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James Otis

Arrival of the "Amity"

And now a word as to the second ship of our fleet, the Amity, which sailed from London on the same clay as did we.

Not until spring had come again did we learn whatsoever concerning her, and then she sailed up the river, to our great joy and relief of mind.

She had been overtaken by a most violent tempest when about halfway across the ocean, and so tossed about by the wind and the waves that the captain was forced to seek a port in the West Indies, where he spent much time making the vessel seaworthy.

And now, having made these explanations, fearing lest I might forget them in their proper order, let me go back to that day when the brown men brought word to our settlement of caves, that a "white man's canoe" was a short distance down the river, held prisoner by the ice.

It was only reasonable that we should believe the vessel was one of our fleet, since we knew of none other that would come so far into this country which the king had given to William Penn, and any one can well imagine how we burned with the desire to meet again those friends whom we had last seen on the other side of the mighty ocean.