A SOUTH-EASTER SQUALL. 317 



ourselves, perhaps, on the steadiness of the wind, 

 and the fine progress we were making, the skip- 

 per would order the studdingsails taken in. 



" Is the poor man daft?" said Scotch Jack, the 

 first time this maneuver was performed. The 

 studdingsails in, the lighter sails would be clewed 

 up and furled. The topsail halyards were then 

 laid down, tacks and sheets were cleared, ready 

 for running, and all was again expectation. Often 

 an hour would elapse before the squall broke upon 

 us. On these occasions there were not wanting 

 weather-wise tars who thought our Scotch skipper 

 " o'er careful." But the event always justified his 

 prudence, and before we got to Algoa Bay, we, 

 the forward hands, acknowledged that the captain 

 and his weather glass were more skillful judges of 

 the weather than the oldest tars. 



On the passage to Port Louis I, for the first 

 time, met one of the South-easter squalls, pecu- 

 liar to this African coast. We had got the wind 

 from the South-south-east, and were going along 

 merrily before it, with all sail set. The weather 

 was balmy, the sky was filled with white clouds, 

 but no symptoms were there of an approaching 

 squall. Toward noon the air grew chilly. At 

 two o'clock I, who had moved about decks all the 

 morning in my shirt sleeves and barefooted, shiv- 

 ered at the wheel, though wrapped in a stout pea- 

 jacket. The breeze was all this time gradually 

 freshening, and the huge, snowy -white cloudi 

 rolled up swiftly from he South-east, and covered 



