have any news from her. It might be two or three months before
she reached London and as many more before word of her arrival
could come back to them. So they waited patiently through the
hard New England winter and the early spring, but by summer time
they were eagerly looking for tidings of her. Ships came from
England as usual to the colonies, but no one of them brought news
of the safe arrival in London of the "Great Shippe" from New
Haven. Then the people began to question the skippers of other
boats, boats from the West Indies and from the plantations on the
southern coasts, and to ask if anything had been heard of her in
that direction. For they remembered that there had been an
unusually violent storm soon after the ship had sailed, and they
began to fear that she might have been blown out of her course
and possibly wrecked on some such coast or island. Public prayers
were offered for her safety and for the safety of her passengers.
Meanwhile, the summer passed and the cold weather came again, and
still there was no word from the fated ship. Few vessels put into
New England harbors during the winter, and, as the chance of news
grew less and less, the anxiety of the people gradually changed
to despair. They recalled the sacrifices they had made to fit out
that ship, the precious cargo she carried, all the things that
could not be replaced (such as the sermons and other writings of
Mr. Davenport which he had sent to England for publication); and
in the loss of the ship on which they had set all their hopes
they saw the final blow to the prosperity of New Haven. No one
now had the courage or the money for another venture of that
kind. Slowly and reluctantly the people turned to agriculture
instead of trade, and the days of New Haven as a commercial
colony were numbered.