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    with water ; but their deck-cargoes , of fir timber , luckily had not broken adrift from their lashings , and thus the vessels were buoyed up ; but the other four , with all on board , had foundered . Spars and balks of timber were every where floating around . We hastened

    to take out the men from the two sinking craft , and as much of the timber as we could secure from their decks ; and then set to , to bale out the water to get at the cargoes . Many crates of crockery-ware we thus recovered , which , being much damaged , was distributed , or taken ad libitum , among the seamen and marines : and the whole ' tween decks looked like an earthenware

    warehouse : each mess was furnished with cups , platters , and dishes sufficient for a cruise of half a century to come . One vessel , laden with olive-oil , had stood out the storm undamaged , except in masts and rigging : and the wind shifting to the westward , we stood in for the Straits again ; slipped between Cape Spartel and Tariffa Point , keeping the African shore on board

    and glided along the watery bosom of that deep , magnificent , and sublime glen , with the Andalusian hills on one side , bright in the moon ' s glory , and breaking the mellow , clear , starspangled sky with abruptnesses and undulations ; and , on the other , the mountains of Atlas , ( in whose engrossing shadow we moved , ) rising , in their vast grandeur , up , like a black wail , shutting out every glimpse of the heavens which hung above their zenith , as if they ( the mountains ) were an immense curtain

    suspended thence by some invisible agency : and so soft , so genial was the breeze that blew , it invited the gazer to linger , linger yet , in spite of weariness , the warning of time , and the wooing of necessity , to sleep awhile . How intense was the solitude ! till the breeze , becoming fainter and fainter , called up remarks and murmured apprehensions that it would fall calm before we had passed the confines of the Strn _; and then , doubtless , the

    Spanish gun-boats would be out upon us : and if so , why , our late work would be mere child ' s play and frolic gambol , compared to what we should encounter ; for we should lie motionle ? , , while they , with rowing , could take whatever attitude and change of position they pleased , and pour destruction into us , without ability , on our side , to return more than occasional shot from the

    bows or stern . Well , this talk disturbed the deep serenity and beauty of my rapt meditations , and I went below to sleep out the time , as the best means of forgetting fear ; for , indeed , I was afraid ; and , I'll warrant you , so were a good many others : and many more good others , who have been in like situations , have

    been afraid too ; for , a flotilla of gun-boats , lying under the quarter of a becalmed ship , when she is as helpless as a log , ( terrible as she may be at other times , ) is no joke , reader , for the people on board that ship ; though it is fine sport for the men in the gun-boats . My rest , however , was not disturbed by any ' discordant drum's

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    224 Autobiography of Pel . Verjuice .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 224, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/68/