arer home; and at night
dropped our stone under another range of cliffs, more regular but less
high than those near Hat Hill. At ten o'clock, the wind, which had been
unsettled and driving electric clouds in all directions, burst out in a
gale at south, and obliged us to get up the anchor immediately, and run
before it. In a few minutes the waves began to break; and the extreme
danger to which this exposed our little bark, was increased by the
darkness of the night, and the uncertainty of finding any place of
shelter. The shade of the cliffs over our heads, and the noise of the
surfs breaking at their feet, were the directions by which our course was
steered parallel to the coast.

Mr Bass kept the sheet of the sail in his hand, drawing in a few inches
occasionally, when he saw a particularly heavy sea following. I was
steering with an oar, and it required the utmost exertion and care to
prevent broaching to; a single wrong movement, or a moment's inattention,
would have sent us to the bottom. The task of the boy was to bale out the
water which, in spite of every care, the sea threw in upon us.

After running near an hour in this critical manner, some high breakers
were distinguished ahead; and behind them there appeared no shade of
cliffs. It was necessary to determine, on the instant, what was to be
done, for our bark could not live ten minutes longer. On coming to what
appeared to be the extremity of the breakers, the boat's head was brought
to the wind in a favourable moment, the mast and sail taken down, and the
oars got out. Pulling then towards the reef during the intervals of the
heaviest seas, we found it to terminate in a point; and in three minutes
were in smooth water under its lee. A white appearance, further back,
kept us a short time in suspense; but a nearer approach showed it to be
the beach of a well-sheltered cove, in which we anchored for the rest of
the night. So sudden a change, from extreme danger to comparatively
perfect safety, excited reflections which kept us some time awake: we
thought Providential Cove a well-adapted name for this place; but by the
natives, as we afterwards learned, it is called _Watta-Mowlee_.

On landing next morning, March 30, water was found at the back of the
beach. The country round the cove is, in general, sandy and barren. No
natives were seen, but their traces were recent. The extremity of the
reef, which afforded us such signal shelter, bore S.E. by E. from the
c