rally a lull after that,
and then is the time to bring the ship's head to the wind. During the
evolution the ship is liable to get in the trough of the sea, when she
rolls heavily, and has her deck swept by the waves. The dangerous
operation in our case proved successful.

While our ship lay to we had just sail enough to keep her head to the
wind, and she rode like a big albatross on the water, drifting a little
to leeward. When she was in the hollow of two waves, these seemed like
mountains ready to engulf us, but we rode safely over every one. As we
lay to we felt perfectly secure. Our ship did not roll as if broadside
to the seas, but pitched, rising slowly, over every wave.

After lying to for over six hours, the storm having somewhat moderated,
we sailed east towards the shore; but before the day was over we
encountered a cross-sea, the waves coming in every direction and
striking against each other. The man at the helm had to watch them.
Evidently there had been two or three heavy storms blowing in different
directions. A cross-sea is very dangerous, for the man at the helm never
knows where the wave will strike. After a while the wind shifted and was
ahead, and now we had to beat against it and we sailed under close
reefed sails. The wind seemed ten times stronger than before, for when a
ship runs before the wind, the wind is not felt so much, as it goes with
the ship.

As we came to a barren island, running parallel with the main land, we
saw the angry sea lashing itself with a tremendous force against the
solid base of mountain walls, filling the air each time it struck with a
deep booming sound which seemed like the roar of cannon heard far off;
the waves, as they struck the immovable wall of rocks which stopped
their advance, breaking into a tumultuous mass of seething billows,
which recoiled from the barrier that opposed them and fell back into a
surging, boiling mass of white which soon after was hurled forward again
by another advancing wave rushing on to meet the same fate. The whole
coast was fringed as far as the eye could see with a mass of angry white
billows. It was an awful sight.

Seamen dread the coast in a storm more than they do the waves in the
middle of the ocean. We steered for the leeward of the island, and when
we reached the sound separating it from the main land we came into
smooth water where we cast anchor. We were to remain there until the
storm abated, to give a good rest to the c