vessel.  In the month of June, 1648, “a great thunder-storm arose out of the north-west; after which (the hemisphere being serene), about an hour before sunset, a ship of like dimensions with the aforesaid, with her canvas and colors abroad (although the wind was northerly), appeared in the air, coming up from the harbor’s mouth, which lies southward from the town,—­seemingly with her sails filled under a fresh gale, holding her course north, and continuing under observation, sailing against the wind for the space of half an hour.”  The phantom-ship was borne along, until, to the excited imaginations of the spectators, she seemed to have approached so near that they could throw a stone into her.  Her main-topmast then disappeared, then her mizzen-topmast; then her masts were entirely carried away; and, finally, her hull fell off, and vanished from sight,—­leaving a dull and smoke-colored cloud, which soon dissolved, and the whole atmosphere became clear.  All affirmed that the airy vision was a precise copy and image of the missing vessel, and that it was sent to announce and describe her fate.  They considered it the spectre of the lost ship; and the Rev. Mr. Davenport declared in public, “that God had condescended, for the quieting their afflicted spirits, this extraordinary account of his sovereign disposal of those for whom so many fervent prayers were made continually.”

[Footnote D:  The manner in which Dr. Mather brings forward this affair shows how loose and inaccurate he was in his description of events.  It also illustrates the tendency of the times to exaggerate, or to paint in the highest colors, whatever was susceptible of being represented as miraculous.  There is no reason, however, to doubt that the facts took place substantially as described in the text.  The reader is referred, on this as on all points connected with our early history, to Mr. Savage’s instructive, elaborate, and entertaining edition of Winthrop’s “New England.”]

The results of modern science enable us to explain the mysterious appearance.  It is probable that some Dutch vessel, proceeding slowly, quietly, and unconsciously on her voyage from Amsterdam to the New Netherlands, happened at the time to be passing through the Sound.  At the moment the apparition was seen in the sky, she was so near, that her reflected image was painted or delineated, to the eyes of the observers, on the clouds, by laws of optics now generally well known, before her actual outlines could be discerned by them on the horizon.  As the sun sunk behind the western hills, and his rays were gradually withdrawn, the visionary ship slowly disappeared; and the approach of night effectually concealed the vessel as she continued her course along the Sound.

The optical illusions that present themselves on the sea-shore, by which distant objects are raised to view, the opposite capes and islands made to loom up, lifted above the line of the apparent circumference of the earth, and thrown into every variety of shape which the imagination can conceive, are among the most beautiful phenomena of nature; and they impress the mind with the idea of enchantment and mystery, more perhaps than any others:  but they have received a complete solution from modern discovery.