Chap. II. STRONG BREEZE. 147 



I gave orders at ten o'clock to move out of the harbour, 

 and try with the oars to reach Paquiatuba, which was 

 only five miles distant. We had doubled the shoaly 

 point which stretches from the mouth of the creek, and 

 were making way merrily across the bay, at the head of 

 which was the port of the little settlement, when we 

 beheld to our dismay, a few miles down the river, the 

 signs of the violent day breeze coming down upon us — 

 a^long, rapidly advancing line of foam with the darkened 

 water behind it. Our men strove in vain to gain the 

 harbour ; the wind overtook us, and we cast anchor in 

 three fathoms, with two miles of shoaly water between 

 us and the land on our lee. It came with the force of 

 a squall : the heavy billows washing over the vessel 

 and drenching us with the spray. I did not expect that 

 our anchor would hold ; I gave out, however, plenty of 

 cable and watched the result at the prow ; Jose placing 

 himself at the helm, and the men standing by the jib and 

 foresail, so as to be ready, if we dragged, to attempt the 

 passage of the Mara'i spit, which was now almost dead 

 to leeward. Our little bit of iron, however, held its 

 place ; the bottom being fortunately not so sandy as 

 in most other parts of the coast ; but our weak cable 

 then began to cause us anxiety. We remained in 

 this position all day without food, for everything was 

 tossing about in the hold ; provision-chests, baskets, 

 kettles, and crockery. The breeze increased in strength 

 towards the evening, when the sun set fiery red behind 

 the misty hills on the western shore, and the gloom of 

 the scene was heightened by the strange contrasts of 

 colour ; the inky water and the lurid gleam of the sky. 



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