uted at the very top of
our voices that they could be heard. The darkness had increased, and as
I began to move on I felt that the attempt was almost beyond my power;
still the incentive was so great that I resolved to persevere. I prayed
for strength and protection. In my own arm I knew that I could not
trust. There were no stars to guide me, and the flashes of lightning
sadly confused and dazzled my eyes, so that it was only by keeping as
near as possible to the shore that I could hope to keep in the proper
direction. This way was longer, however, and very rough where rocks
covered the ground, and I dreaded a return of the roller, when we might
have been swept helplessly away. The dangers to be encountered by
keeping inland were equally great. We might be struck by lightning,
crushed by falling trees, or losing our way, fall into some gully or
chasm.

Feeling the ground before us with our poles, my companion and I began
our hazardous march, I desired him to keep as close behind me as he
could, and to shout frequently to assure me that he was following. The
tempest increased in fury, the rain came down in torrents, causing such
floods as in some places almost to sweep us off our feet.

We had made good some five or six hundred yards, when I thought that we
might make faster progress on the higher ground, where the water would
not be so great an impediment to our progress. I knew also that we
should be able to steer our course more or less directly by feeling the
direction the water was flowing, so that we might always regain the sea
by following down the streams. Accordingly we attempted gradually to
gain the higher ground, but as we ascended, we felt the wind blowing
with greater force, and were again nearly carried off our legs by it. I
had to exert all the energies of my mind not to become totally
bewildered. Over rough rocks we climbed, and fallen trunks of trees,
and through the beds of streams, down which the fierce waters now rushed
foaming and roaring with fearful force, and across swamps and marshes,
till at last we reached a grove of tall trees. We could discover no way
round it, so I resolved to push through it by a path in which we found
ourselves. The trees were bending and writhing, and the loud crashes we
heard told us that every instant some were hurled to the ground. Now
one fell directly before me, and impeded my progress. I climbed over
it, my companion followed, and we continued our