endicular direction, from the force of the wind, fed
the gale instead of lulling it. The thunder rolled--and the frigate was
so drenched with water, that the guns were primed and reprimed, without
the fire communicating to the powder, which in a few seconds was
saturated with the rain and spray. This was but of little consequence,
as the squall and torrents of rain had now hid the enemy from their
sight. "Look out for her, my men, as soon as the squall passes over,"
cried Captain M---.

A flash of lightning, that blinded them for a time, was followed by a
peal of thunder, so close, that the timbers of the ship trembled with
the vibration of the air. A second hostile meeting of electricity took
place, and the fluid darted down the side of the frigate's mainmast,
passing through the quarter-deck in the direction of the
powder-magazine. Captain M---, the first-lieutenant, master, and fifty
or sixty of the men, were struck down by the violence of the shook.
Many were killed, more wounded, and the rest, blinded and stunned,
staggered, and fell to leeward with the lurching of the vessel.
Gradually, those who were only stunned recovered their legs, and amongst
the first was the captain of the frigate. As soon as he could recall
his scattered senses, with his usual presence of mind, he desired the
"fire-roll" to be beat by the drummer, and sent down to ascertain the
extent of the mischief. A strong sulphureous smell pervaded the ship,
and flew up the hatchways; and such was the confusion, that some minutes
elapsed before any report could be made. It appeared that the electric
fluid had passed close to the spirit-room and after-magazine, and
escaped through the bottom of the vessel. Before the report had been
made, the captain had given directions for taking the wounded down to
the surgeon, and the bodies of the dead under the half-deck. The
electric matter had divided at the foot of the mainmast, to which it had
done no injury--one part, as before mentioned, having gone below, while
the other, striking the iron bolt that connected the lower part of the
main-bitts, had thence passed to the two foremast quarter-deck
carronades, firing them both off at the same moment that it killed and
wounded the men who were stationed at them. The effects of the
lightning were various. The men who were close to the foot of the
mainmast, holding on by the ropes belayed to the main-bitts, were burnt
to a cinder, and their blackened co