(On the 19th of April, after Michel had recovered some of his senses, another ship was spotted which was very worrisome, as the pirates were often found in this region.)
"As the ship overtook us we made ready with a defense. All men had to participate while the women were locked in the hold. Before the ship could overtake us night fell and we changed our course and never saw the ship again. On the 22nd two large ships appeared but in the night we lost them. On the 4th of May, we had a good wind after several days of adverse or no wind. Again we met two ships which were friendly and the ships all hove to. One of these ships had been captured by the pirates but had been retaken and most of the pirates had been hung in England. All the captains agreed that we were within fifty miles of Virginia. The clues were land birds and plants in the water. The sailors caught a hundred pound fish but it was not very good eating.
"We started sounding for the bottom but we could find nothing at 200 fathoms. We used a rope with a piece of lead for the sounding. To the bottom of the lead the sailors put a piece of tallow and from this they could tell something about the bottom. After a couple of days we struck bottom at 118 fathoms. The water grew shallower; the next day the depth was 90, 78, and 52 fathoms. We had to stop sailing at night for fear of running aground. The next morning we sighted land. Everyone appeared happy and gave thanks to God.
"The coast appeared like a forest standing in water. As we got closer, we could see the different kinds of trees. We sailed into [Chesapeake] Bay with four or five fathoms of water. We found the York River and sailed up it to Yorktown where six ships were lying at anchor.
"In this fourth part of the world, the first colony was New York which is the principal province of the British Empire. The capital in the west is called Boston. It is ruled by the king of England. Pennsylvania or New Netherlands, adjoining New York, was first settled by Hollanders and many of them still live there today. The capital is called Philadelphia, a large, rich, commercial city. Charles II gave it to the Baptists. The government was taken away from William Penn because he harbored pirates. Then follows Maryland, where they grow an inferior tobacco, and Virginia. Carolina is to the south. The country is so wild between Virginia and Carolina that people do not travel by land between the two." [Obviously, Michel flunked his history and geography lessons.]
[Apparently, the ship "Nassau" reached Yorktown on the 9th of May. Michel had boarded the ship in the middle of December and had lived on board since then. The actual sailing commenced about the middle of January, though little progress was made at first. Close to four months had been taken for the crossing. According to Michel, the captain told him that this was the fastest crossing he had made in eight trips.]
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.