Chap. XV. A GALE— WE DRIFT OUT TO SEA. ' 429 
The only sail we could carry was a balance-reefed 
mizen, about the size of a large pocket handkerchief; 
but under this the boat rode it out gallantly, and 
caught the seas on her well-rounded bow. I slept 
soundly during the heaviest part of the gale ; but the 
skipper told me when I looked up, that during two 
hours he had never expected to see daylight again. At 
break of day we found ourselves in the latitude, but 
well to the eastward, of Cape Campbell, the wind being 
less strong, but a heavy sea running. My passengers 
had been much frightened and inconvenienced by the 
water, which leaked in at the topsides and reached up 
to them in the rolls of the boat. About eight o'clock 
we were able to make a little sail, hoping to fetch 
under the lee of Cape Palliser, and to find a tem- 
porary anchorage there. In the evening we had 
reached within a few miles of it, but the baffling 
willies of wind off the land and the set of the tide 
round the Cape prevented us from nearing the shore. 
In the morning it had fallen calm, but we had drifted 
ten or twelve miles to the north, along the eastern 
coast. The wind had been gradually drawing round 
to the south-west, and the clouds were gathering over 
the high peaks of the Middle Island. By night it was 
blowing as hard as ever from that quarter, and the 
sea, sweeping uninterrupted from the south, was as 
high as at the Cape of Good Hope. We were again 
under our pocket handkerchief, standing off and on 
near the coast, for two days and two nights. I had 
hoped to find some bay or cove large enough to afford 
us shelter ; but when we examined the coast, we 
could see nothing but terrific surf, tumbling upon 
sandy beaches or flying in jets of spray from the faces 
of high cliffs. When the weather moderated, we were 
off Cape Turnagain ; and we did not reach Port 
