t, for, when we came to try, we
found that the sun appeared in our instruments merely as a shapeless
glare of light, while the horizon was wholly indistinguishable. Then,
by imperceptible degrees, the sun, like the horizon, became obliterated,
and the atmosphere stealthily darkened, as though a continuous
succession of curtains of grey gauze were being interposed between us
and the sky. Meanwhile the barometer was still persistently declining,
although not quite so rapidly as during the early hours of the morning.

It was about six bells in the afternoon watch when, with a sudden
darkening of the sky, that came upon us like the gloom of night, it
began to rain--a regular tropical deluge, sluicing down upon us in
sheets, as though the bottom of a cloud had dropped out; and within less
than a minute our decks were more than ankle-deep in warm fresh water,
and our scuppers were running full. The downpour lasted for perhaps a
minute and a half, and then ceased as abruptly as though a tap had been
turned off, and we heard the shower passing away to the northward of us,
leaving us with streaming decks and dripping canvas and rigging. But,
although the rain had come and gone again in the space of a couple of
minutes, the darkness intensified rather than otherwise, and presently
we heard a muttering of distant thunder away down in the southern
quarter, followed, after a while, by a further dash of rain, lasting for
a few seconds only.

Then, all in a moment, and without any further warning, the blackness
overhead was riven by the most appallingly vivid flash of lightning that
I had ever seen, accompanied--not followed--by a crash of thunder that
temporarily deafened all hands of us and caused the ship to quiver and
tremble from stem to stern. Then, while we were all standing agape, our
ears deafened by the thunder and our eyes blinded by the glare of the
lightning, a fierce gust of hot wind swept over us, filling our two
staysails with a report like that of a cannon and laying the ship over
to her sheer-strake. Tasker, who was again officer of the watch, at
once sprang to the wheel and assisted the helmsman to put it hard up;
but almost before the ship had begun to gather way the first fierceness
of the gust had passed, leaving us little more than a fresh breeze. I
therefore went aft and shouted to them--for they were as deaf as I was--
to bring the vessel up to her course again, when we began to move
through the water