ClIAP. X. 
A STORM. 
165 
same moment a heavy sea struck the side of our boat, 
and laid her fairly on her beam-ends. In an instant the 
boat filled in all her divisions from bow to stern. 
" Lower the sail, lower the sail, quick, quick !" cried the 
helmsman, "or we shall all go to the bottom." Several of 
the crew^ flew to the sail, which fortunately came down 
readily, and our little craft righted once more, but rolled 
and plunged very heavily in consequence of the great 
quantity of water in her hold, and seemed as if she 
would go down at every plunge, and leave us exposed to 
the fury of the waves. We again got a few feet of sail 
hoisted, and kept her away before the wind. It was now 
dark, not a star was to be seen in the heavens, the 
mountains, although not distinctly visible, yet loomed 
through the gloom, and the only objects clearly dis- 
tinguished were some lights flickering on the distant 
shore. The crew now surrounded the helmsman, and 
besought him to try and get back to Chinhae, but 
I was sailor enough to know that, if we attempted to put 
the helm down and bring the boat round, in all probabi- 
lity we should ship another sea, and had we done so we 
must have gone down. I immediately went and stood 
by the helmsman, and kept the crew from interfering, 
telling him to keep on our course and try to get under 
the lee of some island as soon as possible. The men now 
began to throw off their clothes as a last resource, and so 
completely lost all their self-possession that no remon- 
strances could induce them to attend to the boat and 
get some of the water out of her. The captain or 
helmsman, however, did his duty well, and to his 
firmness and knowledge we doubtless owed our lives. 
