352 THE CRUISE OF TBE " CAOEAL0T.» 



were, it would be derogatory in the highest degree to 

 their reputation for seamanship and courage were they 

 to slip and run before he did. He, however, showed no 

 sign of doing so, although they all neared, with an 

 accelerated drift, that point from whence no seamanship 

 could deliver them, and where death inevitable, cruel, 

 awaited them without hope of escape. The part of the 

 coast upon which they were apparently driving was 

 about as dangerous and impracticable as any in the 

 world. A gigantic barrier of black, naked rock, extend- 

 ing for several hundred yards, rose sheer from the sea 

 beneath, like the side of an ironclad, up to a height of 

 seven or eight hundred feet. No outlying spurs of sub- 

 merged fragments broke the immeasurable landward rush 

 of the majestic waves towards the frowning face of this 

 world-fragment. Fresh from their source, with all the 

 impetus accumulated in their thousand-mile journey, 

 they came apparently irresistible. Against this perpen- 

 dicular barrier they hurled themselves with a shock that 

 vibrated far inland, and a roar that rose in a domi- 

 nating diapason over the continuous thunder of the 

 tempest-riven sea. High as was the summit of the cliff, 

 the spray, hurled upwards by the tremendous impact, rose 

 higher, so that the whole front of the great rock was 

 veiled in filmy wreaths of foam, hiding its solidity from 

 the seaward view. At either end of this vast rampart 

 nothing could be seen but a waste of breakers seething, 

 hissing, like the foot of Niagara, and effectually conceal- 

 ing the chevaux de frise of rocks which produced such a 

 vortex of tormented waters. 



Towards this dreadful spot, then, the four vessels were 

 being resistlessly driven, every moment seeing their 

 chances of escape lessening to vanishing-point. Suddenly, 

 as if panic-stricken, the ship nearest to the Chance gave 



