140 FEARS AND APPREHENSION. [1693. 



help'd US to escape the Eock. There was another Eock about 

 two Leagues off, towards which the Current, which was 

 stronger than the Wind, was driving us; but the time we 

 had to refit our Oar, made us likewise to escape that Danger.^ 

 I am asham'd to tell that such was the blindness of our 

 Owners, that they had not provided us above two Oars : 

 They thought, I suppose, that Precaution would have been 

 needless, because they reckoned upon a Trade-wind, which 

 wou'd infallibly have blown in our Poop'^ ; but it was well for 

 us, this instrument of our Deliverance was refitted, otherwise 

 we had certainly gone to the Bottom, the Current dragging 

 us along with Eapidity, in spite of the small Gale that 

 assisted us. The Sea, which dash'd impetuously against the 

 Eock we were apprehensive of, roar'd terribly^; and the 

 dismalness^ of the Night redoubled our Fears and Appre- 

 hension ; nay, to compleat our Misery, the violent agitation 



The shivering billows burst ; — 



And nearer now they feel the breaker's spray, 



***** 

 Now is the ebb, and till the ocean-flow 

 We cannot over-ride the rocks." 



1 In orig. : "ce second danger." 



2 In orig. : " parce qu'ils comptoient sur un vent alise qu'ils auroient, 

 disoient-ils, toujours iufailliblement en poupe," i.e., " because they 

 relied on a trade-wind, which they would infallibly have (they said) 

 always astern"; meaning that they would be always able to sail before 

 the east trade wind, which should be constant. The translator's ex- 

 pression, " blown in our Poop,^' may have been used in his day. 



3 See Map, p. 49. "The position of the reef is indicated by breakers 

 even in the calmest weather. The outer edge is tolerably steep too, 

 except in a few places, but, with the swell which generally rolls on to it, 

 the sea often breaks in ten fathoms several hundred yards outside the 

 actual shoal water. At ' Quatre vingt brisans', eighty breakers, the 

 S.W. corner of the encircling reef, the edge is altogether broken up into 

 detached patches, and in this pait the breakers are heaviest. These 

 reefs have been the scene of several wrecks, and it is remarkable that 

 each vessel was reported to have struck at fifteen miles S.W. from land, 

 although no reefs have been found to extend more than five or six miles 

 off." (Findlcuj, p. 513. Vide aupra, Introduction, pp. xlix, 1.) 



^ In orig. : " I'inconvenient de la nuit." 



