from the journal of Rev. John Wesley-description of typical shipboard conditions of immigrants--- "Monday 26--we enjoyed the calm. I can conceive no difference, comparable to that between a smooth and a rough sea, except that which is between a mind calmed by the love of God, and one torn up by the storms of earthly passions. "Thursday 29-- About seven in the evening , we fell in with the skirts of a hurricane. The rain as well as the wind was extremely violent. The sky was so dark in a moment that the sailors could not so much as see the ropes, or set about furling the sails. The ship must in all probability, have overset, had not the wind fell as suddenly as it rose. Toward the end of it, we had that appearance on each of the masts, which (it is thought) the ancients called Castor and Pollux. It was a small ball of white fire like a star. The mariners say it appears either in a storm (and then commonly upon the deck), or just at the end of it, and then it is usually on the masts or sails. "Friday 30-- We had another storm, which did us no other harm than splitting the foresail. Our bed being wet, I laid me down on the floor, and slept sound till morning. And I believe I shall not find it needful to go to bed (as it is called) any more. "Sunday, February 1--We spoke with a ship of Carolina; and Wednesday 4, came within the sounding. About noon the trees were visible from the masts, and in the afternoon from the main deck. in the evening lesson were these words; "A great door, and effectual, is opened." O let no one shut it! "The Palatine immigration of 1710 did not escape all these perils(**previously described). The younger Weiser(**Conrad Weiser) estimates the mortality on the voyage and immediately after as seventeen hundred, and his father and Scheff, in their petitions to the Board of Trade, August 2, 1720, give the same figure as that of those who 'died on board,or at their landing by unavoidable sickness.'(**among them were an ancestor and some of the children of my Batdorf cousins and myself) But as they fix the number of immigrants as four thousand, the discrepancy in the records of mortality is based upon the discrepancy in the records of the mortality is based upon the discrepancy in the record of the entire company. Governor Hunter reported immediately after his arrival:"The poor people have been mighty sickly, but recover apace. We have lost about four hundred and seventy of our number." One vessel was yet to be heard from. Two hundred and fifty are reported as having died of ship fever shortly after landing. The official report made by Mr. Du Pre to the Board of Trade, January 6, 1711, gives the number of survivors, when he left New York, probably in October, as 2,227. As Boehme's figures of 3,086, as the number of those who embarked, seem to be accurate, the entire loss was 859, of whom 609, or twenty per cent of the company died on the voyage. In his petiton of 1720, Scheff declares that the Palatines 'lost most of their young children at their going from home to America.' Boehme states that those packed in the lowest parts of the vessels were without fresh air and sunlight, and, under these circumstances, the small and tender children among them generally died. 'Of some families, neither parents nor children survive." "In one ship eighty died, and one hundred more were lying sick at one time. The causes assigned are two:first, the crowded condition of the vessels, and, secondly, the merciless treatment of the captains, who did not provide wholesome food. They landed acrushed, sick and dispirited band of exiles, after a voyage of about six months, as the vessels came in irregularly and differed in the exact time of passage. One of them, 'The Herbert' was grounded on the coast of Long Island, July 7th, twenty-one days after the first came to shore."The men are safe," writes Hunter, 'but the goods are much damaged.' Ther tenth vessel, 'The Berkley Castle', on July 24th, was six weeks overdue; although its later start from Plymouth must be taken into account. The grounding of 'The Herbert' has been made the basis for a romantic story and a beautiful poem by Whittier. Local tradition had told of a vessel called 'The Palatine', that was lured by false lights upon the rocks and then robbed and its passengers murdered. Certain graves, said to be those of Palatines, traceable in the vicinity, are referred to as evidences of the truth of the story. Governor Hunter's statement that the men were safe is interpreted as referring only to the English on board. But, as 'The Herbert' according to Hunter carried all the arms and tents of the expedition, and the goods on board were reported only as much damaged, any attack upon them or any acts of piracy would have been related. Nor would he have been so indifferent to the murder of some of the Palatines, when in his dispatch he speaks sympathizingly of their sickness at sea, and his mind was so intent upon plans in which he hoped to derive great gain from the industry of every colonist. they may have been wrecked by false lights; but if so the hopes of the wreckers were blasted by the force that they found they would encounter. The poet, however, has pictured the details of the plot to its consummation: Old wives spinning their webs of tow, Or rocking weirdly to and fro In and out of the peat's dull glow, And old men mending their nets of twine, Talk together of dream and sign, Talk of the lost ship 'Palatine'; The ship that a hundred years before, Freighted deep with its goodly store, In the gales of the Equinox went ashore. The eager islanders one by one, Counted the shots of her signal gun, And heard the crash when she drove right on! Into the teeth of death she sped: (May God forgive the hands that fed The false lights over the rocky Head). O Men and brothers! what sights were there! White upturned faces, hands stretched out in prayer! Where waves had pity, could ye not spare? Down swooped the wreckers, like birds of prey Tearing the heart of the ship away, And the dead had never a word to say. And then with Ghastly shimmer and shine Over the rocks and the seething brine, They burned the wreck of the 'Palatine'. The foundation of truth in the tradition may have been the wreck of a Palatine vessel at some later time, that in some way was diverted from its course to Pennsylvania. The prayers of the band whose history we have been recounting from such perils were heard. They had trials enough before as well as behind them to be spared such a calamity.