138 HEAVY GALE. 



1S2I. that she was very much m want of bread. I 

 October, promised to lend some, but the sea and Avind 

 precluded all possibility of her lowering a 

 boat, and she remained with us all night in 

 hopes that the morning of the 13th would 

 prove more favourable. There was, however, 

 no improvement in the weather, and she 

 veered a cask astern by a whale line, which we 

 succeeded in picking up. We filled this and 

 two of our own with bread, and in one of 

 them our letters for England were stoAved. 

 The Phoenix then hauled them on board, and 

 parted from us on the opposite tack. Soon 

 after dark, a large brig passed close under our 

 stern, but the heavy gale prevented our mu- 

 tual hails being heard. 



There was not the slightest diminution in 

 the force or duration of the wind until the 

 16th, when having continued twelve days 

 since its commencement from the southward, 

 it slowly moderated, and nothing could be 

 more welcome to us, for our hatches had been 

 battened doAVTi for twelve days, and yet the 

 lower deck was entirely flooded during the 

 whole time bv the constant leakasre from 

 above. This was not all, for we had se- 

 veral things washed away from the chains, 

 one boat stove, and the fore-topmast shewed 



