but both wind and rain had practically
subsided, and I could now look around me without feeling that if I
stirred I was a doomed man. I clambered up the lower portion of the main
rigging, but only saw black, turbulent waters, hissing and heaving, and
raging on every side, and seemingly stretching away into infinity. With
terrible force the utter awfulness and hopelessness of my position dawned
upon me, yet I did not despair. I next thought it advisable to try and
slip my anchor, and let the ship drift, for I still half-fancied that
perhaps I might come across my companions somewhere. Before I could free
the vessel, however, the wind veered completely round, and, to my horror
and despair, sent a veritable mountain of water on board, that carried
away nearly all the bulwarks, the galley, the top of the companion-way,
and, worst of all, completely wrenched off the wheel. Compasses and
charts were all stored in the companion-way, and were therefore lost for
ever. Then, indeed, I felt the end was near. Fortunately, I was for'ard
at the time, or I must inevitably have been swept into the appalling
waste of whirling, mountainous waters. This lashing of myself to the
mast, by the way, was the means of saving my life time after time. Soon
after the big sea--which I had hoped was a final effort of the terrible
storm--the gale returned and blew in the opposite direction with even
greater fury than before. I spent an awful time of it the whole night
long, without a soul to speak to or help me, and every moment I thought
the ship must go down, in that fearful sea. The only living thing on
board beside myself was the captain's dog, which I could occasionally
hear howling dismally in the cabin below, where I had shut him in when
the cyclone first burst upon me.

Among the articles carried overboard by the big sea that smashed the
wheel was a large cask full of oil, made from turtle fat, in which we
always kept a supply of fresh meats, consisting mainly of pork and fowls.
This cask contained perhaps twenty gallons, and when it overturned, the
oil flowed all over the decks and trickled into the sea. The effect was
simply magical. Almost immediately the storm-tossed waves in the
vicinity of the ship, which hitherto had been raging mountains high,
quieted down in a way that filled me with astonishment. This
tranquillity prevailed as long as the oil lasted; but as soon as the
supply was exhausted the giant waves became as tur