LOSS OF THE PHOENIX. 423 
lying there. Dancing, &c. &c. till two o'clock every morn- 
ing ; little thinking what was to happen in four days' time : 
for out of the four men of war that were there, not one was 
in being at the end of that time, and not a soul aliv^e but those 
left of our crevv. Many of the houses where we had been so 
merry, were so completely destroyed that scarcely a vestige 
remained to mark where they stood. Thy works are won- 
derful, O God ! praised be thy holy name 1^ 
September the oOth, weighed ; bound for Port Royal, round 
the eastward of the island; the Barbadoes and Victor had 
sailed the day before, and the Scarborough was to sail the 
next. Moderate weather until October the 2d. Spoke to the 
Barbadoes, off Port Antonio, in the evening. At eleven at 
night it began to snuffle, with a monstrous heavy bill from 
the eastward. Close reefed the top sails. Sir Hyde sent for 
me: " What sort of weather have we, Archer ?" It blows a 
little, and has a very ug]y look ; if in any other quarter but 
this, I should say we were going to have a gale of wind. 
" Ay, it looks so very often here when there is no wind at 
all; however, don't hoist the top sails till it clears a little, 
there is no trusting any country." At twelve I was relieved ; 
the weather had the same rough look : however, they made 
sail upon her, but had a very dirty night. At eight in the 
morning I came up again, found it blowing hard from the E. 
N. E. with close reeled top sails upon the ship, and heavy 
squalls at times. Sir Hyde came upon deck : " Well, Archer, 
what do you think of it?" O, Sir, 'tis only a touch of the 
times ; we shall have an observation at twelve o'clock ; the 
clouds are beginning to break ; it will clear up at noon, or 
else blow very hard afterward. " I wish it would clear up, 
but I doubt it much. I was once in a hurricane in the East 
Indies, and the beginning of it had much the same appear- 
ance as this. So take in the top sails, we have plenty of sea- 
room." 
At twelve, the gale still increasing, wore ship, to keep as 
near mid channel between Jamaica and Cuba as possible; 
at one the gale increasing still; at two harder! Reefed the 
courses, and furled them ; brought to under a foul mizen stay- 
sail, head to the northward. In the evening no sign of the 
weather taking off, but every appearance of the storm in- 
creasing, prepared for a proper gale of wind : secured all the 
sails with spare gaskets ; good rolling tackles upon the yards ; 
squared the booms ; saw the boats all made fast ; new lashed 
the guns ; double breeched the lower deckers ; saw that the 
