we envied
them their freedom from all impediments. The least exertion was irksome,
and attended with extreme lassitude. During the afternoon thin cirri
clouds, flying very high, spread out over the western heavens like a
fan. As the day lengthened they thickened to resemble the scales of
a fish, bringing to mind the old saying, "A mackerel sky and a mare's
tail," etc. The signs were all unmistakable, and even the gulls
recognized a change, and, screaming, sought shelter on our spars. Mr.
Block was ordered to send down all the light yards and sails; to take
in and furl everything, using storm gaskets, except on the fore and main
storm staysails; to lash everything on deck; to batten down the hatches,
except one square of the main; see all the shifting boards in place, so
that our living cargo would not be thrown to leeward higgledy-piggledy,
and to take four or five of the worst cases of the sick into the cabin
and lay them on the floor.

The sun disappeared behind a mountainous mass of leaden-colored
clouds which rose rapidly in the southern and western quarters. To the
eastward, also, the signs were threatening. Night came on suddenly as it
does in the tropics. Soon the darkness enveloped us, a palpable veil. A
noise like the march of a mighty host was heard, which proved to be the
approach of a tropical flood, heralded by drops as large as marbles. It
churned the still waters into a phosphorescent foam which rendered the
darkness only more oppressive. The rain came down as it can come only
in the Bight of Benin. The avalanche cooled us, reducing the temperature
ten or fifteen degrees, giving us new life, and relieving our fevered
blood. I told Mr. Block to throw back the tarpaulin over the main hatch
and let our dusky friends get some benefit of it. In half an hour the
rain ceased, but it was as calm and ominous as ever.

I knew this was but the forerunner of something worse to follow, and we
had not long to wait, for suddenly a blinding flash of lightning darted
through the gloom from east to west, followed by one in the opposite
direction. Without intermission, one blaze after another and thunder
crashing until our eyes were blinded and our ears deafened, a thousand
times ten thousand pieces of artillery thundered away. We seemed utterly
helpless and insignificant. "How wonderful are Thy works," came to my
mind. Still no wind; the brig lay helpless.

Suddenly, as a slap in the face, the wind struck us,--on the sta