sed the way, and no wonder, for we now
had the marks behind the trees. We went again through thickets and
bushes of the woods, to and fro, for full three hours without any
prospect of getting out, and that within a distance of not over
three-quarters of an hour. We struck a foot-path at last which led us
to Bohemia Creek, directly opposite the house which was being built.
We descended in order to wade over it, the bottom appearing to be hard
on this side, and promising a good passage; but when we were in the
middle of it, we sank up to our knees in the mud. When we were over we
went into the Quaker's hut, who warmed up some beans, and set them
before us with maize bread. Not to leave him like an empty calabash,
we gave him an English shilling for leading us astray, and other
things. We had now a fine broad cart-road to follow, eight miles long,
which would lead us to Apoquemene, as it did, and where we arrived
about noon. They are almost all Dutch who live here, and we were again
among the right kind of people, with whom we could at least obtain
what was right. We stepped into a house and were welcome. Some food
was immediately set before us to eat, and among other things butter,
cheese, and rye bread which was fresh and so delicious that my
companion said it was to him like sweet cake. We left there after we
had taken dinner, a boy leading us upon the way as far as a long
wooden bridge or dam over a meadow and creek, and proceeded on to
Kasparus Hermans's, the brother of Ephraim, about six miles from
there, where we arrived at three o'clock, but again found him absent
from home. As the court was sitting at Newcastle he had to be there as
one of its members. We were, however, welcomed by his wife. Her name
was Susanneken, and his, Kasparus or Jasper; which led my thoughts
further, communing with God in His love, who makes the past as well as
the future to be present, and who consumes the present in Him with the
future and the past, as it proceeds from Him with all our
sensations.[249] We passed the night there, and had to sleep with a
Quaker who was going next day to Maryland.

[Footnote 249: The meaning of this passage is made clear only by the
discovery of the facts mentioned in Note B prefixed to this volume.
The names Jasper and Susanneken (a diminutive of Susanna) appeal to
Danckaerts and excite these reflections because they were the names of
himself and his wife, who had died in 1676.]

_14th, Thursday._ While