HARD LINES. 



19 



with waves raised some five feet, was most un- 

 pleasant during the long moonless nights : on 

 this coast there are more shoals and coralline 

 reefs than harbours, and the lee-shore, within a 

 few yards of which we Avere periodically drifted, 

 was steep to, with rocky banks and bars. Marin- 

 ers rarely sail by night, except before a fair and 

 steady wind, and in the open roadsteads they are 

 ill-defended from the strong N. East monsoon. 

 We long sighted the two high hummocks called 

 Wasin Peaks, and we were compelled to ride at 

 anchor off Gasi Bay, the strained old Biami 

 creaking at every timber, and rolling gunwales 

 under. Pleasant scenes were the rule. Mutton- 

 livered Said, groaning and weeping, started up 

 every half-hour during that ' black night,' and 

 screamed with voice altered by violent flesh- 

 quake, till he makes us all nervous as himself. 

 The captain, sitting on the Zuli (deck), cried, 

 Pill ! Pih ! — wind ! wind ! — asked what could 

 be done, and more than once, as we were driven 

 on towards a reef, definitively declared the Piami 

 lost. The sailors, green and yellow with hard 

 work and himger, tacking out with the Barri 

 (land breeze), and in with the Azyab, would not 

 bale except under the stick. The iron boat 

 sinking once, and twice snapping her painter in 



