ia, they met in London, August, 1649, for the
purpose of embarking. At the time when they had first concerted their
scheme, Charles the First was a prisoner at Carisbrook Castle, in the
Isle of Wight. He had since been executed; the royalists, thunderstruck
at this catastrophe, saw their last gleam of hope extinguished; and
Norwood and his friends were eager to escape from the scene of their
disasters. At the Royal Exchange, whose name was now for a time to be
altered to the "Great Exchange," the three forlorn cavaliers engaged a
passage to Virginia in the "Virginia Merchant," burden three hundred
tons, mounting thirty guns or more. The charge for the passage was six
pounds a head, for themselves and servants. The colony of Virginia they
deemed preferable for them in their straitened pecuniary circumstances;
and they brought over some goods with them for the purpose of mercantile
adventure. September the 23d, 1649, they embarked in the "Virginia
Merchant," having on board three hundred and thirty souls. Touching at
Fayal, Norwood and his companions met with a Portuguese lady of rank
with her family returning, in an English ship, the "John," from the
Brazils to her own country. With her they drank the healths of their
kings, amid thundering peals of cannon. The English gentlemen
discovered a striking resemblance between the lady's son and their own
prince, Charles, which filled them with fond admiration, and flattered
the vanity of the beautiful Portuguese. Passing within view of the
charming Bermuda, the "Virginia Merchant" sailing for Virginia, struck
upon a breaker early in November, near the stormy Cape Hatteras.
Narrowly escaping from that peril, she was soon overtaken by a storm,
and tossed by mountainous towering northwest seas. Amid the horrors of
the evening prospect, Norwood observed innumerable ill-omened porpoises
that seemed to cover the surface of the sea as far as the eye could
reach. The ship at length losing forecastle and mainmast, became a mere
hulk, drifting at the mercy of the winds and waves. Some of the
passengers were swept overboard by the billows that broke over her; the
rest suffered the tortures of terror and famine. At last the tempest
subsiding, the ship drifted near the coast of the Eastern Shore. Here
Norwood and a party landing on an island, were abandoned by the Virginia
Merchant. After enduring the extremities of cold and hunger, of which
some died, Norwood and the survivors in the midst