1 69 1.] TERRIBLE STORM. 35 



Masts : Our Ship was so little, that People were amaz'd at 

 the sight of it at the Cape, and 'twas now driv'n along with 

 inconceiveable swiftness : All things were in Confusion, and 

 horrible Disorder. Our Tackling broke, our Chests, our 

 Arms, Beds, the Mariners and Passengers were tumbled Pell- 

 mell, from one side to t'other : The Heavens which appear'd 

 at first to us to be all on fire, were now hid from our Eyes by 

 black Clouds, from whose profound depths issued such Tor- 

 rents of Water, as threaten^ to overwhelm those that handled 

 the Eopes with present Destruction. 



Our Deck was always a Foot deep in Water, for the Sea 

 threw it in faster than it cou'd run out ; and it added to our 

 Terrors, that no body there had ever seen the like before, so 

 extraordinary was this Storm ; the same Wind encreas'd still 

 to a certain Point : after which all the others blew succes- 

 sively, and sometimes mingled together with equal fury to 

 make Sport with our poor little Vessel, which this Minute 

 they tost up to the Skyes, and the next sunk down to the 

 Earth. During the ten hours that this Tempest lasted, all 

 the Winds conspir'd to make an entire tour of the Compass ; 

 and it being impossible to handle the Ropes and Sails to 

 work the Ship regularly, we were all that while oblig'd to 

 abandon our selves, to the caprice and fury of the Waves. 



At last the Storm decreas'd by little and little, we re- 

 cover'd Hope in the midst of Despair, and heartily Congratu- 

 lated one another on our common Deliverance, each of us 

 feeling a secret Joy, which none can be sensible of, that has 

 not escap'd the like Danger, and been deliver'd out of so 

 great and so just a Fright. We therefore return'd thanks 



de figure piramidale, que les Portugais appellent le feu de saint Telme 

 & non pas Saint Helme. Quelques Matelots les regardent comme Fame 

 du Saint de ce nom, qu'ils invoquent alors de toutes leurs forces, les 



mains jointes & avec beaucoup d'autres marques de respect 



Ce sont ces memes feux que les Payeus adoroient autrefois sous le nom 

 de Castor & de Pollux ; & il est surprenant que cette superstition se soit 

 ainsi introduite parmy les Chretiens." {Voyage de Slam, 1686.) 



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