eight German miles, and about five in breadth; the King Gustavus took it, and it hath since continued in the possession of the Swedes, and was confirmed to them by the late treaty of Munster; the coast is full of white sands, and dangerous to those who are not well acquainted with the passages, which hereabout are strait, and a bank of sand comes far out into the sea, on which Whitelocke was in great peril, within four-fathom water in the night; but they were glad to veer back again and tack about to escape the danger.

The wind blew fresh from the north-east, by which he continued his course till about midnight; when there came a hideous storm of wind, thunder, rain, and lightning, which caused them to furl their sails, and lasted about three hours; but the waves continued very high above twelve hours together afterwards, it being the nature of this sea when it is once stirred, that by reason of the great depth it will not be still again for many hours after.  Some of Whitelocke’s company were much affrighted with this tempest, and not without cause; but it pleased God to cease the storm, and give fair weather, and thereby more cause to remember the experiences they have had of His divine goodness throughout their whole voyage.

June 6, 1654.

[SN:  The coast of Pomerania.]

In the morning; the wind continued fair, and they made good way till towards eight o’clock, when it grew calm till about seven o’clock in the evening.  All this day they were upon the coast of Pomerland.  One of the mariners, from the top-gallant, espying land and a town, informed them that it was Wismar; but coming nearer to the shore, they found it to be Rostock, eight leagues further from Luebeck than Wismar is.  Both these towns are subject to the Crown of Sweden, port towns, and of good trade; Rostock more famous to the High Dutch for their exceeding strong and thick beer.

In the evening the wind blew fair north-west, but the sky grew thick, and the night coming on, they, for fear of falling upon the coast, tacked off again to sea, and out of their course.  About eleven o’clock at night the storm began much more violent than the night before, continuing about six hours, to the imminent danger of the ship to be overset and foundered in the sea, but still God preserved them.  About midnight was a horrible noise, the thunder fierce and strangely loud, the sky all in flames with the wonderful lightnings; and though it be frequent to meet with great tempests of thunder and lightnings upon this sea, and much more dreadful than those in England, yet now the officers and mariners of the ship affirmed that they never saw the like to this tempest, and that they were almost blind with the shining and flashes of this lightning.  They saw also on the land houses burning, set on fire by the lightning, any flame whereof fastening upon the combustible matter of the ship the same had instantly been fired and all within her inevitably had perished.  But still God was their defence and deliverer.  The tempest was so outrageous that they were forced to take down their sails and let fall their anchors.  Here they found the difference between Sweden and this country:  there, at midnight, one might plainly read without a candle; here, though nearer the summer solstice and the days at longest, they found at least four hours of dark night, as seeming near the winter.