But certainly we had much more reason to rejoice than they, had the ground of our joy been as certain as the matter of it was sweet ; for they were safe in their ships, but Me ship- wrecked and destitute of all comfort ; they were returned from a good voyage, we had lost our goods and voyage too, and our lives were often lost in our own apprehensions ; they were come nigh their homes and friends, we had no hopes ever to see them again. And, indeed, the greater our extremities were, the more we surfeited ourselves upon the comfort of such a sight, it being as natural to the soul so to do, when it hath been long exercised with fears and sorrows, as it is to the body, when it has been long fasting and starved, to surfeit upon food when it comes first to it.
But this our excessive joy was soon rebated and allayed ; for making with all the speed we could towards it, like men putting forth the last effort and struggle of nature for life ; after a while we began to doubt whether it were land or not ; and surely, that fatal lump of ice that sunk our ship, did not give a more dreadful knock to our vessel, than this did to our minds : it even shattered our hearts, with our vain hopes, to pieces ; and then the ebb of
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our fears and sorrows was as low, as the tide of our groundless joy was high ; for we plainly discerned, after half an hour, that those pleasant hills and indented shore, which we belield with such joy, were nothing else but islands of ice, which ga^'^e a colder damp of despair and sorrow to our hearts, than it had done, or could do to our benumbed limbs, which by this time were much mortified, and almost wholly useless ; and yet as a farther addition to our fear and sorrow, (if yet they might be reckoned capable of any ad- dition) tlie sky again began to lower, and look full of foul and stormy weather.
And now every man''s heart desponded, and all hope seemed Utterly to perish from us. We were reduced to that extremity by cold, famine, and constant toil and fear so many days and nights without rest or refreshment, (no man being able to move from the place in which he first sat down) that we concluded a little more time would have made us as so many dead statues fixed in our places, or as so many carcases dried up in the sands of which the Egyptians make their nnimmy ; only with this difference, they are go dried and parched witli heat, but we with cold.
We were now come nigh to our mistaken land, and seeing bad weather appearing again, and night drawing on, we thought to shelter ourselves again under this island, as we liad formerly under others ; but found it impossible so to do, because of the shoals of ice that lay oil' at a distance from it, which forbad our approach any nearer. And truly it was a good providence which so order- ed it for us ; for could we have found shelter near it, in all like- liliood there we had abode all that night, and even yielded our- selves, as by consent, into the hands of despair and death ; wliere- as, finding no place there, it put us upon this final resolution. That we would once more put to it with that poor stock of strength which was left, and tug hard for it that night, not knowing what God miglit do for us the next day ; it was yet possible we might see the shore, but if we utterly desponded, and ceased from striving, there was no hope.
And now, with renewed cries to God, our eyes to heaven, and hands to the oar, wc once more made an essay for our deliver- ance. It seemed to give some footing to our feeble hopes, that God had already wrought so many wonders of mercy in our pre- servation so long, and made us yet to overlive so many sentences of death as we had passed (and not without reason) upon our- selves. Beside, we knew that man's extremity is God's oppor- tunity, and we knew not but the next day might give us a real and true prospect of a shore, as this had given us a false and imaginary one.
In this hope we set to it. trusting God for strength and safety ;
508 WONDEKFUL SEA-DELIVEItAXCES.
and in a world of danger, fear and weakness, we endured one sad and sorrowful night more, concluding that the next day must eitlier give us fresh hopes of life, or end our miserable days by a double death, famine and disowning.
It pleased God, in his merciful providence, to order the wea- ther this night better for us than our fears ; it proved indifferent calm, and now and then we had a view of the moon, which was of some use and comfort to us ; and thus we weathered out the Friday night also, and though all were as dying, yet not one dead man among us.
Saturday, the IGth of May.
The morning opening upon us, was entertained with some hope ; w^e looked out yar, but what we expected was still out of sight ; but about nine or ten o'clock we saw the land to our great joy and comfort, and grew still more and more confident, that we were not again deceived, and that now our over-eager desires did not again imposje upon our understandings and judgments. This sight was to us life from the dead. No circumstances could make any temporal mercy sweeter, than our long and sad condition made this to us, and therefore with hearts overwhelmed with joy, and mouths filled with praise, we blessed and magnified our great De- Tiverer ; and that which further strengthened our hope was, that the weather proved indifferent fair, and the wind northerly. And as we rowed in with the land, to our farther joy we espied twQ ships, coming away before the wind from the northwards. Here- upon we went away directly for their forefoot, and about noon spake with the headmost, which was a French ship, belong- ing to Crosique, one Peter Leborrow^ master.
This Peter proved a benign and courteous man to us. I am sure he let us out of a kind of hell into an heaven upon earth, when he received us into his ship, and did more for us than ever St. Peter will or can do for them that divest not Paul, but Christ himself of his mediatorial honour and authority to clothe Peter with it. This good Samaritan finding us neither among the liv-, ing nor the dead, but betwixt both, had compassion on us, and with the help of his men, rather dragged than handed us into the ship. I knew the genius of that nation, and had the language, but had not power to compliment him, or make any long narrative of our troubles to him. He gave us bread and wine, and such other things as he had, treating us with much humanity, and compassionating our sad condition. And now we tasted the sweet- ness of these good creatures in a degree peculiar to men in our cir- cumstances ; a sweetness which is unknown to them that, like Dives, fare dehciously every day.
Wq tarried on board about ^an hour, and found ourselves withift
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