Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/80

60 the seaman at Vera Cruz prevail equally on this side of the continent. There is generally, about midday, a great bore or swell which sets in upon the coast: this had commenced with such violence, just as the boat was leaving the shore, that the ladies, much to their mortification, were obliged to relinquish their design.

As Captain Brown was desirous of making the best of his voyage to the southward, and as I was anxious not to detain him, I proposed to land, notwithstanding the state of the weather, and I was accordingly rowed ashore about twelve o'clock. When within a quarter of a mile of it, I was transferred, together with the luggage which had not been already landed, into another boat: it was that in which Lieut. Morgan had gone off in the morning, and was supposed better adapted for making the shore. As it was, however, we got sadly ducked: the breakers were so large that, with about every third wave, the boat was completely swamped, and had we not been able to swim, our lives