Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/324

216 two pitches, the one after the other, so that I thought she was buried under the waves, and a considerable deal of water came in upon us. I am fully satisfied, had she not been in good order, very buoyant, and in her trim, she would have gone to the bottom, as the wind continued to blow a hurricane.

now to throw off my upper coat and trowsers, that I might endeavour to make shore, if the vessel should founder, whilst the servants seemed to have given themselves up, and made no preparation. The pilot kept in close by the land, to see if no bight, or inlet, offered to bring up in; but we were going with such violence, that I was satisfied we should overset if we attempted this. Every ten minutes we ran over the white coral banks, which we broke in pieces with the grating of a file, upon iron, and, what was the most terrible of all, a large wave followed higher than our stern, curling over it, and seemed to be the instrument destined by Providence to bury us in the abyss.

pilot began apparently to lose his understanding with fright. I begged him to be steady, persuading him to take a glass of spirits, and desired him not to dispute or doubt any thing that I should do or order, for that I had seen much more terrible nights in the ocean; I assured him, that all harm done to his vessel should be repaired when we should get to Cosseir, or even a new one bought for him, if his own was much damaged. He answered me nothing, but that Mahomet was the prophet of GOD. — Let him prophecy, said I, as long as he pleases, but what I order you is to keep steady to the helm; mind the vane on the top of the mast, and steer straight before the wind, for I am resolved to cut Rh