ores of Portugal and Madeira. In a more uncomfortable vessel,
especially steam-ship, it has never been my fate to make a voyage; the
berths were small and insupportably close, and of the wretched holes mine
was amongst the worst, the rest having been for the most part bespoken
before I arrived on board, so that to avoid the suffocation which seemed
to threaten me I lay upon the floor of one of the cabins, and continued
to do so until my arrival here. We remained at Falmouth twenty-four
hours, taking in coals and repairing the engine, which had sustained
considerable damage.

On Monday the 7th inst. we again started and made for the Bay of Biscay;
the sea was high and the wind strong and contrary, nevertheless on the
morning of the fourth day we were in sight of the rocky coast to the
north of Cape Finisterre. I must here observe that this was the first
voyage that the captain who commanded the vessel had ever made on board
of her, and that he knew little or nothing about the coast towards which
we were bearing; he was a person picked up in a hurry, the former captain
having resigned his command on the ground that the ship was not
sea-worthy, and that the engines were frequently unserviceable. I was
not acquainted with these circumstances at the time, or perhaps I should
have felt more alarmed than I did when I saw the vessel approaching
nearer and nearer to the shore, till at last we were only a few hundred
yards distant. As it was, however, I felt very much surprised, for
having passed it twice before, both times in steam-vessels, and having
seen with what care the captains endeavoured to maintain a wide offing, I
could not conceive the reason of our being now so near the dangerous
region. The wind was blowing hard towards the shore, if that can be
called a shore which consists of steep abrupt precipices, on which the
surf was breaking with the noise of thunder, tossing up clouds of spray
and foam to the height of a cathedral. We coasted slowly along, rounding
several tall forelands, some of them piled up by the hand of nature in
the most fantastic shapes, until about the fall of night. Cape
Finisterre was not far ahead, a bluff brown granite mountain, whose
frowning head may be seen far away by those who travel the ocean. The
stream which poured round its breast was terrific, and though our engines
plied with all their force, we made little or no way.

By about eight o'clock at night, the wind had increased t