Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe
page 87 of 117 (74%)
lighthouse was down, for want of the light that should have been
seen, run foul of the rock itself, and was lost with all her lading
and most of her men. But there is now another light-house built on
the same rock.

What other disasters happened at the same time in the Sound and in
the roads about Plymouth is not my business; they are also
published in other books, to which I refer.

One thing which I was a witness to on a former journey to this
place, I cannot omit. It was the next year after that great storm,
and but a little sooner in the year, being in August; I was at
Plymouth, and walking on the Hoo (which is a plain on the edge of
the sea, looking to the road), I observed the evening so serene, so
calm, so bright, and the sea so smooth, that a finer sight, I
think, I never saw. There was very little wind, but what was,
seemed to be westerly; and about an hour after, it blew a little
breeze at south-west, with which wind there came into the Sound
that night and the next morning a fleet of fourteen sail of ships
from Barbadoes, richly laden for London. Having been long at sea,
most of the captains and passengers came on shore to refresh
themselves, as is usual after such tedious voyages; and the ships
rode all in the Sound on that side next to Catwater. As is
customary upon safe arriving to their native country, there was a
general joy and rejoicing both on board and on shore.

The next day the wind began to freshen, especially in the
afternoon, and the sea to be disturbed, and very hard it blew at
night; but all was well for that time. But the night after, it
blew a dreadful storm (not much inferior, for the time it lasted,
DigitalOcean Referral Badge