A GALE ON THE AFRICAN COAST.

31

going the same way as ourselves. By noon of next day, that is in twenty-three hours, we had run 233 miles. The weather was still fine and the wind fair-too much so for rising to our highest speed. A vessel rigged fore and aft like ours can never make her best out of a following wind. On Thursday the wind, which had slackened greatly during the previous night, freshened up again, and by five in the afternoon we were passing the bald, steep, rugged, volcanic-looking Gallito Islands; our speed had now increased to upwards of twelve knots. A thunder-storm was rolling along the African shore, and all that night the lightnings flashed incessantly, and at times furious showers of enormous hail rattled on the deck and almost cut the faces of the seamen. It was now blowing a gale. With nothing but a double-reefed topsail and a small studding-sail set a few yards above the deck, we were scudding before the wind at the rate of nearly fifteen English miles an hour. The sea was all blown into sheets of foam, and the spin-drift was driving over us like showers of snow.

Hurried along by this furious gale, we passed Cape Bon, where the coast of Africa rounds away to the south, at five A.M. on Friday, and by nine A.M. we were abreast of Pantellaria, a large lofty volcanic island belonging to Sicily. The sea, meanwhile, had the look of a country half covered with snow. The waves were higher than any we had seen in the Bay of Biscay, though much more broken, and wanting the long, continuous, majestic roll of the Atlantic. We had grown familiar with this wild scene. Even the ladies had ceased to be afraid to look at it. They, too, were all, in consequence, on deck about half-past four o'clock in the afternoon, when an accident occurred that considerably discomposed us all. They were holding on around the forecompanion and half enjoying the elemental war. I was standing at the moment on the top of the spare spars that were lashed to the deck, having a firm grasp of one of the hoops of the mainmast, and was watching with great interest the enormous billows incessantly pursuing us, swelling up immediately astern, and

seeming every moment as if they would overtake and engulf the flying ship, but always coming short and sinking down harmlessly behind us. Suddenly one of those seventh waves, that seamen speak of, rose like a huge wall high above the poop, curved over and fell bodily, as if it had dropped from the heavens, on the after part of the deck. The tiller-rope was snapped by the shock. At the same moment the wooden grating on which the steersman stood, floating up as the vessel sunk beneath the weight of the wave, threw him off his feet, and dashing like a shot through the bulwarks, as it did the next moment in the roll of the sea, it was by a kind of miracle the man was not sucked out into the deep after it. The end of the tiller-rope that remained fast had fortunately been twisted round his arm and saved him. The helm being left free, and the vessel having begun to come round, the next wave tumbled in over the quarter, and in an instant carried every loose thing about the after-deck into the sea. So high was this wave that it half filled the jolly boat where it hung in the davits, and twisted one of the strong davit irons as if it had been a reed. As the immense body of water rushed forward and swept diagonally across the deck, the ladies were all washed down to leeward; while my little boy, who was standing near me holding on by the hencoop, was dashed with such violence against the bulwarks that his leg was broken. It was all the work of a moment. Just as the second wave came on board, the Master, a powerful man, seized the helm, and aided by the steersman, who had by this time got to his feet again, the ship was immediately under command. The sails, which fortunately had never lost the wind, were once more fully filled, and the brave St. Ursula was again careering along upon her course as if nothing had happened. Excepting poor Laurence no one had sustained any injury. It was but by a hair's breadth, however, that we had escaped a danger of the most formidable kind. Had the helm not been recovered for a few seconds more, the vessel must inevitably have broached-to. Her rapid motion thus suddenly arrested, the

masts would in all probability have gone overboard, and falling helplessly into the trough of such a sea, it is hard to say what might have become of her and of us all.

Distressed though we were about my son, who was suffering most agonizing pain, our grief was not unmingled with gratitude to the Great Preserver of men. The very dashing of the grating through the bulwarks had proved a fortunate occurrence. The ghastly opening of eight or ten feet in length which it made enabled the vessel to throw off more quickly than would otherwise have been possible the enormous load of water that was weighing her down, and thus shortened the critical interval during which she was at the mercy of the waves. The event

so sudden and unexpected was a great shock to us all. It was an impressive call-and one which we endeavoured to realize— to remember the uncertainty of human life, and to acknowledge our continual dependence on Him in whom we live, and move, and have our being.

The sea had made sad work below. Fortunately the aftercompanion had been closed up since the day before, but enough of water had found its way forward to nearly drown the cook and steward in the pantry and to deluge the saloon. Fortunately our sleeping cabin had in great measure escaped, and with as little delay as possible we got our young and very patient sufferer carried down to his berth. By seven o'clock of the same evening we were up with the island of Gozo; having thus made the voyage in four days, five hours, and twenty minutes, from the rock of Gibraltar to the Maltese Islands—a speed not often equalled by any sailing ship. From this point we were partially sheltered by the land as we ran down the shores of Gozo and Malta; and very happy were we all to find ourselves an hour or two later safely at anchor in the noble harbour of Valetta. It was not the first time since leaving home that we had thus rapidly exchanged the storms of the ocean for a port where all was stillness and security. But on no former occasion was the change more agreeable or opportune. It enabled our

MALTA.

35 poor patient to lie more at ease, and it brought us within reach of medical aid.

When next morning broke, every trace of the tempest had disappeared. The sun rose into a cloudless sky, and shone with all the warmth and brilliancy of summer. The waters of the capacious harbour lay around us, smooth as a mirror. Countless Maltese boats, all painted of a pale green, and with their gay awnings, and their lofty recurving prows, were gliding about in every direction. Within a hundred yards of us lay the magnificent line-of-battle-ship, the Conqueror, and ranged in order near her the other ships of Lord Lyon's fleet. The lofty Baracca, the highest part of the fortifications of Valetta, rose immediately above us; and all round the many creeks and sinuosities of this perfectly land-locked bay, massive castles, and batteries bristling with cannon, frowned defiance on every foe. It is difficult to imagine a scene more thoroughly picturesque or unique.

When the doctor, for whom we had despatched a messenger at daybreak, came on board, somewhat to our surprise, he pronounced our little patient's limb to be not broken, but only badly bruised. It was a relief in the meantime to believe this, though it proved to be a mistake. Soon after, Colonel D, of the 71st, came on board, and kindly invited us to join a large party, got up by the officers of his regiment, that was about to pay a visit to St. Paul's Bay. Though much obliged by the Colonel's courtesy, we thought it better to make a party of our own. In this way our movements would be more completely under our own command. We were not to remain longer than two or three days in the island, and it was necessary to economize our time. My much-valued friend, Mr. N. Stevenson, of Glasgow, who had arranged to meet us at Malta, made his appearance at breakfast-having arrived, via France, two days before us. Early in the forenoon, those of us who had never been in Malta before, engaged carriages and started for Citta-Vecchia. This ancient capital of the island is about nine miles from Valetta. It stands on high ground, near the centre of the island, on which