did
not neglect to obey him, and I clung to a rope like a monkey. Most of
the passengers were below, sick in their berths. Down came the huge sea
upon us like the wall of a city overwhelming its inhabitants. Over our
deck it rushed with terrific force. I thought to a certainty that we
were sinking. What a horrible noise there was!--wrenching and tearing,
and the roar and dashing sound of the waves, and the howling of the
wind! All contributed to confuse my senses, so that I forgot altogether
where I was. I had an idea, I believe, that the end of the world was
come. Still my shipmates did not shriek out, and I was very much
surprised to find the brig rise again out of the water, and to see them
standing where they were before, employed in shaking the wet off their
jackets. The deck of the brig, however, presented a scene of no little
confusion and havoc. Part of her weather-bulwarks forward had been
stove in, the long-boat on the booms had been almost knocked to pieces,
and a considerable portion of the after-part of the lee-bulwarks had
been washed away, showing the course the sea had taken over us.

"We must not allow that trick to be played us again," said the captain
to the mates. I had crept as far aft as I dared go, for I did not like
the look of the sea through the broken bulwark, so I could hear him.
"Stand by to heave the ship to!" he shouted, and his voice was easily
heard above the sounds of the tempest. "Down with the helm!--In with
the jib!--Hand the maintopsail!" The officers and men, who were at
their stations, flew to obey their orders. I trembled as I saw the
third mate, with several other men, taking in the jib. Having let go
the halliards, and eased off the sheets, hauling away on the
down-hauler; and having got it down on the bowsprit-cap, though nearly
blown out of the bolt-ropes, stowing it away in the foretopmast
staysail-netting. As the bows of the brig now rose and now plunged into
the trough of the sea, I thought they must have been, to a certainty,
washed away. The maintopsail was, in the meantime, taken in, and I felt
that I was very glad I was not obliged to lay-out on the yard with the
other men. It seemed a wonder how they were not shaken off into the
sea, or carried away by the bulging sail. The great thing in taking in
a sail in a gale, as I now learned from Peter, is not to allow the sail
to shake, or it is very likely to split to pieces. Keep it steadily
full, and i