What the climate may be in the
summer I don't know; but during the time I was there it was one storm
after another.
We sailed in the evening with the moon at full, and the wind at
west-north-west. So soon as we got from under the lee of the land the
breeze struck us, and it came on to blow like thunder, so that we were
all soon reduced to our storm staysails; and there we were, transports,
merchantmen, and men-of-war, rising on the mountainous billows one
moment, and the next losing sight of everything but the water and sky
in the deep trough of the sea, while the seething foam was blown over
us in showers from the curling manes of the roaring waves. But
overhead, all this while, it was as clear as a lovely winter moon could
make it, and the stars shone brightly in the deep blue sky; there was
not even a thin fleecy shred of cloud racking across the moon's disc.
Oh, the glories of a northwester!
But the devil seize such glory! Glory, indeed! with a fleet of
transports, and a regiment of soldiers on board! Glory! why, I daresay
five hundred rank and file, at the fewest, were all cascading at one
and the same moment,--a thousand poor fellows turned outside in, like
so many pairs of old stockings.
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