APRIL 30(Tuesday.)
A whole calendar month has elapsed since our quitting Jamaica, during
which the wind has been
favourable for somthing
less than four-and-twenty hours; either it has blown precisely
from the point on which we wanted to sail, or has been so faint
that we scarcely made one knot an hour. However, on Tuesday
lot, finding ourselves in the latitude of the " still-vexed Bermoothes," by
way of variety, a
sudden squall carried away both
our lower stunsails in the morning; and at nine in the evening
there came on a gale of wind truly tremendous. The ship
pitched and rolled every minute, as if she had been on the point
of overturning; the hen-coops floated about the deck, and many
of the poultry were found drowned in them the next morning.
Just as the last dead-light was being put up, the sea embraced the
opportunity of the window being open, to whip itself through,
and half filled the after-cabin with water; and in half an hour
more a mountain of waves broke over the vessel, and pouring
itself through the sky-light, paid the same compliment to the
fore-cabin. About four in the morning the storm abated, and
then we relapsed into our good old jog-trot pace of a knot an
hour. Our passengers consist of a Mrs. Walker with her two
children, and a sick surgeon of the name of Ashman.
