My inventive genius had now entirely forsaken me, but the providence of God had not. The same God who at first called light out of darkness, had now shown his power in frustrating the designs of our enemies, and turning to our honor and advantage the very enterprise by which they had hoped and expected to seal our ruin. If it had not been for their cruel attack, we should never have become known to persons who have proved most kind friends to us. Let us never forget that we are indebted to our Heavenly Father for inclining towards us the heart of a kind and charitable earthly sovereign. The signal failure of our adversaries' schemes reminded me of the enigma of Samson in the Bible; "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness."
I must not omit to mention the kindness and hospitality of my cousin, John Arnauld. I was his guest during the whole time I was in London, and he not only declined accepting any compensation for my board, but he lent me nearly £30 to further my views in applying for a pension, and at a time, too, when he saw little chance of my ever being in a situation to repay him. Thanks be to God, I have since that time so far prospered in my school as to be able to return him this money.
During my absence from home, privateers had been occasionally seen hovering about the mouth of the harbor. One of them had approached the house, and appeared to be taking the same course that had been followed by the vessel that attacked us. My wife was on the alert, she had all the cannons loaded, and one of them fired off, to show that all was in readiness for defence, and when they saw this, they veered about, landed on Great Island, stole some cattle, and sailed away.
