( 7* ) 



the air, and encreafe the winds : But that thofc 

 winds when they proceed from no other caufe do not 

 extend very far, and that upon the great bank, at 

 any considerable diftance from the fide of it, you 

 fail with as much tranquillity as in a road, except- 

 ing in the cafe of a violent wind proceeding from 

 fome other quarter. 



It was on a Friday the 16th of Auguft, we 

 found ourfelves on the great bank in 75 fathom 

 water. To arrive at the great bank is called Banc- 

 quer or Banking ; to depart from it is called Deban- 

 quer or Debunking, two exprefiions with which the 

 cod-fiihery has enriched our language. It is the 

 cuftom on finding foundings to cry out, Vive le Roy y 

 which is generally done with great chearfulnefs. 

 Our crew were longing for frelh cod ; but the fun 

 was fet, and the wind favourable, fo we thought 

 proper to take the advantage of it. Towards ele- 

 ven o'clock at night arofe a ftrong wind at fouth- 

 caft, which, with our mizen only, would have car- 

 ried us three leagues an hour. Had we had this 

 inconvenience alone by furling as we did that in- 

 ftant all our other fails, we fhould have had no reafon 

 to complain, but there came on at the fame time fuch 

 a plump of rain, that you would have thought all 

 the cataracts of the heavens had been opened. What 

 was ftlll worfe, the thunder began at the time 

 when it commonly ends, it fell fo near us, that 

 the rudder was wounded, and all the failors 

 that worked the fhip felt the fhock of it. 

 Then it grew louder, and a hundred pieces of can- 

 non could not have made a greater noife. We could 

 not hear one another, and fo thick were the peals, 

 as to feem one continued roar. Nor could we fee 

 any thing in . the mid ft of the lightning, fo much 

 were we dazzled with it. In a word, for an hour 



and 



