roaring of the gale, too, and the angry hiss of the storm-lashed
waters, contributed their quota to the feeling of awe with which we
looked abroad from our pigmy ark.

But confidence returned after a while, as we watched the ease with which
the little craft overrode the seas; and when I at length turned into my
hammock, it was with a sense of security I could not have believed
possible a couple of hours before.

We hoisted a carefully-trimmed and brilliant lamp well up on our fore-
stay as soon as night closed in, for we were in the track of the
outward-bound ships going to the southward, and should one of these
gentlemen come booming down upon us before the gale during the night, it
would be rather difficult to avoid him.

It was well that we took this precaution, for no less than five passed
us in Bob's watch, and three more in mine, one of them coming near
enough to hail; but what he said it was impossible for me to hear, the
howling of the wind and the hissing of the water so close to me utterly
drowning the words.

I conjectured, however, that it was some inquiry as to whether we wanted
assistance of any kind, and on the strength of this supposition I roared
back at the top of my voice:

"All right; very comfortable."

A figure in the mizzen-rigging waved his hand, and the noble craft (she
looked like an Australian liner, and was carrying topmast and lower
stunsails) swept onward, and was soon afterwards swallowed up in the
darkness and mist.

The falling in with so tiny a craft so far at sea, and in a gale of
wind, and the announcement that she was "all right and very
comfortable," must have been rather a novel experience for them, I
imagine.

About noon next day the gale broke, and by four o'clock the wind had
gone down sufficiently to justify us in making sail and filling away
upon our course once more. This we did by setting our reefed mainsail,
foresail, and Number 2 jib. The wind had continued to haul round too,
and was now pretty steady at about north-east. This rapidly smoothed
the water down, so that we had a comparatively quiet night; and the wind
continuing to drop, we shook out our reefs next morning at eight bells,
and got the big jib and small gaff-topsail upon her.

The evening but one following we got a glimpse of Cape Finisterre about
six o'clock, and this enabled us to corroborate our position. From this
point we shaped a course for Madeira, and after a splendid run of seven
days