Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/57

 At nine, a. m. we tried for soundings, but found none, the gulf being unfathomable. At ten, fell a smothering rain, succeeded by a short calm, when {24} the wind veered to N. W. and the air became suddenly cold and clear, though in the gulf it was singularly, warm and foggy; the salt water was there as warm as milk from the cow, and very steamy, and sparkling like burning sulphur or volcanic lava, having luminous particles large as a hazel nut; but these, when touched by the finger, disappeared. Lat. 39°, long. 70° 50[']. Saw several pieces of wreck. This is the last day of March, and was expected to be the last of our lives.

April 1st.—Wind N. W. dead a-head, brisk, and colder than I ever felt it on a winter's day in England. I resume my winter dress, but cannot be warm. Tried for soundings, but our line of 140 fathoms found no bottom. At present we know not where we are. The captain, during yesterday's gale sulked, and would eat nothing, nor suffer any thing eatable to be cooked; I was therefore pining 24 hours on tea, coffee, wine, China sweetmeats, and dry, hard biscuits. These brave circumnavigators state, that during the last four years' voyage, they met not a worse gale than the equinoctial tempest of yesterday; and the captain says, that at six, a. m. he saw the most dangerous sea he had ever witnessed. It was mounting 15 feet above the ship, and ready to burst over her stern; a mighty mass of water, more than sufficient to have swept the deck of every man and beast and mast upon it, if not to sink the ship itself. My fears were not great; {25} but I felt rather loth to die without telling my own tale, or enabling others to tell it for me. "The chamber where the good man meets his fate," seemed indeed a matter of envy, and "privileged beyond the common lot." I desired and