the daylight all evidence of our security vanished away. We could
no longer see the firm rock on which we lay, while we were stunned
with the violence of the tempest that raged around us. The night
grew pitchy dark, as it advanced, so that we could not see our
hands when we held them up before our eyes, and were obliged to
feel each other occasionally to make sure that we were safe, for
the storm at last became so terrible that it was difficult to make
our voices audible. A slight variation of the wind, as we
supposed, caused a few drops of spray ever and anon to blow into
our faces; and the eddy of the sea, in its mad boiling, washed up
into our little creek until it reached our feet and threatened to
tear away our boat. In order to prevent this latter calamity, we
hauled the boat farther up and held the cable in our hands.
Occasional flashes of lightning shone with a ghastly glare through
the watery curtains around us, and lent additional horror to the
scene. Yet we longed for those dismal flashes, for they were less
appalling than the thick blackness that succeeded them. Crashing
peals of thunder seemed to tear the skies in twain, and fell upon
our ears through the wild yelling of the hurricane as if it had
been but a gentle summer breeze; while the billows burst upon the
weather side of the island until we fancied that the solid rock was
giving way, and, in our agony, we clung to the bare ground,
expecting every moment to be whirled away and whelmed in the black
howling sea! Oh! it was a night of terrible anxiety, and no one
can conceive the feelings of intense gratitude and relief with
which we at last saw the dawn of day break through the vapory mists
around us.

For three days and three nights we remained on this rock, while the
storm continued to rage with unabated fury. On the morning of the