Since we landed safely on shore a circumstance has occurred which has brought a gloom over us.  One of our shipmen being busy about the sails, part of a beam fell from the top-mast and struck him on the head.  He never spoke more, but died instantly.  He has left a widow and two children, not only to weep for him, but also to feel bitterly his loss in a pecuniary way.  We intend to recommend their situation to some of our benevolent friends in London.  My heart is much affected in having to commence my journal on a foreign shore by recording such an afflicting event.  And, as it regards ourselves, how much we have which calls for thankfulness that we have so mercifully escaped.

From Rotterdam they directed their course to Pyrmont, passing through Gouda, Utrecht, Arnheim, and Muenster; at the last place they were laid by from the heat and weariness.  They reached Friedenthal on the 4th of the Eighth Month, and John Yeardley makes the following reflections on re-entering his German home:—­

As I find myself again in this country, many thoughts of former days spring up in my mind.  Since I was last here I have passed through much; nevertheless the Lord has guided my steps, and I have cause to give Him thanks.

They visited Minden and the little meetings around, bestowing much labor on them; but at Pyrmont, to suffer, rather than to do, was their allotted portion.

It sometimes seems to me, writes J.Y., that we have in this place little to do and much to suffer.  I am often cast down, and have to sit in silence and darkness.  This state of mind is an exercise of faith and patience, through which much may be gained if it is turned to right account.

Of the Two Months’ Meeting, he says: 

On the whole a favorable time.  But I am not without my fears that the little Society in this place will lose ground, in a religious sense, if more faithfulness is not manifested in little things.

Soon after their arrival in Germany they turned their steps towards the north-west corner of that country, and the borders of Holland.  The object of this journey was to visit some places on the shores of the North Sea, near Friesland, where the inundations of 1825 had caused great desolation, and where a new colony had been formed by the government from among the ruined families.  This little journey was so emphatically, an act of faith, and the course of it lay so much through a part of Europe seldom visited by travellers, that we shall transcribe the diary of it without much curtailment.

9 mo. 4.—­Having for sometime felt an impression to visit Friedrichgroden and other places on the store of the North Sea, near the confines of East Friesland, we set out from Pyrmout in company with our dear friend Louis Seebohm, travelling with extra-post in our own carriage.  We found this a pretty expeditions way of travelling for this country, being able to make about fifty-five English miles a