The Shipwrecked Quakers
John Archdale, a Quaker, became governor of Carolina in 1695. He frowned upon the enslavement of Christian Indians and returned four to authorities at St. Augustine, who wrote him a letter of appreciation and agreed to reciprocate by according English subjects safe conduct through Spanish territory. This accounts for the kind treatment accorded a small company of Quakers enroute to Philadelphia, who were wrecked on the coast of Florida in the vicinity of Hobe Sound in 1696. The Quakers reached shore safely only to suffer torturing hardship among the coastal Indians, who feared Spanish authority but were still savages in most respects.
Title page from one of the many editions of Dickinson’s book.
GOD’s
Protecting Providence,
MAN’s
Surest Help and Defence,
IN
Times of Greatest Difficulty
and most Eminent Danger:
EVIDENCED
In the Remarkable Deliverance of Robert Barrow, with divers other Persons, from the Devouring Waves of the Sea; amongst which they Suffered
SHIPWRACK:
And also,
From the cruel Devouring Jaws of the Inhuman
Canibals of Florida.
Faithfully Related by one of the Persons concern’d therein,
Jonathan Dickenson.
After two months of harrowing captivity the Quakers were rescued by a Captain López and detail of soldiers from St. Augustine. They were brought to the settlement and later escorted safely to the English border. One of their number, Jonathan Dickinson, wrote and published a book of their adventures, which contains an interesting description of St. Augustine and Florida as these Quakers saw them so many years ago.