on the shore, who greatly assist the
impulse when the wave comes, both by keeping her in a straight course,
and likewise by preventing her upsetting. These last stages of the
process are very disagreeable, for every time the surf reaches the
boat, it raises her up and lets her fall again, with a violent jerk.
When at last she is high enough to remain beyond the wash of the surf,
you either jump out, or more frequently descend by means of a ladder,
as you would get off the top of a stage-coach; and, turning about, you
look with astonishment at what you have gone through, and thank Heaven
you are safe!

The return passage from the shore to a ship, in a masullah boat, is
more tedious, but less dangerous, than the process of landing. This
difference will easily be understood, when it is recollected that in
one case the boat is carried impetuously forward by the waves, and
that all power of retarding her progress on the part of the boatmen
ceases after a particular moment. In going from the shore, however,
the boat is kept continually under management, and the talents and
experience of the steersman regulate the affair throughout. He
watches, just inside the surf, till a smooth moment occurs, generally
after a high sea has broken, and then he endeavours, by great
exertions, to avail himself of the moment of comparative tranquillity
which follows, to force his way across the bar before another sea
comes. If he detects, as he is supposed to have it always in his power
to do, that another sea is on the rise, which will, in all
probability, curl up and break over him before he can row over its
crest and slide down its back, his duty is, to order his men to back
their oars with their utmost speed and strength. This retrograde
movement withdraws her from the blow, or, at all events, allows the
wave to strike her with diminished violence at the safest point, and
in water of sufficient depth to prevent the boat taking the ground
injuriously, to the risk of her being turned topsy-turvy. I have, in
fact, often been in these masullah boats when they have struck
violently on the bar, and have seen their flat and elastic bottoms
bulge inwards in the most alarming manner, but I never saw any of the
planks break or the seams open so as to admit the water.

It is very interesting to watch the progress of those honest catamaran
fellows, who live almost entirely in the surf, and who, independently
of their chief purpose of attending the mas