HISTORY OF TWO BROTHERS. 



203 



the night the gale increased. Not a soul on board 

 could sleep from the fury of the storm and vio- 

 lent heaving of the vessel. Most of us passed 

 the night on deck without moving from the spot 

 where we had lashed ourselves for the space of 

 twelve hours : 



No season this from duty to descend;, 



All hands on deck the eventful hour attend. 



Towards daylight next morning the gale abated 

 a little, and we bore up^ but increasing at night, 

 w^e were compelled again to lay to, and expe- 

 rienced the same misery as before. On the 

 (being near the land,) we were afraid to bear up 

 till we got our observation at noon, which prov- 

 ing satisfactory, we made sail, and soon came in 

 sight of it, but while running along, with a fresh 

 gale, at the rate of nine knots an hour, to our 

 astonishment and mortification, (fully expecting 

 to get in, being within seven miles of the shore,) 

 it almost instantaneously fell calm, with a heavy 

 ground-swell setting us directly for the rocks. 



