June 2, 1654.

[SN:  The voyage.]

About eleven o’clock the last night the wind came about more to the south, yet Whitelocke advanced in his course and gained some way, but not much, the wind being almost against him; and so it continued in this morning, when there appeared a chain of rocks advancing themselves more than a Swedish mile into the sea, and not far from the isle of Oeland, to which rocks it is not good to approach too near.  They could not maintain their course but to very small advantage, and by veering up and down to gain a little of the wind, and in this manner they spent this whole day:  the wind continuing at south-south-east, they did not advance much all this day, only kept what they had gained before, and held plying up and down in that dangerous sea; their support was that this was the good pleasure of their God, whose will the wind and waters do obey.

Though the weather was not foul, yet it was thick with fog which arose at the foot of the horizon, and the mariners said this weather was ordinary in these seas, but very dangerous.  In the evening some of the company made them pastime to divert the tediousness of the way and weather.

June 3, 1654.

[SN:  The island of Gothland.]

About midnight the wind came about somewhat fairer than before, and Whitelocke gained a little in his course.  At sunrising he discovered the isle of Gothland, eight leagues distant to the east from the isle of Oeland; afterwards the wind returned to the same quarter wherein it was yesterday.

The isle of Oeland is near the continent, extending itself in length by the shore eighteen Swedish miles, but hath not in breadth in any place above two Swedish miles.  This is the place where the Prince of Sweden, now King, used to make his residence, in a fair castle built of stone of this island, not inferior to marble,—­these stones are in great request for pavements, pillars, and other uses and ornaments in building.  The pillars of the King’s Chapel at Stockholm, great and high, well polished and of divers colours, were brought from this island, and they have many of these stones in the buildings of the great lords.  This island is a place of the most field-pleasure of any in this country, being open and stored with red and fallow deer, with hares and conies, and with partridges, which are scarce in other parts; but here the game is preserved for the Prince’s pleasure.

The isle of Gothland is about fourteen Swedish miles in length, and five in breadth.  It anciently belonged to the Swedes till the Danes took it from them, and kept the possession of it till the late wars between those two crowns, when the Swedes recovered it from the Dane; and by the peace after that war the treaty left it to the Swede, and allowed for it the isle of Bornholm to the Dane, being nearer his dominions.  They report that heretofore Gothland (belonging to the Goths, from whom it hath the name) was famous for the traffic of all these quarters, and had in it a large town called Wisby, where formerly certain laws were instituted touching the sea, which are observed to this day.  But Luebeck, and other towns on that side, having got the trade from hence, and the sea by inundations having much diminished this isle, both it and the town are become but of small consideration.