82 



FARMERS^ REGISTER. 



[No. 2 



ing mortified to the knees and shoulders: and here, 

 I must observe, that in general, they are the most 

 awkward, ungain wretches, in cold weather, that 

 can be met with, and ii'not stirred up, will sit whole 

 days shivering in a corner without moving liand or 

 foot: they seem to be ibrmed only tor the sultry cli- 

 mate they were born in, and those they are prin- 

 cipally applied to the use of; though when inured 

 to a cold one long, they bear it tolerably well. 



The deluges of rain wixed whh the waves that 

 continually broke over us, the howling bhists that 

 rent our ears — the total darkness, were nothing to 

 our internal misery. Delirious ravings on one 

 side — expiring groans on another- — and the calls 

 ofhelp, which we were unable to give, on another, 

 quite distracted us. Bread, water, and rum, were 

 all we had left; these were our provisions ibr the 

 sick, these our only sustenance: and these decreas- 

 ing so fast as to promise the addition of the great- 

 est of all evils to those we already endured. In- 

 deed, had our fowls been preserved, we could not 

 have dressed them, we could keep no fire, and 

 could find no cooks, and therefore we contented 

 ourselves with bread dipped in rum lor our patients, 

 and a draught of water after it, and bread and wa- 

 ter for ourselves. We forbore to see after the ne- 

 groes, but nailed down the hatches, and left them 

 to the mercy of Providence. We weakened apace, 

 and had no retreat from the deck, but lashed our- 

 selves to some part of the quarter-deck, and slept 

 and watched by turns. Thus we weathered three 

 more dismal days and nights, in the two last of 

 which the wind shitled to the eastward, though 

 without abating of its wonted fury. However, 

 we made what way we could, in our present trim, 

 every minute expecting to meet with destruction. 

 We made, as far as we could guess, near eight 

 knots an hour, not daiing all these last twenty- 

 four hours to direct our eyes to our distempered 

 messmates in the cabin, some of whom we were 

 pretty sure deceased in the morning. We shaped 

 our course as near as possible, to run in with the 

 next land, and the next morning made shift, one 

 of us, weak as we were, to gel up to the mast 

 head. None can conceive, with what rapture we 

 descryed it all abroad; but we could not tell where 

 we had fallen in with it, as not having had an ob- 

 pervation ibr a long time. The unexpected sight 

 almost deprived us of our senses with very joy. 

 and instantaneously, as it were, the wind died 

 away, and a gentle breeze succeeded, that carried 

 us smoothly to our mark. We opened a large 

 inlet, which we stood in ibr, and salijly came to 

 anchor, in twelve fathom water, the boi{om a fine 

 sand mixed with small shells. 



Thus then we found ourselves, to our excessive 

 satisfaction, free from those dire apprehensions 

 that had so long disturbed our minds, and those 

 fatigues that had jaded our bodies, in this little, 

 uncommonly difficult voyage. As soon as we had 

 dropped anchor, we saw several flats * full of men, 

 whom we perceived to be our countrymen; but how 

 was our joy raised into admiration, when we were 

 infbitned, that the place we were in, and had so 

 miraculously lighted on, was j^scatcaque inlet to 



* These are large flat- bottomed boats, capable of car- 

 rying: some tons of goods, and used in the tobacco coun- 

 tries to unrade vessels with. They have also a kind of 

 sloops,ciumsily built,which may be called tobacco dru"-- 

 gers, of seventy to eighty tons burden. 



Sene-puxon! We adored the goodness of provi- 

 dence, and returned unliiigned thanks Ibr our de- 

 liverance; and now we had time to contemplate 

 the beauties of the scene, and to indulge this new 

 satisfaction. The hay we were in, was open to th« 

 sea on the eastward, and on every side else, land- 

 locked. We could plairdy now discover the cries 

 of the industrious hind, tending his improving 

 Hock; and on every side, the lowing of kine, the 

 bleating of the fleecy charge, and the neighing of 

 the generous steed struck our ears; and we ex- 

 changed Ibr this new music, the jargon of bel- 

 lowing winds, the bursting rains, and the roaring 

 thunder. The beach all glittering with conchous 

 riches, and white as the ilriven snow, attracted 

 our eyes on every side; the green marshes and 

 savannahs, even of this time, appeared in fresh 

 verdure; and the woods, from the great quantities 

 of evergreens, seemed to wear a summer hue. 

 Up the country, the creeks, whose meanders we 

 could discern, formed to the fancy regular canals, 

 rushing torrents, headlong cascades, and shining 

 mirrors; but to moderate our satisfaction, and to 

 take off fi'om our too great and presumptuous ex- 

 ultation, on the larboard shore lay the melancholy 

 wreck of a large Bristol man, which had stranded 

 in this place some years before. It is impossible 

 to describe the tortures this sight gave us, which, 

 indeed forced tears fi'om our eves, by comparison 

 with what we had been like to suffer ourselves. 



We now examined our cabin associates, and 

 found only the inanimate remainsof three of them. 

 The others had some signs of Mi'e, and were con- 

 veyed on shore by the planters who visited us, and 

 were their neighbors. A thousand times thej' lift- 

 ed their eyes up Avith astonishment at our forlorn 

 condition. Our negroes were our next concern, 

 and here only two were found alive, and such a 

 stench of putrefaction in the hold, as made it ne- 

 cessary to have recourse to the usual preserva- 

 tives from infectious smells. Ourselves now were 

 to be considered, and as soon as the relations of 

 our owner came down to the sloop to take charge 

 of her, we embarked in a flat for Golden Quarter. 

 And now, as if our ability held out only so long 

 as our necessity subsisted, we soon felt the bitter 

 effects of our late troubles: frost-bitten from head 

 to foot, and severely distracted from so long a pri- 

 vation of downy repose, we now were almost un- 

 able to move an}^ thing but our deploring eyes — 

 yet, mislbrtune on misfortune! — our barcre ran 

 aground about a mile from the sloop, at low wa- 

 ter, eleven o'clock at night, and we were forced to 

 lie open and exposed tiil the ensuing morninor, she 

 was loaden so deep; and then, with some difficult}', 

 we hove heroffthe shelve: and this, in an extreme 

 piercing ilost, finished our disasters, and served al- 

 most to rob us entirely of the little lile remaining. 



Eastern Shore of Maryland. 



Relieved from this distress, we pursued our little 

 voyage of about fourteen miles, throuijh the seve- 

 ral creeks that convey you to Golden Quarter; and 

 we were near twenty-ibur hours before we arrived 

 there, occasioned by our frequent interruptions, or 

 running upon the marshes, or oyster-banks, Avith 

 which these streams are prodigiously replete. On 

 every side, you micrht discern the settlements of the 

 planters, with their industrious clearings, surround- 

 ed by the native woods of the country; whilst the 

 distant curlings of the aspiring snioke, wantoning 



