being the cruising-ground which I believed the
pirates would be most likely to haunt.

Shortly before daybreak, on the third morning after leaving Port Royal,
we found ourselves rapidly drawing into smooth water--so rapidly,
indeed, that Pearce, the boatswain, whose watch it was, came down in
some alarm and roused me out, fearing that Willoughby, the midshipman
who was acting as master, had made a mistake in his reckoning, and that
we were about to blunder on to some danger or another. I was able,
however, to set the good man's mind at rest by explaining that we were
doubtless drawing in under the lee of the Caycos Bank, and that
therefore the water might naturally be expected to smoothen.
Nevertheless, feeling that I had had a good night's rest, and
understanding from Pearce that day would dawn in less than
half-an-hour's time, I turned out and, slipping into my trousers and
jacket, went up on deck. And very glad I was that I had done so, for I
was thus enabled to observe a very curious natural phenomenon, which one
might knock about in those seas for years without seeing, for the simple
reason that the circumstances must be favourable or the phenomenon is
not visible.

The Caycos Bank is a shoal lying some sixty-eight miles off Monte
Christi, on the north coast of Hayti. It measures about the same
distance from its north-western to its south-eastern extremity, and is
about sixty-two miles across from east to west at its widest point; it
is consequently of considerable extent, and from the fact that the depth
of water over it ranges from six feet to eighteen feet it is not without
its dangers, and must be approached with due caution, especially during
the hours of darkness. In daylight the danger is not nearly so great,
because the north-eastern and north-western edges of the shoal are
fringed by a number of cays among which the sea breaks heavily, while
the whole surface of the shoal is white water. And it is this same
white water which gives rise to the phenomenon above referred to,
locally known as "Bank Blink." It is simply the reflection of the
phosphorescence of the water in the clouds above; and the darker and
more overcast the night, the more distinctly is the reflection seen.
The phenomenon is, of course, quite natural and easily to be accounted
for, yet its occurrence can scarcely be regarded as less than
providential; for there can be no doubt whatever that its appearance in
the sky has often been th