he little port.
_Dios!_ how furiously the gusts came sweeping down the steep gorge,
brushing the stout oars like feathers alongside the boat; then a renewed
struggle, only to be blown from the course, and the water torn into
foam, and dashed over us. We began to despair of getting on shore,
although the strand was nearly within arm's length, for the gale blew
with such unremitting violence as to defy our efforts. However, thanks
to San Antonio, there came a transient lull, and the pilots were enabled
to fasten a strong cable to the rocks. It was somewhere in this bay
where the great Cortes became tossed about in his crazy bark--perchance
it may have been the haven we had sought--and in gratitude for our
escape, we voted a candle to the Virgin.

We found ourselves shut up in a slender canal, walled by precipitous
masses of granitic rooks, hundreds of feet above us, and the channel
terminated by fifty yards of smooth, pebbly beach. The fires were soon
blazing merrily, and after a hasty supper, we stretched ourselves on
the clean sand, and in sleep, forgot our escape from boatwreck.

The morning came bright and cheerful, with not enough wind to roughen
the quiet surface of the little haven. We were amused paddling among
caverns and grottos of the cliffs for an hour, and then once more
stepping on board the cutter, we soon lost sight of our harbor of
refuge.

Coasting along the island we passed a number of these narrow
indentations, protected like spaces between one's fingers. At one of
them we threw out a grapnell, and the divers collected upwards of an
hundred pearl oysters within the hour; beyond we selected a cool
retreat, beneath overhanging ledges of rock, where we proposed dining.
Our position was exceedingly novel and curious. The finger-like
promontory lifted its crest perpendicularly from the bay; the base of
the cliff was composed of a thick and variegated strata of black
pudding-stone, worn into lateral curves and arches, upon which rested
the great body of the cliff, which appeared formed of red sand-stone,
having one side scooped and scolloped into profiles upon
profiles--hideous caricatures and contortions, letters and numerals,
while on the face, looking towards the inlet, and immediately over our
dining-hall, was cut a well-defined gallery, leading from turret to
turret, the whole closed by a most artificial-looking tower and
battlement! We had to gaze a long while, before convinced that the
elements th