256 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OR, 



deluges of rain which tropical wanderers strive to describe. 

 In the darkness we could not see its approach, but the dis- 

 tant sound was as of a storm of wind through a forest's fo- 

 liage. The men were stationed at halyards, clew-lines, and 

 reef-tackles, to "let run and clew up" at the word. The 

 roaring torrent came on us with little wind, however; it 

 almost becalmed the little gale which preceded it, and it 

 struck us like the break of a combing sea. It may have 

 fallen in drops, but such drops ! I am persuaded that Noah's 

 neighbors would have been disposed of in less than forty 

 days of such a shower. We felt actually beaten to the deck 

 by the down-pour, and we fled to the protection of the up- 

 turned spare boats and the slight poop-deck. Here, in the 

 roaring darkness, we crouched, surrounded by a noisy river, 

 which swept the rolling decks gunwale deep. The scuppers 

 gave no relief, and the surging water dashed against and 

 over the low bulwarks of the waist, as the laboring ship roll- 

 ed under the deluge. From this time and forever, I hold 

 my assent from savants who attempt to explain their knowl- 

 edge of the " treasures of the snow and the treasures of the 

 hail ;" and of the " way the light is parted which scattereth 

 the east wind upon the earth ;" and of Him " who hath di- 

 vided a water-course for the overflowing of the waters, or a 

 way for the lightning of the thunder;" and who explain 

 away " the causes of the rain where no man is ; on the wil- 

 derness, wherein there is no man, to satisfy the desolate and 

 waste ground, and to cause the tender herb to spring forth." 

 Learned and experienced teachers of men, gird up your loins, 

 and answer ye me : " Hath the rain a father ? or who hath 

 begotten the drops of the dew? out of whose womb came 

 the ice? and the hoar-frost of heaven, who hath made it?" 

 Your theories of evaporation and condensation are insuffi- 

 cient to explain or belittle the phenomena of a tropical del- 

 uge from a seemingly limited cloud, and gravitation is at 



