st
or slowly I could not tell. I expected that she would continue her
steady progress to the end of the voyage. I had gone to sleep, and I
now generally slept on for eight or ten hours at a stretch, so I could
not say whether it was night or day. All was the same to me. Suddenly
I was awakened by a fearful uproar, and I found myself jerked off my
sleeping-place on to the hard boards. From the noises I heard I fancied
the ship must be going to pieces, or that the masts were falling. She
heeled over so much on one side it seemed impossible that the
water-butts could keep their positions, and I thought every instant I
should be crushed to death by the one on the weather side falling upon
me. A fearful storm was raging. My ears were deafened by the dashing
of the fierce waves, and the howling and whistling of the wind, which
reached me even down where I was; and by the incessant creaking of the
bulkheads. Crash succeeded crash; the whole cargo seemed to be tossed
about, now to one side now to the other. I could feel the ship rise to
the summit of a sea, and then plunge down again to the depths below. I
had hitherto retained my composure, but I now almost gave way to
despair. It seemed that the ship, stout as she was, would not be able
to survive the fierce contest in which she was engaged with the raging
elements. Not for a moment was she quiet; now she appeared to be
rolling as if she would roll the masts out of her, had they not already
gone; now she surged forward and went with a plunge into the sea, which
made her quiver from stem to stern. I thought that ribs and planks
could not possibly hold together. I expected every moment to be my
last. It would have been bad enough to have had to endure this on deck,
surrounded by my fellow-creatures--down in the dark hold it was
terrible.

I now wonder that my senses did not desert me, but matters had not yet
come to their worst. I dared not move, for fear of being dashed against
the casks. There I lay helpless and almost hopeless, while the violence
of the movements increased. I did not feel sick, as before. Terror
banished all other sensations. Suddenly I heard a loud crash close to
me, and I found myself nearly overwhelmed by a strong rush of water.
The instinct to live made me spring to my feet, for I should have been
drowned had I remained where I was. I fully believed that the side of
the ship had been forced in, and that before many seconds had passe