y buoyant, and we shipped
nothing heavier than spray; but my heart ached as I thought of the poor
women and children cooped up in the long-boat, and pictured to myself
their too probable piteous condition of cold and wet and misery.

As the night wore on, the weather grew steadily worse; and morning at
length dawned upon us, hove-to under close-reefed canvas, with a strong
gale blowing, and a high, steep, and dangerous sea running. And there
was every prospect that there was worse to come, for the sun rose as a
pale, wan, shapeless blot of sickly light, faintly showing through a
veil of dim, grey, watery vapour, streaked with light-coloured patches
of tattered scud, that swept athwart the louring sky at a furious rate,
while the sea had that greenish, turbid appearance that is often
noticeable as a precursor of bad weather.

None of the other boats were anywhere near us, so far as could be made
out; but one of the men was still standing on a thwart, steadying
himself by the mast, looking for them, when he suddenly made our hearts
leap and our pulses quicken by flinging out his right arm and pointing
vehemently, as he yelled:

"Sail ho! a couple of points on the lee bowl. A ship, sir, steerin'
large, under to'gallant-sails!"

"Let me get a look at her," answered I, as I clawed my way forward,
noticing with consternation as I did so, that, despite the continuous
baling that had been kept up, the water was fully three inches deep in
the bottom of the boat, and that the lower tier of our provisions was,
in consequence, most probably spoiled.

The man, having first carefully pointed out to me the exact direction in
which I was to look for the stranger, climbed down off the thwart and so
made room for me to take his place, which I immediately did. Yes; there
she was, precisely as the man had said, a full-rigged ship, scudding
under topgallant-sails. She was fully seven--maybe nearer eight--miles
away, and although rather on our lee bow at the moment when first
sighted--in consequence of the gig having just then come to--was in
reality still a trifle to windward of us. Of course it was utterly
useless to hope that we could, by any means at our disposal, attract her
attention at that distance; but as I looked almost despairingly at her,
and noticed that she did not appear to be travelling very fast, it
occurred to me that there was just a ghost of a chance that, by bearing
up and running away to leeward, upon a course