young gentlemen, and make
yourselves comfortable. Ah, Mr Gogles, I'm glad to see you here;
you've not heard any of my veracious narrative, but now you shall hear
something to astonish you, I guess."

Gogles was a young midshipman, the son of a planter at Jamaica, who had
joined us when we were last there. His countenance exhibited a large
capacity for imbibing the wonderful and improbable, a fact which had not
escaped Mr Johnson's acute observation.

By the time Toby Bluff had brought the boatswain his usual evening glass
of grog, and he had cleared his throat, and, as he remarked, brought up
his thoughts from the store-lockers of memory, a large audience was
collected in and outside the cabin.

"Listen then, and let no one doubt me," continued Mr Johnson. "I told
you the Lady Stiggins was bound round Cape Horn. We were running down
the coast of America, when somewhere to the southward of the latitude of
Demerara it came on to blow very hard from the north and west. The
clouds came rushing along the sky like a mass of people all hurrying to
see the king open parliament, or a clown throw a summersault at a fair,
or anything of that sort, while the wind howled and screeched in the
rigging as I have heard wild beasts in the woods in Africa, and the sea
got up and tumbled and rolled as if the waves were dancing for their
very lives. You need not believe it, but the foam flew from them so
thick that it actually lifted the ship at times out of the water. We
had sent down our topgallant yards, and had just furled the courses, and
were in the act of lowering our main-topsail to reef it close, when a
squall, more heavy than before, came right down upon us. I was at the
helm at the time, and heard it roaring up astern. The main-topsail yard
had just reached the cap, and the fore-topsail was the only sail showing
to the breeze. The blast struck us; a clap, as if of thunder, was
heard, and away flew our fore-topsail clean out of the bolt-ropes, and
clear of everything. Off it flew, right away to leeward, down upon the
breeze. I kept my eye on it, and observed that instead of sinking, from
the strength and buoyant power of the wind, it retained precisely the
same elevation above the sea that it had done when spread to the yard.
I did not mention the circumstance to anyone, but took care not to lose
sight of the sail. This was a hint to us not to set more canvas, so the
main-topsail was furled, and away we scudded, un