he captain; and, in a moment, the whole starboard
broadside was fired off, point blank across the water, in a line with
the deck, as Captain Manter had ordered us to depress the guns, the old
_Amphitrite_ rocking to her keel with the explosion.

"Well, sir, as true as I'm standing here a-talking to you, at the very
instant the guns belched out their fire and smoke, and the cannon-balls
with which they were loaded, there was a most treemenjus roar and a dash
of water alongside the ship, and the waves came over us as if we were on
a lee shore; and then, as the men stood appalled at the things going on
around them, which was what no mortal ever seed before, Gil clasped my
arm more tightly, loosening his right hand from the lanyard of the gun
which he had now fired, and shrieked out, `There! there!'

"Master Charles, it were awful! A long heavy body seemed to be reared
up high in the air right athwart the vessel, and plunged far away in the
sea to leeward; and, as the body passed over our heads, I looked up with
Gil, and saw the fearful fiery eyes of the biggest snake that ever
crawled on the earth, though this was flying in the air, and round his
hideous head, that had a long beak like a bird, was a curious fringe or
frill all yellowish green, just like what a lizard puffs out under his
throat when in a rage. I could see no more, for the thing was over us
and gone a mile or more to leeward in a wink of the eye, the fog
drifting after it and hiding it from sight. Besides which, I was
occupied with Gil, who had sank down on the deck in a dead swoon.

"Whatever it was, the thing carried away our main topmast with the
yards, and everything clean from the caps as if it had been shot away,
and there wasn't a trace of them floating in the sea around, as we could
see.

"`A close thing that!' said the captain, after the shock was over,
speaking to the lieutenant, although all hands could hear him, for it
was as still as possible now. `A close thing, Mr Freemantle. I've
known a waterspout do even more damage than this; so let us be
thankful!'

"And then all hands were piped to clear the wreck, and make the ship
snug; for we had some bad weather afterwards, and had to put into Sierra
Leone to refit.

"Gil was in a swoon for a long time after; and then he took the fever
bad, and only recovered by the skin of his teeth; but he never forgot
what he had seen, nor I either, nor any of the hands, though we never
talked about it