And for what concerns the fighting of the Fleet of Spain, whereof your said Letter makes mention, we judge it of great consequence and much for the service of the Commonwealth that this Fleet were fought; as well in order to the executing your former Instructions, as for the preservation of our ships and interest in the West Indies: and our meaning was, by our former Order, and still is, That the Fleet which shall come for the guarding of the Plate Fleet, as we conceive this doth, should be attempted. But in respect we have not certain knowledge of the strength of the Spanish Fleet, nor of the condition of your Fleet, which may alter every day,—we think it reasonable, at this distance, not to oblige you by any positive order to engage; but must, as we do hereby, leave it to you, who are upon the place, and know the state of things, to handle the rein as you shall find your opportunity and the ability of the Fleet to be :—as we also do for your coming home, either for want of provisions or in respect of the season of the year, at such time as you shall judge it to be for the safety of the Fleet. And we trust the Lord will guide and be with you in the management of this thing. Your very loving friend, OLIVER P. 'P.S.' In case your return should be so soon as that you should not make use of the Provisions now sent you, or but little thereof, we desire you to cause them to be preserved; they may be applied to ǝther uses.* SIRS, LETTER CXL. To the Commissioners of Maryland.' Whitehall, 26th September, 1655. It seems to us by yours of the 29th of June, and by the relation we received by Colonel Bennet, that some mistake or scruple hath arisen concerning the sense of our Letters of the 12th of January last,—as if, by our Letters, we had intimated that we would have a stop put to the proceedings of those Commissioners who were authorized to settle the Civil Government of Maryland. Which was not at all intended by us; nor so much as proposed to us by those who made addresses to us to *Thurloe, i., 724,-in cypher; and seemingly of Thurloe's composition obtain our said Letter: but our intention (as our said Letter doth plainly import) was only, To prevent and forbid any force or violence to be offered by either of the Plantations of Virginia or Maryland, from one to the other, upon the differences concerning their bounds; the said differences being then under the consideration of Ourself and Council here. Which, for your more full satisfaction, we have thought fit to signify to you; and rest, Your loving friend, "OLIVER P.** A very obscure American Transaction;-sufficiently lucid for our Cisatlantic purposes; nay shedding a kind of light or twi light into extensive dim regions of Oblivion on the other side of the Ocean. Bancroft, and the other American authorities, who have or have not noticed this Letter, will with great copiousness explain the business to the curious. The Major-Generals are now all on foot, openly since the mid. dle of August last;† and an Official Declaration published on the subject. Ten military Major-Generals, Ten or finally Twelve, with militia-forces, horse and foot, at their back; coercing Roy. alist Revolt, and other Anarchy; 'decimating' it, that is, levying Ten per cent. upon the Income of it; summoning it, cross-questioning it,-peremptorily signifying to it that it will not be allowed here, that it had better cease in this Country. They have to deal with Quakers also, with Anabaptists, Scandalous Ministers, and other forms of Anarchy. The powers of these men are great: much need that they be just men and wise, men fearing God and hating covetousness;-all turns on that! They will be supportable, nay welcome and beneficial, if so. Insupportable enough, if not so :—as indeed what official person, or man under any form, except the form of a slave well-collared and driven by whips, is or ought to be supportable if not so?' We subjoin a * Thurloe, iv., 55. + Order-Book of the Council of State; cited in Godwin (iv., 228). list of their names, as historically worthy, known or unknown to the reader, here.* out. Soon after this Letter, in the month of October, 1655,' there was seen a strange sight at Bristol in the West. A Procession of Eight Persons; one, a man on horseback, riding single; the others, men and women, partly riding double, partly on foot, in the muddiest highway, in the wettest weather; singing, all but the single-rider, at whose bridle splash and walk two women: "Hosannah! Holy, holy! Lord God of Sabaoth!" and other things, ' in a buzzing tone,' which the impartial hearer could not make The single-rider is a raw-boned male figure, with lank hair reaching below his cheeks;' hat drawn close over his brows; nose rising slightly in the middle;' of abstruse 'down look,' and large dangerous jaws strictly closed: he sings not; sits there covered, and is sung to by the others bare. Amid pouring deluges, and mud knee-deep: so that the rain ran in at their necks, and they vented it at their hose and breeches :' a spectacle to the West of England and Posterity! Singing as above; answering no question except in song. From Bedminster to Ratcliff Gate, along the streets, to the High Cross of Bristol: at the High Cross they are laid hold of by the Authorities ;-turn * General Desborow has the Counties: Gloucester, Wilts, Dorset, Somer set, Devon, Cornwall. Colonel Kelsey: Kent and Surrey. Colonel Goffe: Sussex, Hants, Berks. Colonel Barkstead (Governor of the Tower): Middlesex and Westmin ster. Lord-Deputy Fleetwood (who never returns to Ireland): Oxford, Bucks, Herts; Cambridge, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk,-for these four last he can appoint a substitute (Colonel Haynes). General Whalley: Lincoln, Notts, Derby, Warwick, Leicester. General (Sea-General) Dawkins: Monmouth and South Wales. The Lord Lambert: York, Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland, North umberland,―can appoin: substitutes (Colonel Robert Lilburn, Colo nel Charles Howard). out to be James Nayler and Company. James Nayler, 'from Andersloe' or Ardsley 'in Yorkshire,' heretofore a Trooper under Lambert; now a Quaker and something more. Infatuated Nayler and Company; given up to Enthusiasm,—to Animal-Magnetism, to Chaos and Bedlam in some shape or other! Who will need to be coerced by the Major-Generals, I think;-to be forwarded to London, and there sifted and cross-questioned.* Is not the Spiritualism of England developing itself in strange forms? The Hydra, royalist and sansculottic, has many heads. George Fox, some time before this, had made his way to the Protector himself; to represent to him the undeserved sufferings of Friends,—and what a faithful people they were, though sansculottic, or wearing suits sometimes merely of perennial leather. George's huge Journal, to our regret, has no dates; but his Interview with the Protector, once in these late months, is authentic, still visible to the mind. George, being seized in Leicestershire, 'carried up to the Mews,' and otherwise tribulated by subaltern authorities, contrived to make the Protector hear some direct voice of him, appoint some hour to see him. 'It was on a morning' George went; was admitted to the Protector's bedchamber, where one Harvey, who had been a little among Friends,' but had not proved entirely obedient, was dressing him. "Peace be in this House!" George Fox was moved to say.' Peace, O George. I exhorted him,' writes George, to keep in the Fear of God, whereby he might receive wisdom from God,' which would be a useful guidance for any Sovereign Person. In fact, I had much discourse' with him; explaining what I and Friends had been led to think concerning Christ and His Apostles' of old time, and His Priests and Ministers of new; concerning Life and concerning Death;-concerning this unfathomable Universe in general, and the Light in it that is from Above, and the Darkness in it that is from Below: to all which the Protector 'carried himself with much moderation.' Yes, George; this Protector has a sympathy with the Perennial; and feels it across the Temporary: no hulls, leathern or other, can entirely hide it from the sense of him. As I spake, he several times said, * Examination of them (in Harleian Miscellaný, vi., 424–39). "That is very good," and, "That is true."'-Other persons coming in, persons of quality so called, I drew back; lingered; and then was for retiring: 'he caught me by the hand,' and with moist-beaming eyes, said "Come again to my house! If thou and I were but an hour of the day together, we should be nearer one to the other. I wish no more harm to thee than I do to my own soul."'—"Hearken to God's voice!" said George in conclusion: "Whosoever hearkens to it, his heart is not hardened;" his heart remains true, open to the Wisdoms, to the Noblenesses ; with him it shall be well!-Captain Drury' wished me to stay among the Lifeguard gentlemen, and dine with them; but I declined, not being free hereto.* * Fox's Journal (Leeds, 1836), i., 265. |