Z56 



We now thought our trials over, but a storm more tremendous 

 than any I had ever witnessed, suddenly broke upon us from the 

 north-west, and continued with unabated fury for several days. 

 In former voyages I had never beheld any thing so dreadful : the 

 raging billows seemed more like moving mountains of a black me- 

 tallic substance, than an undulating fluid ; while the sky, hard, 

 dark, and dismal, was without a cloud. Language is too faint to 

 describe this awful scene on the grandest theatre of nature. 

 Camoens' Lusiad, in Mickle's translation, was my frequent compa- 

 nion on the voyage, especially during the tempests raging round 

 this Cape of Storms. The sublime description of the Lusitanian 

 bard was then completely realized, and I inserted the following 

 lines in my journal, as presenting a faithful picture of the tremen- 

 dous scenery. 



" To tell the terrors of the deep untried, 

 What toils we suffer'd, and what storms defied ; 

 What rattling deluges the black clouds pour'd, 

 What dreary weeks of solid darkness lour'd ; 

 What mountain surges mountain surges lash'd, 

 What sudden hurricanes the canvas dash'd; 

 What bursting lightnings with incessant flare, 

 Kindled in one wide flame the burning air ; 

 What roaring thunders bellow'd o'er our head, 

 And seem'd to shake the reeling ocean's bed ; 

 To tell each honor on the deep reveal'd, 

 Would ask an iron throat with tenfold vigour steel'd : 

 These dreadful wonders of the deep I saw, 

 Which fill the sailor's breast with sacred awe ; 

 And which the sages, of their learning vain, 

 Esteem the phantoms of the dreamful brain." 



