Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A24051
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An Abstract or abbreviation of some few of the many (later and former) testimonys from the inhabitants of New-Jersey and other eminent persons who have wrote particularly concerning that place
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1681
(1681)
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Wing A147; ESTC R6922
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21,948
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34
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their whole families hither again which methinks should take many of these Scruples out of the way if nothing else were said or done in praise of this Country But I suppose there are many in England that desire to hear ill of this Place because they would keep their Friends there with them and they think we never write enough of the bad Properties of the Country and Vermin in it Now this I may say in short That here are Bears Wolves Foxes Rattle-snakes and several other Creatures I do believe because I see the Indians have such Skins to sell But I have Travelled several hundreds of Miles to and fro and I never to my knowledge saw one of those Creatures except two Rattle-snakes and I kill'd them both I suppose the Fear of those Creatures in England is far worse to some there than the Hurt of them is here And as for the Musketto-Fly we are not troubled with them in this Place our Land for the most part Lying high and healthy and they for the most part are in Law Boggy ground Thomas Budd and his Family are arrived the ship Lieth before this Town that brought them I wish you have not cause to repent that you came not along with them They had a very good Passage and so had the London Ship they are both in the River at this time I understand by Thomas Budd that he did satisfie you as near as he could of the Truth of things here and you had as much reason to believe him as that other person and more too for Thomas had far more Experience of this Place than he I say could have in the short time he was among us So of these things I shall forbear to write any farther at present and with my true love to you all my Friends with my hearts Desire for your Wellfare every way c. I rest Your True Loving Brother Iohn Crips To the Truth of the Contents of these Things we subscribe our Names Daniel Wills Thomas Olive Thomas Harding Thomas Budd William Peachey An Abstract of a Letter from Daniel Wills to William Biddle Then Living in Bishops-gate-Street in London who with his Wife and Family is this present 5th Moneth 1681. with several Servants gone for New-Jersey Dear Friend I Received thine by Henry Salter but it came too late to my hand so that I could not write any thing in answer untill this time I understand thou would'st know something from me concerning New-Jersey which indeed I had given thee a large account of without thy desiring only Joseph Hempsley satisfied me that he had done it Let every Man write according to his Judgment and this is Mine concerning this Country I do really believe it to be as good a Country as any Man need to dwell in and it is much better than I expected every way For Land I will assure thee here is as good by the Judgment of Men as any is in England And for my part I like the Country so well and it is so Pleasant to me that if I had a good Estate in Land in England I should not come to live upon it For through Industry here will be all Things produced that are necessary for a Family as is in England and far more easier I am satisfyed When I am walking alone and the Lord is with me and the Sense of His good Dealings is brought before me I cannot but admire Him for His Mercies and often in secret bless His Name that ever He turn'd my Face hitherward and gave me Confidence in Himself and Boldness by Faith to oppose all Gain-sayers though never â—o strong Alâ—hough then I could not say I had a Call or Command to leave the Land of my Nativity Yet now of a Truth I can say the Lord removed me there-from and in what I did I had Peace in Him And in all my Exercises by Sea and Land I never felt the least Matter in me as to desire I had not come forward but rather rejoyced in the Lord in the midst of all Though my Removal was not ordinary because of the Largeness of my Family yet blessed be the Name of the Lord all is well to our Content So if thou heedest every ones Sayings thou wilt have work enough I heeded none but the Lord. My Resolution was and my Sayings to several Oâ—posers That I would come if God hindered me not no Man should I have writ about the 26 th of the 9 th Month to John Mulliner and Edward Cooper largely concerning the Country thou maist write to them to have a Copy of it if it comes to hand before This which I something question And now my Dear Friends and Antient Acquaintance William and Sarah Biddle My Love you may feel beyond Expression And if you have Clearness to come to New-Jersey let nothing hinder but if you have a Stop upon your Spirits let not any thing farther you until the Lord clears your Way In this my Writing I do assure you I deny my self for if I might I should write to forward you but I dare not Though you may understand by my Letters how it is with Me and Mine and many Others I know if a Man cannot Live here I do believe he can hardly live in any Place in the World This being the Place set before Me of the Lord and if He gives Length of Dayes I will see what He will afford me in it The last Ship that came to New-York brought several Passengers some of which came to see this Country and liked it well So Dear Friends you may stand against all Opposers concerning the Land for it is Good Subscribed Daniel Wills Burlington the 16 th of the 11 th Moneth 1679. An Extract of a Letter written by William and Ruth Embly to Samuel Racles of Nottingham from Burlington in New-Jersey Loving Friend AFter dear Love to thy Self and Wife and rest of Friends This may acquaint you we all crossed the Seas very shortly and pleasantly My Wife was pretty well Aboard in respect of her Condition and was Delivered of a Girl in Delaware-River did very well and is very well content and satisfyed with the Country c. We are now going to settle a Town at the Falls a Place reported and credited to be without Compare to any other yet known None equal for pleasant Healthful Air Lovely Scituation second to none for Fertility The Next I hope shall inform you more Our Love to Friends c. Subscribed William Ruth Embly From the Falls of Delaware in New-Jersey the 12th of the 6th Month 1680. Mahlon Stacy's Letter to George Hutcheson Dearly Beloved Friend Brother IN the Blessed Truth of Jesus do I dearly Salute Thee thy dear Wife and all tender Friends with whom I have been Conversant and amongst whom my Spirit hath been Refreshed my dear Love in the Lord salutes them all desiring as one travelling for the Good and Prosperity of all that love the Lord Jesus that
Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ may be multiplyed amongst them abundantly that they all may be compleatly furnished wanting nothing being made able to stand in the Stormy Day which is hasting on to try the Foundation of all Professions In which it shall be said Woe to the Wicked for it shall go all with them in that Day when they shall come to receive the Reward of their Doings But to the Righteous it may be well said It shall go well with you even all of you that have born the Name of Jesus for the Reward of my Love is given you saith the Lord and great shall be your Peace and Portion for ever Amen Dear Friend Thine of the 23 d. 11 th Moneth 1679. I hâ—ve Received with great Gladness and Acceptation as a Token of thy endeared Love and Care with thy tender Desires for us and grave Counsel to us all which I dearly accept of knowing it was the Flowings-forth of a Soul fiâ—l'd with Love to the Heritage of God in these Parts For the watering of whom God has filâ—'d the Hearts of His Servants with His pure Love precious Life and Streams of Living Refreshment for the Comforting of Jacob in his Travels and Tryals and for the gladding of Israel in the Day of Exercise So although we are separated as to the Outward a little Scattering as I may say yet the God of Life abounds in His Love to His little Flock dayly extending His Peace as a River to His Remnant And is determined of a small Number to make a Great and Strong Nation And this I plainly saw before I left my Native Country and the Lord is mightily bringing it to pass in His Removing the Heathen that know Him not and making Room for a better People that fears His Name 'T is hardly credible to believe how the Indians are wasted in Two Years Time and especiall the last Summer and how the English are increased both in Cattle and Corn in a little time Things go exceeding well with Friends since they were settled and our Meetings are duely Kept The Lord our God is with us and the Shout of a King is amongst us Glory Glory to the Lord our God for ever I perceive you have strange Reports concerning Us and our Country yet our Condition is far otherwise than is represented unto you for our Land yields its Strength to us in a plentiful manner and we enjoy Fulness of Good Things The greatest Want is that of our Friends yet the Lord is adding to our Number greatly and in a short Time this Place will be Populated Friends are generally Healthful and Well Mine and my Wifes dear and tender Love salutes Thee and Thine with all the Faithful in the Lord and that the Fountain of the Love of God may be your dayly Refreshment and Consolation prayeth Thy Endeared Loving assured Friend Mahlon Stacy An Abstract of a Letter from Thomas Harrison to his Brother wherein he writes of many Private Things But of the Country in short thus Dear Brother THis is a Pleasant Country the Woods are like a Garden for all sorts of Flowers and Herbs grow in them and Strawberries and other Fruits in abundance and our Land far exceeds England for one Thing For Three Pecks of Wheat will sow an Acre of this Land which in England Two Bushels will hardly do it I cannot express all Things that we have in this Country Dear Brother Pray send me a Brass-Compass with a Dyal for this Latitude whereby the more easie to find the marked Trees of my own Land from other Men's Few in this Country have done more than I have I shall have senc'd and clear'd a Quarter of a Mile this Summer I have set Four Acres of Indian-Corn and in the Fall I shall Plow Twelve Acres of Wheat and Six of Pease I and my Family are very well and for my own part never better in all my Life for I never Coughed since I came into this Country Subscribed Thomas Harrison Burlington 27 th of March 1681. Who has not been There above a Year and an half being a poor Man had not any Servants An Abstract of Mahlon Stacy's Letter to his Brother Revill and some Others Dated the 26th of the 4th Moneth 1680. BUt now a word or two of those strange Reports you have of Us and our Country I affirm they are Lyes in the very Ground of them and spoken from a Spirit of Envy It is a Country that produceth all things for the Support and Sustenance of Man in a plentiful manner If it were not so I should be ashamed of what I have before written But I can stand having Truth on my Side against and before the Face of all Gain-sayers and evil Spies I have Travelled through most of the Places that are settled and some that are not and in every Place I find the Country very apt to answer the Expectation of the Diligent I have seen Orchards so loaden with Fruit I have wondered to see it their very Limbs torn in pieces with the weight of their Fruit and most Delicious to the Taste and Lovely to behold I have seen an Apple-Tree from a Pippin-Kernel yield a Barrel of curious Syder and Peaches in such plenty that some People took their Carts a Peach-gathering I could not but smile at the Conceit of it They are a very delicate Fruit and hang almost like our Onions that are tyed on Ropes I have seen and known this Summer Forty Bushels of good Bold-Wheat of One Bushel sown And many more such Instances I could bring which would be too tedious here to mention We have from the Times call'd May until Michaelmals great store of very good Wild-Fruit as Strawberries Cramberries Huckle-berries which are like our Bilberries in England but far sweeter They are very wholsome Fruits the Cramberries much like Cherries for Colour and Bigness which may be kept till Fruit come in again an Excellent Sauce is made of them for Venison Turkies and other great Fowles and they are better to make Tarts than either Gooseberries or Cherries We have them brought to our Houses by the Indians in great plenty My Brother Robert had as many Cherries this Year as would have loaded several Carts It is my Judgment by what I have observed That Fruit-Trees in this Country destroy themselves by the very Weight of their Fruit. As for Venison and Fowles here are great plenty We have brought Home to our Houses by the Indians Seven or Eight Fat Bucks of a day and sometimes put by as many having no Occasion for them And Fish in their Season very plenteous My Cousin Revill and I with some of my Men went last Third Moneth called May into the River to catch Herrings for at that time they come in great Shoals into the Shallow's we had neither Rod nor Net but after the Indian Fashion made a round Pinfold about Two Yards over and a