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were very few male passengers. The weather was dreadful; we had
violent contrary winds almost the whole time, and one terrific gale
that lasted nearly four days; during which time I and my poor little
child and her nurse were prisoners in the cabin, where we had not
even the consolation of daylight, the skylights being all closely
covered to protect us from the sea, which broke all over the decks.
I begged so hard one day to have the covering removed, and a ray of
daylight admitted, if only for five minutes, that I was indulged,
and had reason to repent it; the sea almost instantly broke the
windows and poured down upon us like Niagara, and I was thankful to
be covered up again as quick as possible in dry darkness.

This storm was made memorable to me by an experience of which I have
read one or two descriptions, by persons who have been similarly
affected in seasons of great peril, and which I have never ceased
regretting that I did not make a record of as soon as possible; but
the lapse of time, though it has no doubt enfeebled, has in no other
way altered, the impressions I received.

The tempest was the first I had ever witnessed, and was undoubtedly
a more formidable one than I have ever since encountered in eighteen
passages across the Atlantic. I was told, after it was over, that
the vessel had sprung its mainmast--a very serious injury to a
sailing ship, I suppose, by the mode in which it was spoken of; and
for three days we were unable to carry any sail whatever for the
fury of the wind.

At the height of the storm, in the middle of a night which my
faithful friend and servant, Margery O'Brien, passed in prayer,
without once rising from her knees, the frightful uproar of the
elements and the delirious plunging and rearing of the convulsed
ship convinced me that we should inevitably be lost. As the vessel
reeled under a tremendous shock, the conviction of our impending
destruction became so intense in my mind, that my imagination
suddenly presented to me the death-vision, so to speak, of my whole
existence.

This kind of phenomenon has been experienced and recorded by persons
who have gone through the process of drowning, and afterwards
recovered; or have otherwise been in imminent peril of their lives,
and have left curious and highly interesting accounts of t