way; the sail then split to ribbons, and before we could clue it up,
was completely blown away from the bolt-rope. The foresail was then
furled, not without great difficulty, and imminent hazard to the
seamen, the storm staysail alone withstanding the mighty wind, which
seemed to gain strength every half-hour, while the sea, in frightful
sublimity, towered to an incredible height, frequently making a
complete breach over our deck.

At four A.M. I was relieved by Thomson, who at daylight apprized me
that the maintopmast was sprung, and that the gale was increasing.
Scarcely had I gone on deck, when a tremendous sea struck us a little
"abaft the beam," carrying every thing before it, and washing
overboard hencoops, cables, water-casks, and indeed every movable
article on the deck. Thomson, almost by miracle, escaped being lost;
but having, in common with the lascars, taken the precaution to lash a
rope round his waist, we were able, by its means, to extricate him
from danger; at the same time the vessel made an appalling lurch,
lying down on her beam-ends, in which position she remained for the
space of two minutes, when the maintopmast, followed by the
foretopmast, went by the board with a dreadful crash; she then
righted, and we were all immediately engaged in going aloft, and with
hatchets cutting away the wreck, each of us being lashed with a rope
round the waist; ropes were also fastened across the deck, in parallel
lines, to hold on by; for such was the violence of the vessel's
motion, that without such assistance it would have been impossible to
stand. As for my Virginia, she was in her cot, hearing all that was
going forward on deck,--sensible of her danger, and a prey to the
apprehension of meeting a death similar to that of her prototype, and
equally dreadful.