S. Those three that perished in the long-boat, were the most nimble and active in the whole company, and in such an extremity^ the most likely of all to have saved themselves ; yet these perished, when the feeblest and most unactive were preserved. " Let not the strong man therefore glory in his strength," nor the most weak and feeble despair of help from God in extremity. " He taketh not " pleasure in the legs of a man," Psal. cxlvii. 10. " The race is not " to the swift," Eccl. ix. 11.
4. It is little less than a miracle of providence, that so small a boat had not overset, when about seven of us hanged by her side, with our bodies in the water, in a tumbling sea, and in th^ night too, when we could not see what was fit to be done for our preservation ; surely it was the hand of God that steadied and pre^ served the boat and. us in that danger.
502 WONDERFUL SEA-DELIVERAXCES.
5. Upon tlie whole, we cannot but judge God had a design upon us to glorify his mercy, and make his power and providence known, in casting away both our ship and long-boat togetlier, (the most apt and probable means of our preservation) and saving us by so contemptij^le and improbable a mean as our little yawle was. Little thing in the hand, and under the blessing of a great God, produce eftects proportionable to the greatest and most potent in- struments ; the same God. who prepai'ed a great fish to save Jonah, can make a little fish as effectual to that end as a whale, if he please so to order it *. As I remember I liave read of a ship that had sprung a leak : Some pious passengers pray, whilst others ply the pump, and all to little purpose, till at last, on a sudden, they espy the watei*s within to be at a stand, and then take heart *afresh, and ply the pump with good success. They get into their harbour, and ship put into the dock, and upon search there is found a cer- tain hole, with a fish sticking fast in it, exactly commensurate to the hole. God shews himself great in the smallest instruments of pre- servation ! Our case seemed so desperate, even when we were in possession of our long-boat, that five of our company, then des- pairing of safety, chose rather to perish in and with the ship ; three more (as before was noted) of our ablest seamen went down with the long-boat, and thirteen poor forlorn persons now left al- most even with the sea, in a poor small boat destitute of compass to guide us, or provision to sustain us, in a dark night, in extre- mity of cold, and among innumerable mountains of ice surrounding us which occasioned it.
In this miserable case we put our boat's head to windward as much as we could, vriih our two small oars, benig all we had, not expecting to live one hour, by reason of the raging of the sea, in- censed by a strong Avind, every surge threatening to swallow us up; this was all the comfort which remained to us, that we had a little time given us to beg mercy, before we went after our eight compa- nions to whom that favour was denied.
This opportunity we endeavoured to improve to that end ; but alas ! how confusedly, by reason of the frequent fresh iilarms that every sea gave us, and the necessity of often consultations about what was necessary to be done ; some must be at work to cast out water which brake in continually upon us, and yet we had little opportunity or room for that work of necessity, being wedged in so fast that none could move out of the place in which he was fixed, being like so many statues almost immovable. Yet this was a sig- nal mercy, that though we took a great deal of water all this night, yet no sea brake full home upon us to fill us at once.
* IMr. Crane's Prospect of Froyidences, p. 216.
WONDEUFUL SEA-DELIVERANCES. 503
Thus we continued all the first night driving and keeping our boat's head to the windward, which was then at north as well as we could guess by the run of the sea, for the night was very dark, not a star to be seen, nor a compass to guide us ; the want of which we much lamented. Every man's heart was filled witli fear and sorrow, and thus we passed the Tuesday night, admiring the power and goodness of God, when we saw the dawning of the next morning.
Wednesday tlie 7th of May.
In the morning as soon as it was hght, the wind blowing still very hard, and a gi'eat sea, we began to look far about us, and saw abundance of floating islands of ice round about us, and find- ing the sea so tempestuous and lofty, we would fain have sheltered ourselves, if possible, under some of those mountains, but they afforded us no succour, though we tried many; for that to lee- wards of them, there was a cockling sea as in a race, so that we there shipt more water than before, and the cold was unsuffer- able ; so that we were forced to lie against the sea tugging at the oar, and casting up our cries to heaven for help. Thus we sat all wet and frozen, shivering and gnashing our teeth one upon ano- ther ; seldom or never could the ocean shew a company of more miserable and forlorn \vretches, than it had at that time upon its back.
Now it was that we began this morning to examine our store, and the total amount was but the fore-mentioned five pints of brandy, and six bisket cakes among us all, and the cakes all sopt like toast in salt-water. This we looked u}X)n as the poor widow upon her handful of meal, and cruse of oil, which she was making her last meal upon before she died, 1 Kings xvii. 12.
However, we were resolved to be good husbands upon a small stock, frugality being most effectually learnt in the school of neces- sity. This morning every one had a morsel of wet bread, which had it not been soaked before in salt water, there was enough in every one's eye to have done it ; and after this meal, which was ended in a minute, we began to think how to proportion our brandy, for we durst trust the firkin to no man's mouth or modesty. It was in a proper sense, our aqiia v'ltce ; we had no dram cup to divide it, but searching our pockets, one of our com- pany found the bov/1 of a tobacco-pipe, which, though it were nei- ther a very large, comely, or cleanly cup, yet we Avere glad of it, it served us as a measure to divide it equally amongst us ; and after this cordial, vvhen thirst increased, every one took a lump of ice, (of which we had enough every where at hand) and dissolved it in our mouths, or rather our mouths in it, for we were even jaw- fallen, and starved with the extreme cold, against which wq had no other but this cold comfort.
504 WONDERFUL SEA-DELIVERANCES.
About noon the wind began to lie, and towards night it fell calm* the sea pretty quiet and smooth, but no sight of the sun, the sky all close, and so continued all the night by reason of which we could not have the least benefit or direction from the moon or stars ; and therefore only rowed to and again, sometimes one way, and sometimes another, rather to keep ourselves in exercise than in hope to gain any port.