, men swearing, rigging cracking, the vessels crashing and
thumping together, I thought we were gone, when the first lieutenant
seized his trumpet--"Silence, men; hold your tongues, you cowards, and
mind the word of command!"

The effect was magical.--"Brace round the foreyard--round with it; set
the jib--that's it--fore-top-mast staysail--haul--never mind if the
gale takes it out of the bolt-rope"--a thundering flap, and away it
flew in truth down to leeward, like a puff of white smoke.--"Never
mind, men, the jib stands. Belay all that--down with the helm,
now--don't you see she has stern way yet? Zounds! we shall be smashed
to atoms if you don't mind your hands, you lubbers--main-topsail sheets
let fly--there she pays off, and has headway once more--that's it:
right your helm, now--never mind his spanker-boom, the fore-stay will
stand it: there--up with helm, sir--we have cleared him--hurrah!" And
a near thing it was too, but we soon had everything snug; and although
the gale continued without any intermission for ten days, at length we
ran in and anchored with our prize in Five-Fathom Hole, off the
entrance to St. George's Harbour.

It was lucky for us that we got to anchor at the time we did, for that
same afternoon one of the most tremendous gales of wind from the
westward came on that I ever saw. Fortunately it was steady and did
not veer about, and having good ground-tackle down, we rode it out well
enough. The effect was very uncommon; the wind was howling over our
mast-heads, and amongst the cedar bushes on the cliffs above, while on
deck it was nearly calm, and there was very little swell, being a
weather shore; but half a mile out at sea all was white foam, and the
tumbling waves seemed to meet from north and south, leaving a space of
smooth water under the lee of the island, shaped like the tail of a
comet, tapering away, and gradually roughening and becoming more
stormy, until the roaring billows once more owned allegiance to the
genius of the storm.

There we rode, with three anchors ahead, in safety through the night;
and next day, availing of a temporary lull, we ran up and anchored off
the Tanks. Three days after this, the American frigate _President_ was
brought in by the Endymion and the rest of the squadron.

I went on board, in common with every officer in the fleet, and
certainly I never saw a more superb vessel; her scantling was that of a
seventy-four, and she appeared to have been fitt