Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-08-29

was so wilty-meaning thereby Of such
disposition to roll in rough water-that he
! feared she would prove the grave of all who
sailed in her. However, he breathed his
suspicious to no one else. The ship was
laden and ready for departure early in jan
| uary 1917.
1.-THE cold that prevailed for five DAYS
and nights before the time fixed for clear
ing for London was such as the people had
never before known. 1t must have re-
manned many degrees below zero, for the
salt water was frozen far down the harbor,
and the ship was riveted by the ice as firm
~ as though by many anchors. There
were no lazy-boneS among the people. and
with prodigious industry the men cut
canal through the ice forty feet wide and
five miles long to the neyer-freezing waters
of the Sound. The vessel was frozen in
with her bow pointing toward the shore.
and it was necessary TO propel her to clear
water stern foremost.
This was all unlucky omen Captain
Lamberton avowed that the sea and the
conflicting powers that struggled for its
mastery were controlled by whims and
freaks, which would be sure to be excited
by such an insult as that of a ship enter
ing the water stern first. An old sailor,
| too, informed them that a snip that sailed
stern first always returned stern first,
meaning by that that she never came back
to the harbor from which she had thus de-
parted.
You will observe" said the Professor.
putting down the manuscript for o mo-
ment, that in these gloomy forbodings are
10 be detected traces of the NEUROLOGICAL
| conception of the mystery of the sea- with
which all sailors, even 10 the present time.
are more or less tinctured. ! am especially
imp essed with the manner in which these
colonis's acted. Believing in predestina-
ton in spiritual matters, their lives III
| worldly affairs conformed more or less
thereto. So, III spite of these omens. there
was no thought of delay. They had fixed
the time for sailing and they meant 20 sail.
SO godly man as Rev. Davenport ex-
pressed his feeling in his prayer, as re-
ported by this writer. Mr.. Davenport, as
the ship began slowly to move used these
words: Lord, if it be Thy pleasure to
bury these our friends in the bottom of the
sea, they are Thine Save themn
Men less completely under the domi-
nation of their religious belief would never
have gone TO sea without exercising in
some way the evil influences which these
omens seemed to indicate would prevail.
There had gathered on the ice all the peo-
pie of the colony except the sick and
feeble-perhaps 500 or LOCO souls. On the
departing vessel were some of their friends
and kin. The farewells were said with the
expression neither of grief nor of Joy. Re
straint, the subiugation, even the quench-
ing of all emotions, was the rule of life
with these people, and | gather from one
or TWO expressions i'll this account that
never was there more formal, less demon
strative leave-taking. When the vessel
reached deep water, and just as one of the
great sails was beginning to belly with the
wind, the people with one accord fell on
their knees on the ice and prayed. The
ship was five miles away. The air
was clarified by the cold, and the yes
sci could be distinctly seen, and as
the people prayed with open eyes
that were fixed upon the distant and
receding ship, she suddenly disappeared,
vanished as quickly as though her bottom
had fallen out and she had sunk on the in
slant. Yes, says this writer, more sud
denly, for whereas at one moment the eyes
of all of us were fixed upon her, at the
next, as IN the wink of the eye, she was
not. We rose, gazed fxedly into the
vacant space where we last saw heI and
then with wonder turned to each other
Yet in another moment she was disclosed
to us as she was before, and we watched
her until she. disappeared behind the neck
of land that bounds the harbor to the east.
So we dispersed, wondering at this strange
NlOSG iuStullllR WIS IluuCQ
to us. Some there were who were con-
WINGED that it betokened that even as she
| had disappeared only to be seen again, so
we should again behold her after her yoy-
age. But there were many who were i'm
pressed that, though we should again see
her, the sight would be but partial one.
With reverent submission to the will of
God, the people repaired to their homes
Sou see, said the Professor, again put
ting down the manuscript, in all this that
inexplicable commingling of hope and IA
| talism, which was, l imagine, one of the
inevitable conditions of mind of this aus
tere and intensely religious people. The
mere facts of thesudden disappearance and
| renewed sight of the ship may perhaps be
explained by natural and simple causes,
but not so the phenomena afterward de-
| scribed.
g In the natural order of events the colo
| nists would have had some tidings of their
ship after three months had passed. None
| came, however. Ships that sailed from
| England in March, April, May and even
June, brought no word of her arrival
Their suspense could be relieved only in
one way. l should have asserted, even had
| no evidence of it, that the colonists sought
| the relief they always thought they found
| in prayer. ] should also have unhesitating-
| ly said that they did not, in their PRAYERS
ask that the inevitable be averted, but SIM
| ply prayed that they might be prepared to
receive with submission whatever was
in store for them to know. | should have
been justified in so asserting, as | find by
| reference to their manuscript. The ac-
count has There the Professor again
read from the manuscript" The failure
to learn what was the fate of their ship did
put the godly people in much prayer, both
| public and private, and they prayed that
the Lord would, if it was His pleasure, let
them hear what he had done with their
dear friends, and prepare them for suit
able submission to His holy will
In all the accounts that we have of
prayer" said the Professor, II know of
nothing equal to that. 1t contains volumes
of history. With that simple text the
ethnologist and historian might construct
the history of people. Observe the hu-
man nature of it, that is, the intolerable
burden of suspense, and see the religious
faith oft, both of submission and the trust
that the prayer would be answered
These people seem to have rested with
the conviction that this remarkable suppl
cation would be effective. Dr. Prentice
continues his narrative, after quoting the
prayer with an account of what happened,
as though it were the expected answer.
He writes, toe, with the vividness and accu-
racy of detail to be expected of an eye
witness, an inherent proof of the truth of
his narration. l infer that within day or
| two after the prayer the manifestation was
received. There arose a great thunder
] storm from the northwest such a tempest
of fury as sometimes follows elemental
! disturbances from that quarter. 1t seems
to have been accepted as the presage of the
manifestation that followed. After it passed
away it left the atmosphere unusually clear,
but it affected the people with a solemn
spirit An hour before sunset the reward
of their faith came. Far off, where the
shores of Long Island are just dimly visi-
made haste to tell all the colonists. They
gathered on the shore and saw vessel,
| full rugged every sail pulled out by the
wind, and the hull listed to one side by
reason of the strain upon the masts and
| tho ar,nod ,rritb inl, tho hrnnrn onrr;1,I