Chap. XV. HEAVY GALE. 411 



another hawser. We might never have picked it up, had 

 not a Krooman jumped overboard] and fastened a second 

 line to the cask ; and then we drew the hawser on board, 

 and were again in tow. During the whole time of the 

 hurricane the little vessel behaved admirably, and never 

 shipped a single green sea. When the " Ariel " pitched for- 

 wards we could see a large part of her bottom, and when her 

 stern went down we could see all her deck. A boat, hung at 

 her stern davits, was stove in by the waves. The officers on 

 board the "Ariel" thought that it was all over with us : we 

 imagined that they were suffering more than we were. 

 Nautical men may suppose that this was a serious storm 

 only to landsmen ; but the " Orestes," which was once in 

 sight, and at another time forty miles off during the same 

 gale, split eighteen sails ; and the " Pioneer " had to be 

 lightened of parts of a sugar-mill she was carrying ; her 

 round-house was washed away, and the cabin was frequently 

 knee-deep in water. When the " Orestes" came into Mosam- 

 bique harbour nine days after our arrival there, our vessel, 

 not being anchored close to the " Ariel," for we had run in 

 under the lee of the fort, led to the surmise on board the 

 " Orestes " that we had gone to the bottom. Captain Chap- 

 man and his officers pronounced the " Lady Nyassa " to be 

 the finest little sea-boat they had ever seen. She certainly 

 was a contrast to the " Ma-Eobert," and did great credit 

 to her builders, Tod and Macgregor of Glasgow. We can 

 but regret that she was not employed on the Lake after 

 which she was named, and for which she was intended and 

 was so well adapted. 



What struck us most, during the trip from the Zambesi 

 to Mosambique, was the admirable way in which Captain 

 Chapman handled the "Ariel" in the heavy sea of the hurri- 

 cane ; the promptitude and skill with which, when we had 

 broken three hawsers, others were passed to us by the rapid 

 evolutions of a big ship round a little one ; and the ready 



