me to most heartily congratulate myself that I had
determined upon rounding-to on the starboard tack; for had I done so
with the ship's head to the westward, without seeing this point, we
could not possibly have weathered it, and must have taken our choice--
when we _did_ discover it--of going ashore upon it, or upon the land to
leeward, should we attempt to wear the ship; for she would never have
tacked in such a sea as was now running, with such a small amount of
canvas as we were showing.

As the ship came to the wind we, for the first time since the outburst
of the gale, gained something like a just idea of its tremendous
strength and violence. With nothing on her but the two close-reefed
topsails and the fore-topmast staysail, the poor little _Esmeralda_
bowed beneath the fury of the blast until her lee rail was awash and her
lee scuppers more than waist-deep in water. The howling and hooting of
the gale aloft, as it tore furiously through the maze of spars and
rigging opposed to it, produced a wild medley of sound that utterly
baffles all attempt at description; while the savage plunges of the ship
into the short, steep sea and the horrible way in which she careened
during her lee rolls almost sickened me with anxiety lest the masts
should go over the side and leave us to drive ashore, a helpless hulk.
True, in such a case we might have attempted to anchor, but I had very
grave doubts whether our ground-tackle, good though it was, would have
brought us up in such weather. The masts stood well, however--they were
magnificent sticks, both of them, while our standing rigging was of wire
throughout--and, as to our canvas, had I not seen it, I could not have
believed that any fabric woven by mortal hands would have withstood such
a terrific strain. It did, however, and moreover dragged the ship along
at a speed of which I should never have believed the little craft
capable, under such very short canvas, and close-hauled, had I not been
present to witness her performance. With her steeply heeling decks, her
taunt masts and their intricacy of standing and running rigging taut and
rigid as iron bars to windward, while to leeward they streamed away in
deep, symmetrical curving bights, her braced-up yards, and the straining
canvas of the close-reefed topsails and fore-topmast staysail all
swaying wildly aslant athwart the blue-black expanse of star-spangled
sky; with her lee rail awash; her decks a tumultuous sea in min