But coming upon coral reefs, of a dark night, while we listened to the
dismal tune of the seas breaking over them with an eternal roar, how
intensely lonesome they were! no sign of any living thing in sight,
except, perhaps, the phosphorescent streaks of a hungry shark, which
told of bad company in our wake, and made the gloom of the place more
dismal still.
One night we made shelter under the lee of the extensive reefs called
the Paredes (walls), without seeing the breakers at all in the dark,
although they were not far in the distance. At another time, dragging on
sail to clear a lee shore, of a dark and stormy night, we came suddenly
into smooth water, where we cast anchor and furled our sails, lying in a
magic harbour till daylight the next morning, when we found ourselves
among a maze of ugly reefs, with high seas breaking over them, as far as
the eye could reach, on all sides, except at the small entrance to the
place that we had stumbled into in the night. The position of this
future harbour is South Lat. 16 deg. 48', and West Long, from Greenwich 39 deg.
30'. We named the place "PORT LIBERDADE.
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