emainder
of my property, one half of which I laid out in merchandise, and the
other I gave to her, for her support during my absence, I embarked on
board of a vessel bound to the West Indies.

We made the islands without any accident, and I was extremely successful
in my speculations; I began to think that fortune was tired of
persecuting me, but knowing how treacherous she was, I shipped one half
of my return cargo in another vessel, that I might have more than one
chance.

When our captain was ready to sail, the passengers repaired on board,
and amongst others a rich old gentleman who had come from Mexico, and
who had been waiting for a passage home to France. He was very ill when
he came on board, and I recommended his losing a little blood, offering
my services on the occasion. They were accepted; the old gentleman
recovered, and we were very intimate afterwards. We had been about a
fortnight clear of the island, when a hurricane came on, the equal to
which in force I never beheld. The sea was one sheet of foam, the air
was loaded with spray, which was thrown with such violence against our
faces that we were blinded; and the wind blew so strong that no one
could stand up against it. The vessel was thrown on her beam ends, and
we all gave ourselves up for lost. Fortunately the masts went by the
board, and the ship righted. But when the hurricane abated, we were in
an awkward predicament; the spare spars had been washed overboard, and
we had no means of rigging jury-masts and making sail. There we lay
rolling in a perfect calm which had succeeded, and drifting to the
northward by the influence of what is called the Gulf stream.

One morning, as we were anxiously looking out for a vessel, we perceived
something at a distance, but could not ascertain what it was.

At first we imagined that it was several casks floating, which had been
thrown overboard, or had forced their way out of the hold of some vessel
which had foundered at sea. But at last we discovered that it was an
enormous serpent, coming directly on towards the vessel, at the rate of
fifteen or twenty miles an hour. As it approached, we perceived to our
horror, that it was about a hundred feet long, and as thick as the
main-mast of a seventy-four; it occasionally reared its head many feet
above the surface, and then plunging it down again continued its rapid
course. When it neared us to within a mile, we were so alarmed that we
all ran down bel