Part 5
Who then can stay, or will, to see things of so great weight steer’d by such barbarous Hounds as these: First, were there an _Egypt_ to go down to, I would involve my Liberty to them, upon condition ne’er more to see my Country. What? live in silence under the sway of such base actions, is to give consent; and though the lowness of my present Estate and Condition, with the hazard I put my future dayes upon, might plead a just excuse for me to stay at home; but Heavens forbid: I’le rather serve in {84} Chains, and draw the Plough with Animals, till death shall stop and say, _It is enough_. Sir, if you stay behind, I wish you well: I am bound for _Mary-Land_, this day I have made some entrance into my intended voyage, and when I have done more, you shall know of it. I have here inclosed what you of me desired, but truly trouble, discontent and business, have so amazed my senses, that what to write, or where to write, I conceive my self almost as uncapable as he that never did write. What you’le find will be _Ex tempore_, without the use of premeditation; and though there may want something of a flourishing stile to dress them forth, yet I’m certain there wants nothing of truth, will, and desire.
_Heavens bright Lamp, shine forth some of thy Light,_ _But just so long to paint this dismal Night;_ _Then draw thy beams, and hide thy glorious face,_ _From the dark sable actions of this place;_ _Leaving these lustful Sodomites groping still,_ _To satisfie each dark unsatiate will,_ _Untill at length the crimes that they commit,_ _May sink them down to Hells Infernal pit._ _Base and degenerate Earth, how dost thou lye,_ _That all that pass hiss, at thy Treachery?_ _Thou which couldst boast once of thy King and Crown,_ _By base Mechanicks now art tumbled down,_ Brewers _and_ Coblers, _that have scarce an Eye,_ _Walk hand in hand an thy Supremacy;_ _And all those Courts where Majesty did Throne,_ _Are now the Seats for Oliver and Ioan:_ {85} _Persons of Honour, which did before inherit_ _Their glorious Titles from deserved merit,_ _Are all grown silent, and with wonder gaze,_ _To view such Slaves drest in their Courtly rayes;_ _To see a_ Drayman _that knows nought but Yeast,_ _Set in a Throne like_ Babylons _red Beast,_ _While heaps of Parasites do idolize_ _This red-nos’d_ Bell, _with fawning Sacrifice._ _What can we say? our King they’ve Murthered,_ _And those well born, are basely buried:_ _Nobles are slain, and Royalists in each street_ _Are scorn’d, and kick’d by most Men that they meet:_ _Religion’s banisht, and Heresie survives,_ _And none but Conventicks in this Age thrives._ _Oh could those_ Romans _from their Ashes rise,_ _That liv’d in_ Nero’s _time: Oh how their cries_ _Would our perfidious Island shake, nay rend,_ _With clamorous screaks unto the Heaven send:_ _Oh how they’d blush to see our Crimson crimes,_ _And know the Subjects Authors of these times:_ _When as the Peasant he shall take his King,_ _And without cause shall fall a murthering him;_ _And when that’s done, with Pride assume the Chair,_ _And_ Nimrod-_like, himself to heaven rear;_ _Command the People, make the Land Obey_ _His baser will, and swear to what he’l say._ _Sure, sure our God has not these evils sent_ _To please himself, but for mans punishment:_ _And when he shall from our dark sable Skies_ _Withdraw these Clouds, and let our Sun arise,_ _Our dayes will surely then in Glory shine,_ _Both in our Temporal, and our State divine:_ {86} _May this come quickly, though I may never see_ _This glorious day, yet I would sympathie,_ _And feel a joy run through each vain of blood,_ _Though Vassalled on t’other side the Floud._ _Heavens protect his Sacred Majesty,_ _From secret Plots, & treacherous Villany._ _And that those Slaves that now predominate,_ _Hang’d and destroy’d may be their best of Fate;_ _And though Great_ Charles _be distant from his own,_ _Heaven I hope will seat him on his Throne._
Vale.
Yours what I may, G. A.
From the Chimney Corner upon a low cricket, where I writ this in the noise of some six Women, _Aug._ 19. _Anno_
_To my Honored Father at his House._
SIR,
Before I dare bid Adieu to the old World, or shake hands with my native Soyl for ever, I have a Conscience inwards tells me, that I must offer up the remains of that Obedience of mine, that lyes close centered within the cave of my Soul, at the Alter, of your paternal Love: And though this Sacrifice of mine may shew something low and thread-bare, (at this time) yet know, That in the Zenith of all {87} actions, Obedience is that great wheel that moves the lesser in their circular motion.
I am now entring for some time to dwell under the Government of _Neptune_, a Monarchy that I was never manured to live under, nor to converse with in his dreadful Aspect, neither do I know how I shall bear with his rough demands; but that God has carried me through those many gusts a shoar, which I have met withall in the several voyages of my life, I hope will Pilot me safely to my desired Port, through the worst of Stormes I shall meet withall at Sea.
We have strange, and yet good news aboard, that he whose vast mind could not be contented with spacious Territories to stretch his insatiate desires on, is (by an Almighty power) banished from his usuped Throne to dwell among the dead. I no sooner heard of it, but my melancholly Muse forced me upon this ensuing Distich.
_Poor vaunting Earth, gloss’d with uncertain Pride,_ _That liv’d in Pomp, yet worse than others dy’d:_ _Who shall blow forth a Trumpet to thy praise?_ _Or call thy sable Actions shining Rayes?_ _Such Lights as those blaze forth the vertued dead,_ _And make them live, though they are buried._ _Thou’st gone, and to thy memory let be said,_ _There lies that Oliver which of old betray’d_ _His King and Master, and after did assume,_ _With swelling Pride, to govern in his room._ _Here I’le rest satisfied, Scriptures expound to me,_ _Tophet was made for such Supremacy._
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The death of this great Rebel (I hope) will prove an _Omen_ to presage destruction on the rest. The Worlds in a heap of troubles and confusion, and while they are in the midst of their changes and amazes, the best way to give them the bag, is to go out of the World and leave them. I am now bound for _Mary-Land_, and I am told that’s a New World, but if it prove no better than this, I shall not get much by my change; but before I’le revoke my Resolution, I am resolv’d to put it to adventure, for I think it can hardly be worse then this is: Thus committing you into the hands of that God that made you, I rest
_Your Obedient Son_, G. A.
From aboard a Ship at _Gravesend_, _Sept._ 7th, _Anno_
_To my Brother._
I leave you very near in the same condition as I am in my self, only here lies the difference, you were bound at Joyners Hall in _London_ Apprentice-wise, and I conditionally at Navigators Hall, that now rides at an Anchor at _Gravesend_; I hope you will allow me to live in the largest Mayordom, by reason I am the eldest: None but the main Continent of _America_ will serve me for a Corporation to inhabit {89} in now, though I am affraid for all that, that the reins of my Liberty will be something shorter then yours will be in _London_: But as to that, what Destiny has ordered I am resolved with an adventerous Resolution to subscribe to, and with a contented imbracement enjoy it. I would fain have seen you once more in this Old World, before I go into the New, I know you have a chain about your Leg, as well as I have a clog about my Neck: If you can’t come, send a line or two, if not, wish me well at least: I have one thing to charge home upon you, and I hope you will take my counsel, That you have alwayes an obedient Respect and Reverence to your aged Parents, that while they live they may have comfort of you, and when that God shall sound a retreat to their lives, that there they may with their gray hairs in joy go down to their Graves.
Thus concluding, wishing you a comfortable Servitude, a prosperous Life, and the assurance of a happy departure in the immutable love of him that made you,
Vale.
Your Brother, G. A.
From _Gravesend_, Sept. 7. _Anno_
{90}
_To my much Honored Friend_ Mr. T. B. _at his House_.
I am got ashoar with much ado, and it is very well it is as it is, for if I had stayed a little longer, I had certainly been a Creature of the Water, for I had hardly flesh enough to carry me to Land, not that I wanted for any thing that the Ship could afford me in reason: But oh the great bowls of Pease-porridge that appeared in sight every day about the hour of twelve, ingulfed the senses of my Appetite so, with the restringent quality of the Salt Beef, upon the internal Inhabitants of my belly, that a _Galenist_ for some days after my arrival, with his Bag-pipes of Physical operations, could hardly make my Puddings dance in any methodical order.
But to set by these things that happened unto me at Sea, I am now upon Land, and there I’le keep my self if I can, and for four years I am pretty sure of my restraint; and had I known my yoak would have been so easie, (as I conceive it will) I would have been here long before now, rather then to have dwelt under the pressure of a Rebellious and Trayterous Government so long as I did. I dwell now by providence in the Province of _Mary-Land_, (under the quiet Government of the Lord _Baltemore_) which Country a bounds in a most glorious prosperity and plenty of all things. And though the Infancy of her situation might plead an excuse to those several imperfections, (if she were guilty of any of them) which by {91} scandalous and imaginary conjectures are falsly laid to her charge, and which she values with so little notice or perceivance of discontent, that she hardly alters her visage with a frown, to let them know she is angry with such a Rascality of people, that loves nothing better then their own sottish and abusive acclamations of baseness: To be short, the Country (so far forth as I have seen into it) is incomparable.
Here is a sort of naked Inhabitants, or wilde people, that have for many ages I believe lived here in the Woods of _Mary-Land_, as well as in other parts of the Continent, before e’er it was by the Christian Discoverers found out; being a people strange to behold, as well in their looks, which by confused paintings makes them seem dreadful, as in their sterne and heroick gate and deportments, the Men are mighty tall and big limbed, the Women not altogether so large; they are most of them very well featured, did not their wilde and ridiculous dresses alter their original excellencies: The men are great Warriours and Hunters, the Women ingenious and laborious Housewives.
As to matter of their Worship, they own no other Deity then the Devil, and him more out of a slavish fear, then any real devotion, or willing acknowledgement to his Hellish power. They live in little small Bark-Cottages, in the remote parts of the Woods, killing and slaying the several Animals that they meet withall to make provision of, dressing their {92} several Hydes and Skins to Trafique withall, when a conveniency of Trade presents. I would go on further, but like Doctor _Case_, when he had not a word more to speak for himself, _I am afraid my beloved I have kept you too long_. Now he that made you save you. _Amen._
_Yours to command_, G. A.
From _Mary-Land_, _Febr._ 6. _Anno_
And not to forget _Tom Forge_ I beseech you, tell him that my Love’s the same towards him still, and as firm as it was about the overgrown Tryal, when Judgements upon judgements, had not I stept in, would have pursued him untill the day of Judgement, _&c._
_To my Father at his House._
SIR,
After my Obedience (at so great and vast a distance) has humbly saluted you and my good Mother, with the cordialest of my prayers, wishes, and desires to wait upon you, with the very best of their effectual devotion, wishing from the very Center of my Soul your flourishing and well-being here upon Earth, and your glorious and everlasting happiness in the World to Come. {93}
These lines (my dear Parents) come from that Son which by an irregular Fate was removed from his Native home, and after a five months dangerous passage, was landed on the remote Continent of _America_, in the Province of _Mary-Land_, where now by providence I reside. To give you the particulars of the several accidents that happened in our voyage by Sea, it would swell a Journal of some sheets, and therefore too large and tedious for a Letter: I think it therefore necessary to bind up the relation in Octavo, and give it you in short.
We had a blowing and dangerous passage of it, and for some dayes after I arrived, I was an absolute _Copernicus_, it being one main point of my moral Creed, to believe the World had a pair of long legs, and walked with the burthen of the Creation upon her back. For to tell you the very truth of it, for some dayes upon Land, after so long and tossing a passage, I was so giddy that I could hardly tread an even step; so that all things both above and below (that was in view) appeared to me like the _Kentish Britains_ to _William the Conqueror_, in a moving posture.
Those few number of weeks since my arrival, has given me but little experience to write any thing large of the Country; only thus much I can say, and that not from any imaginary conjectures, but from an occular observation, That this Country of _Mary-Land_ abounds in a flourishing variety of delightful Woods, {94} pleasant groves, lovely Springs, together with spacious Navigable Rivers and Creeks, it being a most helthful and pleasant situation, so far as my knowledge has yet had any view in it.
Herds of Deer are as numerous in this Province of _Mary-Land_, as Cuckolds can be in _London_, only their horns are not so well drest and tipt with silver as theirs are.
Here if the Devil had such a Vagary in his head as he had once among the _Gadareans_, he might drown a thousand head of Hogs and they’d ne’re be miss’d, for the very Woods of this Province swarms with them.
The Christian Inhabitant of this Province, as to the general, lives wonderful well and contented: The Government of this Province is by the loyalness of the people, and loving demeanor of the Proprietor and Governor of the same, kept in a continued peace and unity.
The Servant of this Province, which are stigmatiz’d for Slaves by the clappermouth jaws of the vulgar in _England_, live more like Freemen then the most Mechanick Apprentices in _London_, wanting for nothing that is convenient and necessary, and according to their several capacities, are extraordinary well used and respected. So leaving things here as I found them, and lest I should commit Sacriledge upon your more serious meditations, with the Tautologies of a long-winded Letter, I’le subscribe with a {95} heavenly Ejaculation to the God of Mercy to preserve you now and for evermore, _Amen_.
_Your Obedient Son_, G. A.
From _Mary-Land_, _Jan._ 17. _Anno_
_To my much Honored Friend_ Mr. M. F.
SIR,
You writ to me when I was at _Gravesend_, (but I had no conveniency to send you an answer till now) enjoyning me, if possible, to give you a just Information by my diligent observance, what thing were best and most profitable to send into this Country for a commodious Trafique.
_Sir_, The enclosed will demonstrate unto you both particularly and at large, to the full satisfaction of your desire, it being an Invoyce drawn as exact to the business you imployed me upon, as my weak capacity could extend to.
_Sir_, If you send any Adventure to this Province, let me beg to give you this advice in it; That the Factor whom you imploy be a man of a Brain, otherwise the Planter will go near to make a Skimming-dish of his Skull: I know your Genius can interpret my meaning. The people of this place (whether the saltness of the Ocean gave them any alteration when they went over first, or their continual dwelling under {96} the remote Clyme where they now inhabit, I know not) are a more acute people in general, in matters of Trade and Commerce, then in any other place of the World (see note No. 60), and by their crafty and sure bargaining, do often over-reach the raw and unexperienced Merchant. To be short, he that undertakes Merchants imployment for _Mary-Land_, must have more of Knave in him then Fool; he must not be a windling piece of Formality, that will lose his Imployers Goods for Conscience sake; nor a flashy piece of Prodigality, that will give his Merchants fine Hollands, Laces, and Silks, to purchase the benevolence of a Female: But he must be a man of solid confidence, carrying alwayes in his looks the Effigies of an Execution upon Command, if he supposes a baffle or denyal of payment, where a debt for his Imployer is legally due. (See note No. 61).
_Sir_, I had like almost to forgot to tell you in what part of the World I am: I dwell by providence Servant to Mr. _Thomas Stocket_ (see note No. 62), in the County of _Baltemore_, within the Province of _Mary-Land_, under the Government of the Lord _Baltemore_, being a Country abounding with the variety and diversity of all that is or may be rare. But lest I should Tantalize you with a relation of that which is very unlikely of your enjoying, by reason of that strong Antipathy you have ever had ’gainst Travel, as to your own particular: I’le only tell you, that _Mary-Land_ is seated within the large extending armes {97} of _America_, between the Degrees of 36 and 38, being in Longitude from _England_ eleven hundred and odd Leagues.
Vale.
G. A.
From _Mary-Land_, _Jan._ 17. _Anno_
_To my Honored Friend_ Mr. T. B. _at his House_.
SIR,
Yours I received, wherein I find my self much obliged to you for your good opinion of me, I return you millions of thanks.
_Sir_, you wish me well, and I pray God as well that those wishes may light upon me, and then I question not but all will do well. Those Pictures you sent sewed up in a Pastboard, with a Letter tacked on the outside, you make no mention at all what should be done with them: If they are Saints, unless I knew their names, I could make no use of them. Pray in your next let me know what they are, for my fingers itch to be doing with them one way or another. Our Government here hath had a small fit of a Rebellious Quotidian, (see note No. 63), but five Grains of the powder of Subvertment has qualified it. Pray be larger in your next how things stand in _England_: I understand His Majesty is return’d with Honour, and seated in the hereditary Throne of his Father; God {98} bless him from Traytors, and the Church from Sacrilegious Schisms, and you as a loyal Subject to the one, and a true Member to the other; while you so continue, the God of order, peace and tranquility, bless and preserve you, _Amen_.
_Vale._
_Your real Friend_, G. A.
From _Mary-Land_, Febr. 20. _Anno_
_To my Honored Father at his House._
SIR,
VVith a twofold unmeasurable joy I received your Letter: First, in the consideration of Gods great Mercy to you in particular, (though weak and aged) yet to give you dayes among the living. Next, that his now most Excellent Majesty _Charles_ the Second, is by the omnipotent Providence of God, seated in the Throne of his Father. I hope that God has placed him there, will give him a heart to praise and magnifie his name for ever, and a hand of just Revenge, to punish the murthering and rebellious Outrages of those Sons of shame and Apostacy, that Usurped the Throne of his Sacred Honour. Near about the time I received your Letter, (or a little before) here sprang up in this Province of _Mary-Land_ a kind of pigmie Rebellion: A company of {99} weak-witted men, which thought to have traced the steps of _Oliver_ in Rebellion (see note No. 63). They began to be mighty stiff and hidebound in their proceedings, clothing themselves with the flashy pretences of future and imaginary honour, and (had they not been suddenly quell’d) they might have done so much mischief (for aught I know) that nothing but utter ruine could have ransomed their headlong follies.
His Majesty appearing in _England_, he quickly (by the splendor of his Rayes) thawed the stiffness of their frozen and slippery intentions. All things (blessed be God for it) are at peace and unity here now: And as _Luther_ being asked once, What he thought of some small Opinions that started up in his time? answered, _That he thought them to be good honest people, exempting their error_: So I judge of these men, That their thoughts were not so bad at first, as their actions would have led them into in process of time.
I have here enclosed sent you something written in haste upon the Kings coming to the enjoyment of his Throne, with a reflection upon the former sad and bad times; I have done them as well as I could, considering all things: If they are not so well as they should be, all I can do is to wish them better for your sakes. My Obedience to you and my Mother alwayes devoted.
_Your Son_ G. A.
From _Mary-Land_, Febr. 9. _Anno_
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_To my Cosen_ Mris. Ellinor Evins.
E’ _re I forget the Zenith of your Love,_ L _et me be banisht from the Thrones above;_ L _ight let me never see, when I grow rude,_ I _ntomb your Love in base Ingratitude:_ N _or may I prosper, but the state_ O _f gaping_ Tantalus _be my fate;_ R _ather then I should thus preposterous grow,_ E _arth would condemn me to her vaults below._ V _ertuous and Noble, could my Genius raise_ I _mmortal Anthems to your Vestal praise,_ N _one should be more laborious than I,_ S _aint-like to Canonize you to the Sky._
The Antimonial Cup (dear Cosen) you sent me, I had; and as soon as I received it, I went to work with the Infirmities and Diseases of my body. At the first draught, it made such havock among the several humors that had stolen into my body, that like a Conjurer in a room among a company of little Devils, they no sooner hear him begin to speak high words, but away they pack, and happy is he that can get out first, some up the Chimney, and the rest down stairs, till they are all disperst. So those malignant humors of my body, feeling the operative power, and medicinal virtue of this Cup, were so amazed at their sudden surprizal, (being alwayes before battered only by the weak assaults of some few Empyricks) they stood not long to dispute, but with joynt consent {101} made their retreat, some running through the sink of the Skullery, the rest climbing up my ribs, took my mouth for a Garret-window, and so leapt out.
_Cosen_, For this great kindness of yours, in sending me this medicinal vertue, I return you my thanks: It came in a very good time, when I was dangerously sick, and by the assistance of God it hath perfectly recovered me.
I have sent you here a few Furrs, they were all I could get at present, I humbly beg your acceptance of them, as a pledge of my love and thankfulness unto you; I subscribe,
_Your loving Cosen_, G. A.
From _Mary Land_, _Dec._ 9. _Anno_
_To My Brother_ P. A.
BROTHER,
I have made a shift to unloose my self from my Collar now as well as you, but I see at present either small pleasure or profit in it: What the futurality of my dayes will bring forth, I know not; For while I was linckt with the Chain of a restraining Servitude, I had all things cared for, and now I have all things to care for my self, which makes me almost to wish my self in for the other four years.