18 



THE GULF. 



forced by the wet and the chillness of the atmosphere 

 to herd together below deck. 



Meantime, what between the crowded state of the 

 cabins, the violence of the storm, the shocks received 

 from the strife of waters in which we were involved, the 

 fears and terrors of some, the horrid and blasphemous 

 language uttered by others of the desperadoes about us, 

 the dirt and impurity surrounding us, and the quarrel- 

 ling and caballing of the crew, our position was truly un- 

 enviable. 



Morning brought no cessation of the tempest. The 

 wind continued to blow with terrific violence, and day- 

 light found us riding and rocking among a tumult of bil- 

 lows, whitened by the driving surf, and enveloped by a 

 gray misty cloud of agitated vapour. The pumps were 

 sounded every half hour. The Halcyon was, however^ 

 sound, and the captain's arrangements well and know- 

 ingly made ; and there we rode, while one immense bil- 

 low after another swelled up like a huge monster out of 

 the mist to windward, advanced topling towards us, with 

 its broad-spread moving slopes marbled by the bands of 

 creamy foam, and after a moment of seeming hesitation 

 whether it should go over or under us, was seen vanish- 

 ing to leeward. 



The history of hours thus spent must be passed over. 

 This first day the Halcyon's stomach seemed to be anni- 

 hilated. Nobody cared for sustenance, and cooking was 

 out of the question. Some hope had been entertained 

 that the storm might lull at sunset, the same hour at 

 which it had arisen ; but the evening apparently darkened 

 over us more gloomily than before, and all the livelong 

 night the wild wind and wild waves continued to struggle 

 on the agitated bosom of the gulf. Our cabin was a 

 Pandemonium. 



Towards noon the second day the wind began to 

 abate, the vapour to disperse, and the clouds to grow 

 more transparent. An imperfect observation taken at 

 twelve o'clock showed us that we had been driven about 

 one hundred and fifty miles to the southeast of Tampico. 



