Jonathan Dickinson (1663–1722) was a merchant from Port Royal, Jamaica who was shipwrecked on the southeast coast of Florida in 1696, along with his family and the other passengers and crew members of the ship. He wrote about their experiences. The party was held captive by Jobe ("Hoe-bay") Indians for several days, and then was allowed to travel by small boat and on foot the 230 miles up the coast to Saint Augustine. The party was subjected to harassment and physical abuse at almost every step of the journey to Saint Augustine. Five members of the party died from exposure and starvation on the way.
The Spanish authorities in Saint Augustine treated the surviving members of the party well, and sent them by canoe to Charles Town (now Charleston, South Carolina), where they were able to find passage to their original destination, Philadelphia. After many hardships, Jonathan Dickinson finally reached Philadelphia. He prospered there and twice served as Mayor of Philadelphia, in 1712–1713 and 1717–1719.
Jonathan Dickinson's Journal
Dickinson wrote a journal of the ordeal, which was published by the Society of Friends in 1699 as God's Protecting Providence Man's Surest Help and Defence in the times of the greatest difficulty and most Imminent danger Evidenced in the Remarkable Deliverance of divers Persons, from the devouring Waves of the Sea, amongst which they Suffered Shipwrack. And also from the more cruelly devouring jawes of the inhumane Canibals of Florida. Faithfully related by one of the persons concerned therein, Jonathan Dickenson (sic).
This book was reprinted sixteen times in English, and three times each in Dutch and German translations, between 1700 and 1869. Today it is more commonly known as Jonathan Dickinson's Journal. Dickinson's Journal has been described by the Cambridge History of English and American Literature as, "in many respects the best of all the captivity tracts".
Early life
Jonathan Dickinson was born in 1663 in Jamaica. His father Francis had raised a troop of horse for Oliver Cromwell's Western Design expedition to capture Spanish possessions in the Caribbean, and had taken part in the English seizure of Jamaica in 1655, for which he had been rewarded with two plantations. Jonathan's brother Caleb stayed on the plantations while Jonathan became a merchant in the then chief port city of Jamaica, Port Royal. The earthquake of 1692, which nearly destroyed Port Royal, caused the Dickinson family great financial losses.
Voyage and shipwreck
In 1696 Jonathan Dickinson left Jamaica with the intention of settling with his family in Philadelphia. Dickinson and his family, which included his wife, Mary, their six-month-old son, Jonathan, and his ten slaves, took passage on the barkentine Reformation. The Journal opens with a list of everybody on the Reformation which looks like the dramatis personae of a play. This list included the Commander (or Master) and the Mate of the Reformation, five sailors, "the Master's boy", "the Master's Negro", the Dickinsons and their slaves, Robert Barrow, a prominent Quaker preacher, Benjamin Allen, a "kinsman" of Dickinson, and Venus, "an Indian Girl".
The Reformation sailed from Port Royal on August 23, 1696 (Old Style) as part of a convoy under the protection of the Royal Navy frigate . While drifting in calm weather, the Reformation became separated from the convoy. On September 18 a sudden wind blew a boom across the quarterdeck, breaking the leg of the Master, Joseph Kirle. On the same date Venus, the Indian girl, died after being ill for several days. By September 20, the Reformation was still in the straits between Cuba and Florida trying to avoid ships of the French fleet that they believed to be in the area. On September 24 a storm, which may have been a hurricane, drove the ship onto a reef and then onto shore on Jupiter Island, Florida, a little ways north of Jupiter Inlet near present-day Hobe Sound.