frail bark cresting the waves; but he soon supposed that this was all in
the natural course of things; and he now ascribed his previous fright,
not to the peril of his situation, but to his inexperience of it.

Although his apprehension of being drowned was now removed, yet when he
gazed on the boundless vacancy before him, and also observed that his
provisions rapidly decreased, he began to fear that he was destined for
a still more horrible fate, and that, after having eaten his own slices,
he must submit to be starved. In this state of despondency, with
infinite delight and exultation Le clearly observed, on the second clay,
at twenty-seven minutes past three P.M., though at a considerable
distance, a mountain and an island. His joy and his pride were equal,
and excessive: he called the first Alligator Mountain, in gratitude to
the pears; and christened the second after his mistress, that unlucky
mistress! The swift canoe soon reached the discoveries, and the happy
discoverer further found, to his mortification, that the mountain was a
mist and the island a sea-weed. Popanilla now grew sulky, and threw
himself down in the bottom of his boat.

On the third morning he was awakened by a tremendous roar; on looking
around him he perceived that he was in a valley formed by two waves,
each several hundred feet high. This seemed the crisis of his fate; he
shut his eyes, as people do when they are touched by a dentist, and in a
few minutes was still bounding on the ocean in the eternal canoe, safe
but senseless. Some tremendous peals of thunder, a roaring wind, and a
scathing lightning confirmed his indisposition; and had not the tempest
subsided, Popanilla would probably have been an idiot for life. The
dead and soothing calm which succeeded this tornado called him back
again gradually to existence. He opened his eyes, and, scarcely daring
to try a sense, immediately shut them; then hearing a deep sigh, he