( 648 ) 
He tells me , that being once mafter of a (hip in a voyage to Bar- 
hdos , ill company of another, commanded by one Grofton of 
JieW'England ^ they were , in the Latitude ( as I remember ) of 
Bermu^A^ fuddenly alarmed with a terrible clap of Thunder, ' 
which broke this Groftom fore-maft, tore his fayles , and did 
fome damage to his rigging; But by that time the noyfe , together 
with the danger ofthis frightful accident, vvaspaft, Mr. Harvard, 
towhomechis Thunder had been more favorable , was however 
no lefs furprifed 5 to fee his companions fbip fteer direflly home- 
ward again: At firfl he thought, that perhaps the confuiion-that 
the latemifchance had put them in , might have made them miftake 
their courfe , and that they would foon perceive their error; but 
feeing them perfift in it 5 and being by this timealmoft out of call, 
he tack't and flood after them ; and as foon as he got near enough 
to be well underflood , asked where they were going: but by 
their anfwer (which imported, that ihey had no other defign, 
than the profecution of their former intended voyage) and 
by thefequel of their difcourfe, it at laft appeared, that Mr. 
Grofton did indeed fleer by the right point of his compafs, but 
that the card was turned round, the North and South points having 
changed pofuions;and though,with his finger he brought the flow- 
er-de-Lys to point direftly North, it would immediatlyjas foonas 
at liberty, return to this new unufual pofture 5 and upon exami- 
nation he found every compafs in the 'Ihip of the fame humor t 
which flrange and fudden accident he could impute to nothing elfe 
but the operation of the Lightning or Thunder newly mentioned. 
He adds,that he lent Grofton ontoihis compafTes to finifh the voy- 
age ; and withall thatthofe Thunder ft rue ken ones did never to 
his knowledg recover their right poficions again ; and that he be- 
h\ves,\f hU^Grofton be living^he hath one of them to this day^^ 
That in jimerica (at leaft as far as the Englilh plantations are 
extended) there is an extraordinary alteration , as to temperature^ 
fincethe jB/^(>/>f^»/ began to Plant there firft , istheloyntafTertion 
of them all; neither hath it near fo many admirers , aswitnefTesr 
in regard that this change of temperature, is, and not without fomc 
reafon , generally attributed to the cutting downof vafl woods, 
together with the clearing and cultivating of the Country ; but 
that Ireland fliould alfo confiderably alter without any fuch mani* 
fed caufe, doth certainly, either invalidate the reafon generally 
admitted for the alteration of y^wmV^ newly mentioned, or els 
wnce , that quite diflFerent caufes may produce the fame effift 
For 
