FLORIDA KEYS. 347 



murmuring noise was heard, and across the cloud that now rolled along 

 in tumultuous masses, shot vivid flashes of lightning. Our experienced 

 guide steered directly across a flat towards the nearest land. The sailors 

 passed their quids from one cheek to the other, and our pilot having 

 covered himself with his oil-jacket, we followed his example. " Blow, 

 sweet breeze," cried he at the tiller, and " we'll reach land before the blast 

 overtakes us, for, gentlemen, it is a furious cloud yon." 



A furious cloud indeed was the one which now, like an eagle on out- 

 stretched wings, approached so swiftly, that one might have deemed it 

 in haste to destroy us. We were not more than a cable's length from the 

 shore, when, with imperative voice, the pilot calmly said to us, " Sit quite 

 still. Gentlemen, for I should not like to lose you overboard j ust now; 

 the boat can't upset, my word for that, if you will but sit still — here we 

 have it !"" 



Reader, persons who have never witnessed a hurricane, such as not 

 unfrequently desolates the sultry climates of the south, can scarcely form 

 an idea of their terrific grandeur. One would think that, not content 

 with laying waste all on land, it must needs sweep the waters of the shal- 

 lows quite dry, to quench its thirst. No respite for an instant does it af- 

 ford to the objects within the reach of its furious current, I^ike the scythe 

 of the destroying angel, it cuts every thing by the roots, as it were with 

 the careless ease of the experienced mower. Each of its revolving sweeps 

 collects a heap that might be likened to the full sheaf which the hus- 

 bandman flings by his side. On it goes with a wildness and fury that are 

 indescribable ; and when at last its frightful blasts have ceased, Nature, 

 weeping and disconsolate, is left bereaved of her beauteous offspring. 

 In some instances, even a full century is required, before, with all her 

 powerful energies, she can repair her loss. The planter has not only lost 

 his mansion, his crops, and his flocks, but he has to clear his lands anew, 

 covered and entangled as they are with the trunks and branches of trees 

 that are every where strewn. The bark overtaken by the storm, is cast 

 on the lee-shore, and if any are left to witness the fatal results, they are 

 the " wreckers" alone, who, with inward delight, gaze upon the melan- 

 choly spectacle. 



Our light bark shivered like a leaf the instant the blast reached her 

 sides. We thought she had gone over ; but the next instant she was on 

 the shore. And now in contemplation of the sublime and awful storm, I 

 gazed around me. The waters drifted like snow ; the tough mangroves 



