but disagreeable infliction. The wind, too,
hung perseveringly in the east, and things were getting uncomfortable.
They were destined, as the following extracts will show, to be yet more
so.

_Wednesday, December 11th._--As ugly-looking a morning as one could well
conceive. Thick, dark, gloomy weather, with the wind blowing fresh from
the east, and threatening a gale (bar. 29.70 and falling) and a steady
but moderate rain falling. Put the ship under short sail. Our large
number of prisoners renders the crew very uncomfortable during this bad
weather. At meridian, gale blowing, with thick, driving rain. Lat.
32 deg. 48' N., Long. 49 deg. 32' W.D.R. At 2 P.M., dense clouds hanging very low
all around the horizon in every direction. Wind about E.S.E., inclined
to haul to the southward. Bar. 29.59. The pall of clouds is not so dense
as at noon, and the rain comes only occasionally in squalls. The clouds
are rifted, and appear to be on the point of rapid motion. Wore ship to
the northward and eastward. The wind soon after backed to the northward
and eastward, and we had to run the ship off N.W. for a while. Towards
night, however, the wind went back to E., and blew very fiercely,
raising very heavy and irregular sea-squalls of rain. The lightning was
very vivid. It blew very heavily until about 1 A.M., when it abated for
more than two hours, blowing only in puffs, and then not very hard. Near
the centre of the cyclone, lowest barometer. A little past midnight a
quartermaster entered with the report that the starboard-bow port had
been stove in! It was then blowing furiously. I immediately despatched
the first lieutenant to barricade the port and stop out the water as
effectually as possible, in which he succeeded pretty well. This report
gave me considerable anxiety, as the ports in the gun-deck and the
uppermost works of the ship are her weak points at which the gale would
assault her with most effect. In the meantime the barometer has been
gradually settling, settling, settling--sometimes remaining stationary
for several hours and then going down as before. At 8 P.M. it was 29.53.
We had an awful night--no one able to sleep.

_Thursday, December 12th_.--Thick, gloomy weather, with the gale raging
as fiercely as ever. It blew very heavily all the morning. The barometer
continued to sink until it reached 29.32--at 6 A.M. its lowest point.
The wind has hauled to the south. We are evidently in a cyclone, having
taken it in it