1827.J Adventures of Naufragus. 149 



sought refuge, with our first visitor, on the mainmast. We sounded, but found no 

 bottom at a hundred fathoms : a bucket of the water was then drawn up, the sur- 

 face of which was apparently covered with innumerable sparks of fire an effect 

 said to be caused by the animalcules which abound in sea- water : it is at all times 

 common, but the sparks are not in general so numerous, nor of such magnitude as 

 were those which then presented themselves. The hand too, being dipped in the 

 water, and immediately withdrawn, thousands of them would seem to adhere to it. 

 A dismal hollow breeze, which, as the night drew on, howled through our rigging, 

 and infused into us all a sombre, melancholy feeling, increased by gathering 

 clouds, and the altogether portentous state of the atmosphere and elements, ushered 

 in the first watch, which was to be kept by Thomson. 



" About eight o'clock, loud claps of thunder, ach in kind resembling a screech, 

 or the blast of a trumpet, rather than the rumbling sound of thunder in Europe, 

 burst over our heads, and were succeeded by vivid flashes of forked lightning. We 

 now made every necessary preparation for a storm, by striking the top-gallant- 

 masts, with their yards, close reefing the topsails and foresail, bending the storm- 

 staysail, and battening down the main hatch, over which two tarpaulins were 

 nailed, for the better preservation of the cargo. We observed innumerable shoals 

 of fishes, the motions of which appeared to be more than usually vivid and redun- 

 dant. 



" At twelve o'clock, on my taking charge of the deck, the scene bore a character 

 widely different from that which it presented but three hours before. We now 

 sailed under close-reefed maintopsail, and foresail. The sea ran high ; our bark 

 laboured hard, and pitched desperately, and the waves lashed her sides with fury, 

 and were evidently increasing in force and size. Over head nothing was to be 

 seen but huge travelling clouds, called by sailors the 'scud,' which hurried onwards 

 with the fleetness of the eagle in her flight. Now and then the moon, then in her 

 second quarter, would shew her disc for an instant, but be quickly obscured ; or a 

 star of ' paly' light, peep out, and also disappear. The well was sounded, but the 

 vessel did not yet make more water than what might be expected in such a sea ; 

 we however kept the pumps going at intervals, in order to prevent the cargo from 

 sustaining damage, The wind now increased, and the waves rose higher : about 

 two o'clock a. m. the weather maintopsail-sheet gave way ; the sail then split to 

 ribbons, and before we could clue it up, was completely blown away from the bolt- 

 rope. The foresail was then furled, not without great difficulty, and imminent 

 hazard to the seamen, the storm staysail alone withstanding the mighty wind, which 

 seemed to gain strength every half-hour, while the sea, in frightful sublimity ; 

 towered to an incredible height, frequently making a complete breach over our 

 deck. 



" At four a. m. I was relieved by Thomson, who at daylight apprized me that the 

 maintopmast was sprung, and that the gale was increasing. Scarcely had I gone 

 on deck, when a tremendous sea struck us a little ' abaft the beam,' carrying every 

 thing before it, and washing overboard hencoops, cables, water-casks, and indeed 

 every moveable article on the deck, Thomson, almost by miracle, escaped being 

 lost ; but having, in common with the lascars, taken the precaution to lash a rope 

 round his waist, we were able, by its means, to extricate him from danger ; at the 

 same time the vessel made an appalling lurch, lying down on her beam-ends, in 

 which position she remained fer the space of two minutes, when the maintopmast, 

 followed by the foretopmast, went by the board, with a dreadful crash ; she then 

 righted; and we were all immediately engaged in going aloft, and with hatchets 

 cutting away the wreck, each of us being lashed with a rope round the waist ; ropes 

 were also fastened across the deck, in parallel lines, to hold on by ; for such was 

 the violence of the vessel's motion, that without such assistance it would have been 

 impossible to stand. As for my Virginia, she was in her cot, hearing all that was 

 going forward on deck, sensible of her danger, and a prey to the apprehension of 

 meeting a death similar to that of her prototype, and equally dreadful. 



" A drizzling shower now came on. and having continued for some time, was at 

 length succeeded by heavy rain, which having been converted into sleet, was car- 

 ried in flakes swiftly along the tops of the towering mountains of sea ; while the 

 cold sensibly affected the already exhausted hscars, at once disinclining them from 

 exertion, and incapacitating them from making any ; some of them even sat down 



