Jonathan Dickinson's Journal, or God's Protecting Providence. Being the Narrative of a Journey from Port Royal in Jamaica to Philadelphia between August 23, 1696 and April 1, 1697 (review)

38 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION Jonathan Dickinson's Journal, or God's Protecting Providence. Being the Narrative of a Journey from Port Royal in Jamaica to Philadelphia between August 23, 1696 and April 1, 1697. Edited by Evangeline Walker Andrews and Charles McLean Andrews. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1945. 252 pp. $3.00. TN AUGUST, 1696, Jonathan Dickinson, Quaker planter and merchant, left Port Royal, Jamaica, for Philadelphia, in the barkentine Reformation . He was accompanied by his wife and infant son, and the ship's company included Robert Barrow, a travelling minister of the indomitable type which was doing so much to lay firm the foundations of the Society of Friends. Encountering a severe storm, the Reformation, just a month after its departure, was wrecked on the Florida coast a few miles north of the modern Palm Beach, and the castaways found themselves at the mercy of the local Indians. Their captors accorded them such mingled demonstrations of cupidity, cruelty, and compassion that the mental distress occasioned by the uncertainty of their situation must have been as onerous as their physical suffering. They were stripped of all their possessions , and their lives were frequently threatened. None was killed however, although several died of privation on the terrible journey to the north which the Indians were finally induced to permit them to undertake . As they reached the area of Spanish occupation their lot greatly improved. They were treated with consideration by the governor and inhabitants of St. Augustine, and proceeded on to Charleston refreshed and re-equipped, though still having much to endure. The final passage to Philadelphia was made by sea, thus completing a journey of a little more than seven months. Robert Barrow survived his arrival by only a few days. Unlike some other historically significant travelogues which are now appearing in print for the first time, Jonathan Dickinson's Journal is the veteran of some sixteen printings in English, three in German and one in Dutch. It was issued primarily as a religious tract, though some editions appear to owe their existence solely to its qualities as a story of adventure. The present edition is the first to appear since 1868. It thus performs an eminently useful function in supplying the text of a classic long out of print. But it does vastly more than this. Its editors have combined mature and meticulous scholarship with high literary gifts and a broad and mellow understanding of the various historical problems suggested by the Journal. Not every work the introduction and appendices to which bulk twice as large as the original text could prudently be recommended to the general reader, but there need be no hesitancy here. Such varied matters as personalities, the countryside, and the rig of ships are all handled with the same sure touch, and the account of the evolution of Friends' headquarters and meetinghouses in London would alone be enough amply to justify the appearance of this volume. Vol. 35, Spring 1946 BOOK REVIEWS39 One's pleasure in reading it is tempered only by the realization that the fruitful collaboration which produced it has been terminated by the passing of Charles M. Andrews. Leónidas Dodson University of Pennsylvania Conrad Weiser, 1696-1760, Friend of Colonist and Mohaivk, by Paul A. W. Wallace. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1945. 648 pp. $5.00. ?G?? INDIANS called him Tarachiawagon—"ïLo\der of the Heavens"— highest name in the Iroquois pantheon. Colonial authorities looked to him as their chief ambassador to the Six Nations. Conrad Weiser was more than a mere interpreter; he was a statesman of wisdom and discretion, thoroughly conversant with the elaborate protocol of forest diplomacy, sympathetic with Indian psychology, yet loyal to the Proprietors and people of Pennsylvania. To his consummate skill in faceto -face dealing with the shrewd Iroquois chieftains was actually due a large measure of the success which William Penn's "peace policy" managed to achieve under the administration of the Founder's less capable and far-seeing sons. A pious Lutheran after a brief monastic interlude at Ephrata, Conrad Weiser remained, in spite of his important rôle in public affairs, one of the "plain people" of the...