the
rest of the ministers made a tour up the country, upon their return
they were bewildered in the woods, and hearing the noise of the sea,
they got at last to the shore, and so were obliged to pass through
various windings and bendings of the coast under lash of the swelling
surges or waves of the sea, being sometimes obliged to climb upon their
hands and feet upon the steep and hard rocks, until at last Mr. Shields
was like to faint, which troubled them much. Their provision and
cordials were spent, at length they came to a welcome spring of fresh
water springing out of the rock by the sea side: "This well (says Mr.
Borland) was to us as that well was to Hagar in the wilderness.--By this
well we rested a little, and Mr. Shields having drunk of it, was
refreshed and strengthened, and with the help of the Lord we were
enabled to proceed on our journey." After which Mr. Shields and Mr.
Borland escaped death very narrowly, the ship sinking in the harbour of
Kingston a very little after they were gone out of it. He died of a
malignant fever, June 14. 1700. in a Scot's woman's house at Port-Royal,
in Jamaica, a little after he left Caledonia. A kind country woman
Isabel Murray, paid the expence of his funeral. His last preaching was
from the last words of Hosea, _Who is wise? and he shall understand
these things: prudent? and he shall know them, for the ways of the Lord
are right, and the just shall walk in them, but transgressors shall fall
therein_[249].

And thus the so much famed Mr. Alexander Shields, after he had tasted
somewhat of the various vicissitudes of life and fortune, was obliged to
die in a strange land. He was a man of a low stature, ruddy complexion,
quick and piercing wit, full of zeal whatever way he intended, of a
public spirit, and firm in the cause he espoused; pretty well seen in
most branches of learning, in arguing very ready, only somewhat fiery,
but in writing on controversy he exceeded most men in that age.

His works are the Hind let loose, Mr. Renwick's life, and the
vindication of his dying testimony, his own impartial relation, the
renovation of the covenant at Borland hill. There are also some lectures
and sermons of his in print; a vindication of our solemn covenants, and
several of his religious letters both before and since the revolution.
After his death Mr. Linnings published an essay of his on
church-communion. But how far this agrees with his conduct at the
revolution, or what coh