About midnight
On the day of our embarkation at Leith , a fair wind took us onward at a blithe rate for some time ; but in the course of that night the bridle of the tempest was slackened , and the curb of the billows loosened , and the ship reeled to and fro like a drunken man , and no one could stand therein . My wife and daughter lay at the point of death ; Andrew Pringle , my son , also was prostrated with the grievous affliction ; and the very soul within me was as if it would have been cast out of the body . On the following day the storm abated , and the wind blew favourable ; but towards the heel of the evening it again came vehement , and there was no help unto our distress . About midnight , however , it pleased HIM , whose breath is the tempest , to be more sparing with the whip of His displeasure on our poor bark , as she hirpled on in her toilsome journey through the waters ; and I was enabled , through His strength , to lift my head from the pillow of sickness , and ascend the deck , where I thought of Noah looking out of the window in the ark , upon the face of the desolate flood , and of Peter walking on the sea ; and I said to myself , it matters not where we are , for we can be in no place where Jehovah is not there likewise , whether it be on the waves of the ocean , or the mountain tops , or in the valley and shadow of death . The third day the wind came contrary , and in the fourth , and the fifth , and the sixth , we were also sorely buffeted ; but on the night of the sixth we entered the mouth of the river Thames , and on the morning of the seventh day of our departure , we cast anchor near a town called Gravesend , where , to our exceeding great joy , it pleased Him , in whom alone there is salvation , to allow us once more to put our foot on the dry land . When we had partaken of a repast , the first blessed with the blessing of an appetite , from the day of our leaving our native land , we got two vacancies in a stage-coach for my wife and daughter ; but with Andrew Pringle , my son , I was obligated to mount aloft on the outside . I had some scruple of conscience about this , for I was afraid of my decorum .