12 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



to admit it even to himself, we discovered that we 

 were really in danger. We were driving, as fast as 

 the wind could send us, upon the range of sunken 

 rocks known as Abaco reef. Directlj under our lee 

 was the worst part of the whole reef, marked on the 

 chart " Dangerous rocky shore." Unless the gale 

 abated or the wind hauled, in eight or ten hours we 

 must strike. I must confess I saw but little hope of 

 a change, and this rocky reef was but a few feet un- 

 der water, and twenty miles distant from terra firma. 

 If the vessel struck, she must go to pieces ; nothing 

 made by man's hands could stand against the fury 

 of the sea, and every moment we were nearer de- 

 struction. We sat with the chart before us, look- 

 ing at it as a sentenced convict might look at an 

 advertisement of the time fixed for his execution. 

 The sunken rocks seemed to stand out horribly on 

 the paper ; and though every glance at the sea told 

 us that with dayhght no human strength could pre- 

 vail against it, it added to our uncomfortable feel- 

 ings to know that it would be nearly night when 

 the crisis arrived. We had but one consolation — 

 there were no women or children on board. All 

 were able-bodied men, capable of doing all that men 

 could do in a struggle for life. But, fortunately for 

 the reader of these pages, to say nothing of the re- 

 lief to ourselves, at one o'clock the wind veered ; 

 we got on a little canvass ; the good ship struggled 

 for her life ; by degrees she turned her back upon 

 danger, and at night we were again on our way re- 

 joicing. 



