comfort." Some bread and cheese, with the remains
of yesterday's boiled pork, were put on the table, with a bottle of rum,
procured at the time they "spliced the mainbrace;" but we were all too
anxious to eat much, and one by one returned on deck to see how the
weather was, and if the wind at all favoured us. On deck the superior
officers were in conversation with the captain, who had expressed the
same fear that O'Brien had in our berth. The men, who knew what they had
to expect--for this sort of intelligence is soon communicated through a
ship--were assembled in knots, looking very grave, but at the same time
not wanting in confidence. They knew that they could trust to the
captain, as far as skill or courage could avail them, and sailors are
too sanguine to despair, even at the last moment. As for myself, I felt
such admiration for the captain, after what I had witnessed that
morning, that, whenever the idea came over me, that in all probability I
should be lost in a few hours, I could not help acknowledging how much
more serious it was that such a man should be lost to his country. I do
not intend to say that it consoled me; but it certainly made me still
more regret the chances with which we were threatened.

Before twelve o'clock, the rocky point which we so much dreaded was in
sight, broad on the lee-bow; and if the low sandy coast appeared
terrible, how much more did this, even at a distance: the black masses
of rock, covered with foam, which each minute dashed up in the air,
higher than our lower mast-heads. The captain eyed it for some minutes
in silence, as if in calculation.

"Mr Falcon," said he at last, "we must put the mainsail on her."

"She never can bear it, sir."

"She _must_ bear it," was the reply. "Send the men aft to the mainsheet.
See that careful men attend the buntlines."

The mainsail was set, and the effect of it upon the ship was tremendous.
She careened over so that her lee channels were under the water, and
when pressed by a sea, the lee-side of the quarter-deck and gangway were
afloat. She now reminded me of a goaded and fiery horse, mad with the
stimulus applied; not rising as before, but forcing herself through
whole seas, and dividing the waves, which poured in one continual
torrent from the forecastle down upon the decks below. Four men were
secured to the wheel--the sailors were obliged to cling, to prevent
being washed away--the ropes were thrown in confusion to leeward, the
s