look and see nothing. Yet they spread out the sails; and the wind comes, seizes us, and carries us along. This gave great pleasure to all, but the pleasure soon became bitter.
(Storm at Sea.)
16. The wind meanwhile had increased so rapidly that not only we, but also the waves beneath us, were tossed about, so that terror entered our hearts. The sea rolled round us in every direction with such gigantic waves that our course was up high hills and down deep valleys, now upward, then downward. Sometimes we were shot upwards to such heights that it seemed as if we were to reach the moon; then again we descended as into an abyss. Now it appeared as if a wave, coming either straight or sideways towards us, would surprise us, and immediately drown us; but it merely lifted us on high, only that this our barque was thrown about here and there, and tossed on from one wave to another; sometimes it declined to this side, sometimes to that; sometimes with its prow it went perpendicularly upward, sometimes downward. Therefore, not only was the water spirted skyward on us and above us, but we could neither stand nor lie; we were tossed from side to side, and found ourselves sometimes on our feet, sometimes on our head. This caused giddiness and the subversion of everything within us.[1] And as this continued both by
- ↑ I.e., sea-sickness.
