rong from
the north, as it has done now, it sometimes lasteth for five days, and
the sea becomes very great."

"'Tis well, Niabon," I answered, with a laugh, meant more for Lucia than
for her; "we shall turn the boat's head for Apamama, and lie there in
the lagoon in peace till the gale hath died away."

And then we wore ship, and in another hour were racing before the gale
under the jib and an extemporised foresail of a mat lashed to two short
oars, the lower one fast to the deck, and the upper one, eighteen inches
or so higher, to the mast stays. This lifted the boat beautifully, and
made her steer ever so much easier than had I tried to run her with a
close-reefed mainsail, for the lopping seas would have caught the boom,
and either capsized us or carried the mast away, and yet I had to
keep enough canvas on her--jib and mat foresail--to run away from
the toppling mountains of water behind us. I had never had such an
experience before, and hope I may never have one like it again. Every
few minutes we would drop down into a valley as dark as death, with an
awful wall of blackness astern, towering over us mountain high, shaking
and wavering as if it knew not the exact spot whereunder we, struggling
upward, lay helpless in the trough, awaiting to be sent to the bottom
if we failed to rise on the first swelling outlier of the black terror
astern.

[Illustration: How we escaped broaching to 140]

How we escaped broaching to and foundering in that wild gale will always
be a wonder to me, for the boat, although she did not ship much water,
seemed so deadly sluggish at times that looking astern made my flesh
creep. All that night we went tearing along, and glad enough we were
when day broke, and we saw the sun rise. The wind still blew with great
violence, but later on in the morning the sky cleared rapidly, and at
nine o'clock, to our delight, we sighted Apamama a little to leeward,
distant about eight miles, and in another hour we raced through the
north passage and brought-to in smooth water under the lee of two small
uninhabited islands which gave us good shelter. From where we were
anchored we could see the main village, which was six miles away to the
eastward, and I quite expected to see visitors coming as soon as the
wind fell sufficiently to permit of boats or canoes beating over to
us, and determined to give them the slip if possible, and get under way
again before they could board us and urge me to come and an