wind subsiding somewhat, and the tide having fallen, some of our passengers were put on board a ship-of-war, which was riding at anchor under the Vlieter, and then we proceeded on our course to Texel. Tacking until in the evening, as far as the Oude Schilt,[46] we came near being run down, which happened in this way. There came a small English ship in from sea, when an English galiot, lying close in shore, weighed anchor and set sail in order to speak to her. Coming down close before the wind, they were just going to speak to the ship, when we lay on their bow in order to wear about. They were all taken up therewith and took no notice of us, whereupon we began to shout and scream very hard, but they did not hear us; we not being able to avoid them, redoubled our cries, every man of us, but they, coming close by, heard us and hauled off. It was a narrow escape, as they were within two inches of being right upon us; but as there was a ship-of-war's boat on our vessel, we were probably in no great danger of losing our lives, since by means of that we could have saved ourselves, or they could have caught us up. We landed at the Oude Schilt about half past nine in the evening, and took lodgings at the Court of Friesland, one of the principal inns, although we had been recommended to the Moor's Head, but that did not suit us, because it was mostly frequented by tipplers. Having taken something to eat, we retired together to rest in a quiet little chamber which they prepared for us.
[Footnote 44: The southern extremity of a great shoal near the mouth of the Zuider Zee, northeast of the island of Wieringen. "Under the Vlieter" would mean at the east side of this shoal, in the Tesselstroom or channel to the Texel.]
[Footnote 45: Sluyter.]
[Footnote 46: A village on the east side of the Texel.]
16th, Friday. My companion still suffering from the toothache and also a pain in the stomach, remained in bed till noon, when he found himself better. We dined with our landlord and then wrote a letter home, which we posted. We were in momentary expectation of the arrival of our ship, for which we were constantly on the look out; but as it continued blowing hard with a contrary wind, we did not discover anything of her, and, by force, took this time to recruit ourselves a little.
17th, Saturday. Waited for our ship as before, but saw nothing of her.
18th, Sunday. Went to hear preaching this morning at Oude Schilt by a very poor man, both in body and mind, for he was all awry from top to bottom, without and within, his face as well as his feet, but displeasing as he was to look at, he endeavored to please everybody. His text was, "humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God."[47] We went in the afternoon through Burght,[48] the principal village on the island, walking along the dunes and sea-shore, where we were amused by the running about of an incalculable number of rabbits. Being upon the outside of the strand, we watched for a while the breakers of the North Sea, which were being driven against the shore by a northwest wind; then we turned back to Burght and came to a brewer, the only one, not only in that place, but on the whole island. We drank of his beer, which in our opinion was better than any we had found on our journey. Being a Mennonist[49] he would gladly have entertained us with pleasant conversation, but admonished of the time, we returned to our lodgings at Oude Schilt.
[Footnote 47: I Peter v. 6.]
[Footnote 48: Near the middle of the island.]
[Footnote 49: Or Mennonite. Their sect, largely Dutch, were followers of Menno Simons (1492-1559), refraining from military service, oaths, and public office. It sprang from among the Baptists of the Reformation period, and had much in common with the Society of Friends in the period of the present book.]
19th, Monday. We looked out again for our ship, going along the dyke to Oostereindt,[50] a considerable village, but we saw no signs of her. We therefore left the shore and returned home inland, passing through another small village, called Seelt.
[Footnote 50: Still another Oosterend, at the east point of the Texel.]
20th, Tuesday. Perceiving nothing of our ship we began to feel very anxious, for besides being at much expense for our lodgings, we were sometimes compelled to eat with very godless men. Our lodging house was the one most frequented by the superior officers of the ships-of-war, of which there were seven or eight lying there ready to convoy different fleets to various parts.
We went in the afternoon to the Hoorn, quite a large village west of the Oude Schilt. When we had passed through it, we found ourselves near the dunes, over which we crossed to the beacon, walking upon the shore to the extreme point of the island, from whence we saw the Helder before us on the other side, and between, the two mouths of Texelsdiep,[51] observing how the lines agreed with the beacons. Time running on, we returned to the Hoorn, where we were compelled to drink once. The landlord of the house was a Papist, who quickly took us to be Roman ecclesiastics, at which we laughed between us for his so deceiving himself. He began to open his heart very freely, and would have told us all his secrets if we had asked him; but we cut off the conversation, and answered his questions with civility. When we reached home in the evening, we saw some ships had arrived, and supposed certainly one of them was ours; but, as it was dark, we were compelled to wait till next morning.
[Footnote 51: The main channel past the Texel.]
21st, Wednesday. As soon as we had taken a little breakfast we went along the dyke to Oosterent, near which the ships had come to anchor. As we approached the place, we could no longer doubt ours was there, which we were the first to discover. We therefore hired a boat immediately and went on board, when we not only found it was our ship, but that she was full and overladen. She was so full of passengers of all kinds, and so stowed, that we saw no chance of finding a place in which to sleep, and there were scarcely any of our goods to be found. The berth, which we had selected, had been taken by others, which there was no use of resisting; but it caused us no regret, as we thereby secured another near the cables, almost entirely out of the way, and always removed from the greatest noise. We determined to go ashore and come back the next day; but after taking our dinner there and paying our landlord, we returned on board. When we came on the ship, they began immediately to inquire of us about everything, and we answered them discreetly and civilly. Among others who thus made themselves conspicuous, was Jan, whom we did not know, and whose deportment did not accord with what we had imagined of him; but we supposed he was one of the passengers, and one of the best, and most slovenly. He asked my comrade if we were not of such a people, expressly naming them, who answered him according to his and our condition.[52] After we had been on board some time, seeing we obtained no place, I went myself to look after one and observed where we could make a berth. I spoke to the captain, who had the chests removed and a berth arranged for us on the larboard side near the forehatch; but as the cable was lying there so that it could not be stretched out as long as it ought, and as there was room enough, I took a little old rope and set to work to lengthen it out, which I accomplished before evening, so that we could sleep there that night. Certainly we had reason to thank the Lord that He had given us a berth in a more quiet place than we ourselves had chosen, which He had of His will allowed to be taken from us. His providence truly extends over all things and His foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of men, and sometimes even of His children.
[Footnote 52: Jan is not otherwise known to us, though apparently he had, or had had, some connection with the Labadist community which made his name familiar to their agents.]
22d, Thursday. We slept little during the night in consequence of the clatter of so many godless and detestable men, and the noise of children and others. We had, however, to content ourselves. I went in search of our chest, which was stowed away in the bow, but to no purpose, as it was necessary to creep on hands and knees to get in there. We remained in the hope it would come to light at Faelmuyen.[53] The ship was so low between decks, that sitting on the chest we could not sit upright even between the beams, for it was only about three feet high. But we were here in the forecastle well content.
[Footnote 53: Falmouth, England.]
23d, Friday. My comrade wrote a letter home. Our captain having caused the boat to be made ready in order to go with his wife to another English ship, we requested permission to accompany him ashore. He roundly refused us; and we had to wait for a boat to pass and hail it, which we did. Having posted the letter on shore, and refreshed ourselves somewhat, we started to go on board again. We found our boat, when our captain and the captain of the English ship came up. Our skipper asked us if we would accompany them, to whom we civilly replied, and so went on board with them in the evening. The sailors had caught some plaice which were for the guests in the cabin. I assisted in cleaning them.
24th, Saturday. The wind was southeast, the same as yesterday, which made us all very anxious for Margaret to arrive, so that we might not miss a good wind. Jan and some others of the passengers were much dissatisfied, and said: "We know very well where she is. She is in Friesland." Upon this Jan declared, "if this wind blows over our heads, I will write her a letter which will make her ears tingle," and used many other rude expressions. He was one of the greatest of grumblers, and even against her. He revealed himself more freely in a conversation with my companion, from which we could clearly discover that he was of the feelings of Boheem,[54] though he denied he had ever read his books. He also expressed himself profanely and in very foul language, worse than the foulest sailor or dock-loper would have done. The wind changed towards evening, and thus this day passed with murmuring, and we doubted no longer that this was Master John.
[Footnote 54: Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), a pious German shoemaker, author of many noted mystical writings.]
25th, Sunday. It blew very hard from the west so that we had to lower the topmasts and let drop the sheet anchor. We saw at daylight a yacht coming down to us before the wind and were rejoiced to find that Margaret was on board, with some other females. The yacht not coming well up, our captain sent a boat to her, but they could not reach her on account of the current. However, the yacht succeeded in coming along side of us, and Margaret came on board with her little daughter, and a Westphalian woman, who was a widow, and a girl, both of whom were in her service, and to go as passengers. They were welcomed by all, and all of them came and shook us by the hand. Some said they thought she had been to Friesland. Whereupon she answered: "How do you know where I have been?"[55] We had nothing to detain us now, except the wind.
[Footnote 55: We are left to infer that Margaret Philipse also, like Jan, had some relation to the Labadists, and perhaps that she had just visited them. But her husband, Frederick Philipse, was a native of the town of Bolsward, mentioned above, and she may therefore have gone there.]
26th, Monday. The wind began to blow a little from the south, but calmly. It veered round more and more to the southeast so that we determined to get under sail. We therefore took a pilot, weighed anchor, and set sail about ten or eleven o'clock. We sailed smoothly onward to the Helder. The pilot had a brother who was older, and had been a pilot longer than he had, and who sailed ahead of us in the pilot boat, continually sounding the depth of water with the deep lead. When we were going by the Oude Schilt there came a barge off with two more women who desired to go with us; but as they could not reach the ship, the pilot boat went after them and took them on board of her, where they had to remain until the ship arrived outside. It was about two o'clock when we came in the channel of the Lant's-diep or Nieuwe Diep.[56] You run from Oude Schilt strait to the Helder, and so close to the shore that you can throw a stone upon it, until you have the capes on this point opposite each other, namely, the two small ones; for to the westward of these there is a large one which is not to be regarded. Having the capes thus opposite each other, you are in the middle of the channel and by the first buoy. The current runs outside along the shore, east and west, to wit: the ebb tide westerly, and the flood easterly, and also very strong. The ebb runs until it is half flood. There are still two other channels, the old one which is the middle one, and the Spanish Channel stretching to the east. We had reached the middlemost buoy when it became entirely calm, for which reason we could hardly steer the ship, and, in the meanwhile, the current was steadily setting us over to the west bank. Hereupon a dispute arose between the pilot in our ship and those in the pilot boat going ahead of us. The one in the ship on throwing the lead and finding it begin to be shallow, and seeing, moreover, that the current was driving us more upon the shoal, was of opinion that we should wear ship, which his brother was not willing to do, saying that she should stand over further. This continued so long that at last it became entirely dry, when he wished to tack about; but it could not then be done in consequence of the current running with so much force upon shallow ground, and carrying the ship violently against the shoal, where the current ran obliquely. They got out the boat at the bow of the ship to row, which would not yield in consequence of the strong current which also drove the boat as well as the ship; so that, in a word, we were aground on the west bank of the channel, and although the water was nearly at its lowest there was still a strong ebb tide. Immediately there was great clamor and running to and fro both of seamen and those not acquainted with navigation. Every one was alarmed, and every one did his best in that respect, the more so, because there was not far from us the wreck of a ship with her masts sticking out of water, though it was on the east side of the channel. Nevertheless, we remained fast, and the ship began to thump hard and fall entirely on one side. They ran straightway to the pumps, but found no leak. The pilot remained in good spirits, though put out and angry with his brother, who had misled us, and who, in consequence of the strength of the current, and the lightness of the wind, could not come on board of us. They said we were in no danger, although it looked very strange, as the current had washed the sand very much from under the lee of the ship whereby she had fallen much on her side. But we hoped with the flood tide she would come off again.
[Footnote 56: These are channels leading out around the Helder, the Nieuwe Diep close to that cape on the inside, the Lands Diep close to it on the outside. Farther out lay the old channel and the Spaniard's Channel.]
There were several passengers, not only women, but men, and some of the bravest, who began to secure the best they had, and were ready and looking out how they might safely reach the land. But the Lord possessed us with His grace. Though seeing all this and knowing the danger, I was not disturbed by it. Margaret proposed throwing some of the cargo overboard, but the pilot and I dissuaded her from it. The captain wished to start the tanks of fresh water, but we hindered him. Of all the men in the ship I saw no one who was so frightened as Jan. He ran backwards and forwards and hardly knew what he said or did. This happened about half past three o'clock in the afternoon, and as we had not yet taken any dinner, and could effect nothing as long as the ship was fast, the victuals were brought out to be eaten. We sat before the hut and ate; but we had not finished when I perceived the ship dragging, as had been predicted. I sprang up quickly and cried out: "We are afloat; the ship's afloat." Immediately thereupon the whole ship was in commotion. The victuals were removed, the boat put to the bow, and every one did his best, rowing as well as he could. The ship, floating more and more, gave some good pushes and was brought into four fathoms of water, in the middle of the channel, and there anchored. My companion and myself thanked God in our hearts, and all were very much rejoiced. But no sooner was the danger over, which had somewhat bridled the godlessness of these bad men, than they returned to their old courses, with cursing and foul language. They were not affected in the least by what had happened, nor by God's gracious preservation of us. Truly was His hand visible, for it remained perfectly calm, so the ship labored very little. It would otherwise have been all over with us, for our ship not being the strongest, and being moreover very heavily laden, if the wind had changed to the east and forced us on a lee shore, she would have soon gone to pieces; or if we had grounded on the opposite side, which might easily have happened, there would have been little probability of her getting off, because the flood tide would have driven us higher up, especially if it had blown somewhat hard. The flood having run in and a light breeze springing out of the S.E. and S.S.E., the anchor was raised and in a short time we came outside, having been there about six hours. The pilot was paid, and he left the ship; the women whom he had taken in his boat were put on board and we bade him adieu, and set our course.
Before we proceed further we will say a word concerning the island of Texel, where we were about eight days, although the island is well known. It is said to be twenty-eight miles[57] in circumference, and is nearly oval in form. The shore, inside along the Texelsdiep, is dyked; on the outside, along the North Sea, it is beset with dunes. There are six villages, namely Oosterend, Seelt, the Hoogh, the Burgh, which is the principal one, and has privileges like a city, such as that of inflicting capital punishment and others; the Oude Schilt, which is mostly resorted to by ships, the Hoorn, and also the West End, which has now fallen into decay. We saw four of them but not the Hoogh which lay out of the way, and the West End which had fallen into decay. Inland the country is rough, and some of it high, so that there are few ditches, except in the low lands for the most part on the side of Texelsdiep. Otherwise they protect their land with small dykes of earth. The soil is sandy, which affords very good water in the high places. The meadow lands are somewhat dry, but yield a fine grass. The inhabitants gain their livelihood, for the most part, by raising sheep and making Texel cheese. The sheep are smaller, but fatter and more hardy than they are in Friesland. They seldom bring forth two young at a birth, and when they do, one usually is killed in order that the other may be better nourished. The inhabitants have cows for their own use. The dyke is not high or thick, but is lined with wier, a kind of sea grass, which they put together and lay against the dyke somewhat higher than the earth work. Piles are driven outside to hold this wier against it, and prevent the sea from washing it away. This dyke is repaired every year by contract. Many fishermen and pilots live along it, both qualifications generally being in the same person, as well as the other pursuits pertaining to navigation. There are about five hundred pilots in all living on the island of Texel, as can be seen by the numbers which they carry on their sails or wings.
[Footnote 57: In this translation distances are stated in English miles.]
The law is that no ship can go in or out without a pilot; and in case any captain will not take a pilot, he is nevertheless bound to pay the fees of one, and in case the captain will not pay them, the pilots can go to Amsterdam and there obtain it at the expense of the captain. And if the captain take no pilot and an accident happen, the consequences fall upon him; but I believe this first rule only applies to ships belonging to Amsterdam or other ports in Holland; and that foreign ships are more free in that respect, but cannot relieve themselves from the second. The pilots who bring in ships from the outside bring them to the Texel roadstead or the Helder, and others take them to Amsterdam or elsewhere; and those who take them from Amsterdam, go no further than the Texel road or the Vlie,[58] and other pilots carry them out to sea. The fee of the pilots is a guilder[59] a foot for every foot the ship draws, though any sum may be fixed by agreement.
[Footnote 58: The Texel channel being the great western passage out from the Zuider Zee, the other or eastern passage was the Vlie, lying on the other side of the great shoal known as the Bree Sand, and leading out between the islands of Vlieland and Schelling.]
[Footnote 59: A guilder or florin was equivalent to about 40 cents.]
During the whole time we were there we saw few or no fish, though we supposed this was the place for fish. We remarked further that the inhabitants of Texel were more polite than the boors of Friesland. A large portion of them are Romanists. There was no home-brewed beer tapped in the taverns, but it was all foreign beer, and this I suppose was for the purpose of saving the excise. They are under the jurisdiction of West Friesland and the particular government of the city of Alckmaer,[60] whose weights and measures they use. West of the Oude Schilt there is a small fortification with four points and two redoubts on the dyke, and some small batteries; but they afford little protection to the place, and still less to the harbor. It was closed and without men, when we were there. When we first came there, the people, unaccustomed to see such persons, regarded us as some individuals in particular. The innkeepers took us to be farmers of the revenue, especially of brandies, and supposed our presence there was to prevent their smuggling, as they themselves told us. The Roman Catholics, as they declared, looked upon us as priests; the Mennonists, as a class of their exhorters; and the ordinary Reformed, as preachers; whereby they all showed they did not know us in truth, according to the word in Christ Jesus.
[Footnote 60: West Friesland was the ancient name for the northern part of the province of Holland, Alkmaar one of its chief towns.]
Leaving Texel and the land we came outside the coast, laying our course S.W. with a S.E. wind, with which we sailed some distance from the shore. Towards evening the wind began to blow from the S. and S.S.W. quite hard, and so we stood off through the whole night. I do not know that I ever had in my life so severe a pain in the breast as I had this evening, whether it was from hard work or change of our condition.
27th, Tuesday. The wind from the same quarter as before, but blowing harder, for which reason we reefed our topsails. We had twenty-six and twenty-eight fathoms of water. By evening it was somewhat calmer; but as the wind was not steady we stood off from the shore.
28th, Wednesday. Finding ourselves in twenty-five and twenty-six fathoms of water and the wind still south and southwest we sailed over by the wind. It continued to blow hard, and we sailed for the most part N. by E. and N.N.E. It annoyed me that I could not get at our chest, in order to obtain my charts and books of navigation. Our mate and others observed the latitude, and found it to be 52 deg. 16'; and we tacked about. The wind continued in the same quarter, sometimes a little lighter, sometimes sharper. We kept mostly a S.S.E. course, with hard weather the first part of the night.
29th, Thursday. Having twenty-six and twenty-seven fathoms of water we lay over again. Every day there were many mackerel caught, which for several days were for the cabin only, whatever number were caught, because they were taken with the captain's hooks; but the passengers and sailors began to get their hooks ready also and thus every one began to catch and eat. The weather was delightful. I had obtained my things out of the chest, and found the latitude 52 deg. 18' [?]. We stood over to the Flemish or Zeelandish coast, calculating we were not far from Sluis and Bruges. I therefore went aloft frequently to look out for land. We saw several fishing boats, one of which we hailed toward evening. He was from Zierickzee, and told us Walcheren[61] was about twenty-eight miles E.S.E. of us, and we could see it from the mast head, as was the fact. We laid over again immediately. It now began to blow more from the S.W. and S.W. by W. We had sailed the last night west by north, according to reckoning, twenty-eight miles. This result agreed with my observation within less than four miles, and that of our mate, named Evert. But the captain's and the English mate's calculation brought us before the Maes, as Evert[62] told me.
[Footnote 61: The westernmost island of the province of Zeeland.]
[Footnote 62: Evert Duyckinck; see post, p. 28, note 2.]
We sailed now for a day or two among great quantities of June-bugs or cock-chafers, which had been driven off from the land and drowned,[63] which caused us to reflect upon what God did formerly in Egypt and elsewhere, and still often does, for His power is always the same, although it is not always understood.
[Footnote 63: In the fragmentary manuscript journal of the voyage of 1683, Danckaerts notices, on land, between Canterbury and Dover, the same great abundance of beetles, which every evening fly out to sea from Dover in great numbers.]
30th, Friday. We tacked over to the Flemish coast this morning in twenty-five fathoms of water; but it was so calm that we made little progress. It was too cloudy to take the latitude. The wind was very variable, and we could not keep on S.W., or even south, and so drifted for the most part with the tide.
JULY 1st, Saturday. We had drifted the whole night in the calm, and had gone backwards instead of forwards; but in the morning the wind began to blow out of the N.W. and N.N.W. with a stiff breeze. We therefore set all sail, and went ahead tolerably well on a straight course W. by S. and W.S.W. against the current. We saw land many times about two hours' distance, both on the starboard and larboard, that on the starboard being the cape of Dover, and on the larboard, the cape of Calais. There was a free wind and fine weather, though a little haze on the horizon. The land began to loom up more distinctly, and I sketched it twice with crayon. We continued to catch plenty of mackerel, and also weevers and whitings. We arrived before Dover at sunset, when we fired a gun, and a boat came off to us immediately, by which the captain sent some letters ashore. We inquired of them the news, and they answered us all was well; but they told the captain privately that 30,000 Scottish Papists had taken up arms for the conspirators.[64]
[Footnote 64: A distorted rumor of the rising of the Covenanters in June, 1679; but everything was now seen in the light of the Popish Plot.]
It is proper that I should say something here of the North Sea. In case you are driven about by strong contrary winds and cannot obtain the latitude, and, indeed, under any circumstances, you should use the deep lead frequently, for the depth is well shown on the chart, and often you cannot get sight of the land. The Flemish coast is the least dangerous, although the English is the most surveyed, because the water becomes shoal gradually. You may get into thirteen and fourteen fathoms of water. In the true channel it is twenty and twenty-two fathoms, and in the middle it is deeper, namely, twenty-six and twenty-eight and over, but it is somewhat more uneven. In approaching the English coast the shoals are more even, as twenty-six, eighteen, seventeen fathoms. To navigate the channel it is best to keep nearest the Flemish coast, because it affords a better course, and the current makes it easy to go north, and the sandbars such as the Galper, Wytingh, and Goyn,[65] are more to be avoided than the Flemish banks; and, moreover, close by the shore it is very deep, yet by the setting of the current to the north you may soon be upon them, that is, with an ebb tide.
[Footnote 65: Sandbanks off the southeast coast of England, called by the English the Galloper, the Whiting, and the Goodwin Sands.]
2d, Sunday. Made fair progress during the night. We found ourselves in the morning before the point of Bevesier,[66] which I sketched. The wind was northerly with a cool air. About breakfast time a large English ship came up behind us, which we hailed. She was from London and bound for the Straits.[67] She had much sail on, and after passing us, set all she had; but not long afterwards a small breeze blowing off shore, she was compelled to begin to take in her topgallant-sails and upperstay-sails. This was scarcely half done when her maintop-mast and mizzentop-mast went by the board, and remained hanging on the side of the ship. The man who was taking in the topgallant-sail fell overboard. When this accident happened she was only a short distance ahead of us; and we, therefore, all ran forward to the forecastle to see whether there were any pieces of wood at our bow to damage us. We sailed by her, close under her lee, and saw somewhat of a crowd running about the ship. Finally they launched their jolly-boat for the purpose of looking after the man who had fallen overboard with the top-mast. Whether there were any more we did not know, and as we sailed ahead of them with considerable speed, we could not see whether they fished any one up or not; but the ship sailed before the wind the best she could, when her top-mast went overboard; we took in very quickly our own topgallant-sail, which we had set, but more from precaution than necessity. Shortly afterwards it was so calm that we merely drifted along; and being nearly midway between Bevesier and the Isle of Wight, and the ebb tide running out, we were compelled by the current to anchor about a mile from the shore.
[Footnote 66: Beachy Head.]
[Footnote 67: Of Gibraltar.]
About four o'clock in the afternoon Margaret came to me while I was engaged in sketching the Isle of Wight. We talked over various matters which were almost the same as those about which she had conversed with my companion the day before, and I therefore met her with the same objections.
3d, Monday. We did not advance any during the night, and had drifted along; but a breeze springing up we went ahead a little. It was very foggy, so that we could not see the land. It cleared up in the afternoon, when we found ourselves off against the Isle of Wight; but the wind subsiding, and the tide being spent, we ran for the point of the island, and came to anchor in ten or eleven fathoms near some other ships which were waiting there for a good wind and tide. The jolly-boat was launched and our Dutch mate and two other persons went ashore in order to see if they could obtain some fresh provisions. The tide having passed, and the wind shifting, we signalled to them to come on board again, which they did in the evening, when we were already almost under sail. They brought nothing with them, except a little milk which served us as a good refreshment for this evening. Sailing ahead, we steered above the point with the wind W.S.W., and so gained the open sea. There is a very strong current here, and hard beating along the shore and around the point. The current sent us ahead more than the wind. The coast is quite good and it is deep enough close up to the shore.
4th, Tuesday. We found ourselves in the morning opposite Wight with the wind S.S.E., and quite still. After a while there came up a breeze. We passed Peveril Point,[68] however, with the ebb. About noon a flute-ship[69] came near us which we hailed. She was from Amsterdam, bound to Cadiz. It was so calm in the evening that we drifted, and turned round several times. We perceived fifteen or eighteen large ships on the French coast, which saluted each other with many heavy guns. The ebb being spent, we came to anchor again in twenty-one fathoms of water, about two miles from the shore. The flood having run out by evening, we weighed anchor, and before we were under sail had a fresh wind astern. We therefore set all the sail we could, having a favorable wind and tide, by which means we came before Portland.
[Footnote 68: Durlston Head.]
[Footnote 69: A small long three-masted trading-ship.]
5th, Wednesday. We still had a fair wind and kept our course W. by S. We passed Portland, and came in sight of Goutstar,[70] and arrived off against it about noon. Our mate was of opinion that we had run by the rock of Meeusteen or Jetston,[71] and should have it on the larboard; but on looking out afterwards we found it right before us, about four miles off. We had therefore to hold up and leave it on the starboard. It is a large rock having its head just above the water. It rises up straight, but is very much hacked, which makes it look like a reef. Whenever the sea is rough it is under water. It is dangerous enough, and lies far out in the channel, farther than it is marked down on my chart. We certainly had reason here again to observe the care of the Lord, and His protection through His good providence, which always watches paternally over His children, shown in our becoming aware of this rock before the evening, and just before the evening, for we had not well gone by it before it was dark. If we had been sailing so at night, or if we had not now discovered it, the mate's calculation being as it was, we certainly should not have missed sailing upon it; for when we first saw it, it was straight before us, and we were sailing with a fair wind and tide up to it. We were therefore touched, and thankful to the Lord. This passed, we still, while the sun was going down clear, made Deadman's Head,[72] a point jutting out from England, so that we reckoned we were still twenty-eight or thirty-two miles from Falmouth Bay; but the wind had fallen off somewhat. My calculation was, that we were about twelve or sixteen miles from Falmouth.
[Footnote 70: Start Point.]
[Footnote 71: This dangerous reef was called by the Dutch Meeuwsteen (Sea-mews' Rock), by the English Eddystone. Of the lighthouses for which it has been celebrated, the first was begun in 1695.]
[Footnote 72: Dodman Point.]
6th, Thursday. During the night I heard the ship tack close about, and therefore supposed that the wind had changed, or that the ship had run too far, or, what was more probable, I was afraid, the wind being about S.E., we had fallen more to the shore. Our mate Evert and I thought we should stand off a little till daylight; but the captain tacked about again, so that we then sailed N.E., intending thus to enter the harbor of Falmouth, but we found no opening, and when the day broke, discovered that they had made a mistake, and had taken the point of Deadman's Head for the point of Falmouth Bay. When the sun rose, they saw they were deep in the bay, on a lee shore, where it all looked strange, and they had a tolerably hard wind. When they saw they were wrong it continued so some time before they became informed. They then wore ship, and sailed with quite easy sheets out of the bay.
This mishap was mainly caused by Master Jan, who wishing to play the part of a wise man, though truly it was from fear, had been on deck several times during the night in order to look out, afraid, as he said himself, that we might sail upon the point of the Lizard.[73] Coming up at this time with drowsy eyes, and catching a glimpse of the land, through the mist, he began to call out, that we had passed by Falmouth, and would certainly sail upon the Lizard. It was the English mate's watch, who was not very well acquainted with him, and could not keep him still. The captain was therefore called, who also came up rubbing his eyes, and unable to see the land well in the mist. He agreed with Jan, being apprehensive that the ship had sailed more than they thought, and as I myself considered might well be the case, and so let the ship tack about. I deemed it better, however, to keep off from the shore till daylight, when they could see where they were; but the captain relying more upon Jan's opinion, and wishing to accomplish half a masterpiece, by going into Falmouth in the dark, and surprising the people there to whom the ship was consigned, and so to pass hereafter as a good and skillful captain, insisted upon sailing in, and so they went in, as has been mentioned. It is no part of the business of a good seaman to run into a place by night, or when it is dark, where he is not well acquainted; but in such case he should work off shore slowly, waiting until day and light, and know where he is, and then see what can be done. Thus the fear of one danger, and the rashness accompanying it, brought us into another, greater than the first. |
|
