ballast, and we almost drowned
within, whilest we sat looking when to perish from above. This,
imparting no less terror than danger, ran through the whole Ship with
much fright and amazement, startled and turned the blood, and took
down the braves of the most hardy Mariner of them all, insomuch as he
that before happily felt not the sorrow of others, now began to sorrow
for himself, when he saw such a pond of water so suddenly broken in,
and which he knew could not (with present avoiding) but instantly sink
him. . . .

Once so huge a Sea brake upon the poop and quarter, upon us, as it
covered our ship from stern to stem, like a garment or a vast cloud.
It filled her brimful for a while within, from the hatches up to the
spar deck. . .

Tuesday noon till Friday noon, we bailed and pumped two thousand tun,
and yet, do what we could, when our ship held least in her (after
Tuesday night second watch) she bore ten feet deep, at which stay our
extreme working kept her one eight glasses, forbearance whereof had
instantly sunk us; and it being now Friday, the fourth morning, it
wanted little but that there had been a general determination, to have
shut up hatches and commending our sinful souls to God, committed the
ship to the mercy of the sea. Surely that night we must have done it,
and that night had we then perished; but see the goodness and sweet
introduction of better hope by our merciful God given unto us. Sir
George Summers, when no man dreamed of such happiness, had discovered
and cried, "Land!" Indeed, the morning, now three-quarters spent, had
won a little clearness from the days before, and it being better
surveyed, the very trees were seen to move with the wind upon the
shore-side.

FOOTNOTE:

[3] Pronounced Str[va]k'ey.

JOHN LAWSON.

~Died 1712.~

JOHN LAWSON was a Scotch gentleman who came to America in 1700. In his
own words: "In the year 1700, when people flocked from all parts of
the Christian world, to see the solemnity of the grand jubilee at
Rome, my intention being at that time to travel, I accidentally met
with a gentlemen, who had been abroad, and was very well acquainted
with the ways of living in both Indies; of whom having made inquiry
concerning them, he assured me that Carolina was the best country I
could go to; and, that there then lay a ship in the Thames in which I
might have my passage." He resided in Carolina eight years. As "Gent.
Surveyor-General of North Carolina," he