Page:Thirty-five years in the East.djvu/42

2 was on board, with whom I conversed in Moldavian.On the approach of evening,we sailed from Varna,with a favorable wind,in company with a Turkish fleet of about twenty small vessels.Fatigued by travelling,and lulled to sleep by the soothing motion of the vessel,I sank into the most charming reveries of the future;when,towards midnight, I was aroused by the noise of the crew and passengers.A dreadful tempest from the north had overtaken us so suddenly,that there was not time to haul down the sails,which, in a few minutes, were shivered to pieces,and continued flapping and whistling in the storm. The mast itself did not escape the violence of the elements, but fell overboard with a crashing noise;and the foaming waves gushed into the open vessel. The night was profoundly dark, illumined occasionally by flashes of lightning, accompanied with peals of thunder; hail and rain fell tempestuously; the elements seemed to have conspired against us.Too late, I became aware of my error, and regretted having embarked in a heavily laden open vessel;but, as all the other ships were of a like size, and similarly laden,I had no choice. By the lightning we could, now and then, perceive some of the vessels belonging to our squadron exerting their efforts to get through the foaming waves, sometimes riding on the watery mountains, at other times plunging between the gaping billows. We felt some consolation so long as we held them in sight;but, they soon disappeared altogether.

As our vessel had shipped a great deal of water,the sailors (few in number) were obliged to bail without intermission, in which they were assisted by the passengers, while standing up to their knees in ice-cold water.Every exertion was made to save the vessel; and, at the of the tempest, when the mast went by the board, it was found advisable to lighten the vessel by throwing the cargo into the deep. Notwithstanding thirty-five years have elapsed, I vividly recollect their beginning with a large earthenware-stove which stood on the poop. They then threw overboard barrels of honey, bags of walnuts, &c.,so that there remained only a quantity of burduffes (ox hides,