60 TAKE CHARGE OF THE QUORRA. 



thought of losing a companion. He talked of 

 himself and his illness in terms of great anxiety; 

 and I found that he had a presentiment on his 

 mind which he could not shake off, that his visit 

 to Cape Coast would be fatal to him. Perhaps 

 the remembrance of the sickness he had witnessed 

 there in his Majesty's ship Esk, when he was 

 master of that vessel, may have given rise to it. 

 He desired me to take charge of the Quorra, as 

 he did not consider his mate capable of keeping 

 the crew in order. Such a communication from 

 him being so entirely unexpected, fell like an 

 electric shock on my mind, and produced feelings 

 of sorrow and anxiety, — the former from the idea 

 of losing him, and the latter from my deficiency 

 in the knowledge of seamanship, which was in- 

 creased from a consciousness that the vessel was 

 difficult to manage under canvass. 



Early in the morning of the 15th, being in 

 twelve fathoms water and a tornado coming on, 

 I anchored, and had barely time to get the sails 

 furled before it broke upon us and continued for 

 two hours with great violence. We had to veer 

 sixty fathoms of chain before the vessel was 

 brought up. The weather being very thick, and 

 suspecting we were embayed, I remained at an- 



