as Abaco reef. Directly under our lee was the worst part of
the whole reef, marked on the chart "Dangerous rocky shore." Unless the
gale abated or the wind hauled, in eight or ten hours we must strike. I
must confess I saw but little hope of a change, and this rocky reef was
but a few feet under water, and twenty miles distant from terra firma.
If the vessel struck, she must go to pieces; nothing made by man's
hands could stand against the fury of the sea, and every moment we were
nearer destruction. We sat with the chart before us, looking at it as a
sentenced convict might look at an advertisement of the time fixed for
his execution. The sunken rocks seemed to stand out horribly on the
paper; and though every glance at the sea told us that with daylight no
human strength could prevail against it, it added to our uncomfortable
feelings to know that it would be nearly night when the crisis arrived.
We had but one consolation--there were no women or children on board.
All were able-bodied men, capable of doing all that men could do in a
struggle for life. But, fortunately for the reader of these pages, to
say nothing of the relief to ourselves, at one o'clock the wind veered;
we got on a little canvass; the good ship struggled for her life; by
degrees she turned her back upon danger, and at night we were again on
our way rejoicing.

On the twenty-seventh we furled sails off the port of Sisal. Five
vessels were at anchor, an extraordinary circumstance for Sisal, and
fortunate for us, because otherwise, as our captain had never been
there before, though carefully looking for it, we might not have been
able to find it. Our anchorage ground was on the open coast, two or
three miles from land, at which distance it was necessary to keep, lest
we should be driven ashore in case of a norther. Captain Scholefield,
in fact, before he had discharged his cargo, was obliged to slip his
cables and put to sea, and did not get back to his anchorage ground in
nine days.

It was only four o'clock in the afternoon, but, by the regulations of
the port, no passenger could land until the vessel had been visited by
the health and custom-house officers. We looked out till dark, and long
after the moon rose, but no notice whatever was taken of us, and, with
no very amiable feelings toward the lazy officials, we turned in again
on board.

In the morning, when we went on deck, we saw anchored under our stern
the brig Lucinda, in which we had t