Calvert of Maryland - James Otis |
It was but a few days after this that Captain Lowe told Governor Calvert that our store of food was running low, and asked permission to make port at the island of Barbadoes, where were settled Englishmen, whose governor, Master Harvey, was a brother to the governor of Virginia.
There, so Captain Lowe believed, we should be made welcome, and be able to buy of provisions as much as we might need, at fair prices.
Governor Calvert could do no less than give the master of the Ark permission to sail into this port, which it seemed was near at hand, and, therefore, the bow of the ship was turned in, that direction; but it puzzled me greatly to know how the captain, being upon the sea with no land in sight, could say where one island or another might be found.
However that might be, we sailed as true for Barbadoes as if the way had been marked out by sign-posts, and verily I was rejoiced at the prospect of being able to stretch my legs on land, thinking it would be possible for me to go ashore in the first boat which put out from the ship.
In this, however, I was mistaken, for none were allowed to land until after Captain Lowe had made certain there was nothing of danger to be met with, for in those strange countries an Englishman must needs keep his eyes open, else may he speedily come to grief.
It appeared that the island of Barbadoes was not as pleasant a haven of rest as might be found, for the governor had just discovered a plot among the slaves, which was that they rise against the white people, and seize the first vessel that came into port.
Because of this discovery, the Ark remained at anchor a considerable distance from the shore, and orders were given that no one venture on the island until it was known to a certainty that all danger had passed.
We also learned here that had we visited Bona Vista, as was the captain's first intention, we should have come full upon a Spanish fleet, and, because of the war between England and Spain, should have been made prisoners, afterward to be sold as slaves.
Father White insisted that in thus escaping, as if by accident, the Spanish, and in not having come to Barbadoes until the plot of the slaves had been discovered, was proof that God preserved us from those dangers to the end that we might make in the New World a province where His laws would be kept to the letter, as well as to the spirit.