12 THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 
resisting all the allurements offered by the mag- 
nificence of the capital, immediately procured 
my charts, chronometers, and astronomical in- 
struments, and returned on board my ship on 
the 2d of September, to be in waiting for the 
first fair wind. The wind however chose, as it 
often does, to put our patience to the proof. 
Its perverseness detained us in the roads till 
the 6th; and though a temporary change then 
enabled us to sail, we had scarcely reached 
Portland point when a strong gale again set in 
directly in our teeth. 
The English Channel, on account of its nu- 
merous shallows and strong irregular currents, 
is at all times dangerous: vessels overtaken 
there by storms during the night are in im- 
minent peril of wreck, and thus every year are 
great numbers lost. 
I myself, on my former voyage in the Ru- 
rik, should have infallibly suffered this fate, 
had the day dawned only half an hour later. 
Warned therefore by experience, I resolved 
not to trust to the chance of the night; and 
fortunately our English pilot, from whom we 
had not yet parted, was of the same opinion.— 
