COMPLETELY SURROUNDED. 119 



it was not probable that, just after escaping from 

 the most imminent peril, they would fall back into 

 a much more violent state of terror, unless former 

 experience had given them too good reason to dread 

 the presence of the object they now saw before 

 them. 



The roughness of the sea forbade their attempting 

 to hoist a sail in order to avoid the waterspout. 

 They were compelled, therefore, to summon all the 

 resolution they possessed, to enable them calmly to 

 await its approach, and put their trust in the arm 

 of Jehovah. 



The helm was in the hands of a seaman whose 

 steadiness could be depended on. The natives were 

 down in the bottom of the boat; they had given 

 way to despair. 



Two other waterspouts now came into view, and 

 subsequently a third, if not more, so that they felt 

 as if completely surrounded by them. Some were 

 well defined, extending in an unbroken line from 

 the sea to the sky, like pillars resting on the ocean 

 as their basis, and supporting the clouds ; others, 

 assuming the shape of a funnel or inverted cone 

 attached to the clouds, extended their sharp points 

 to the ocean below. From the distinctness with 

 which they were seen, it was judged that the furthest 

 could not have been many miles distant. In some 

 they imagined they could trace the spiral motion of 

 the water as it was drawn up to the clouds, which 

 were every moment being augmented in their por- 



