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yield to thoſe unite impreſſions, and determine to proceed.

"On the nineteenth, the ſky was obſcured by immenſe fleeces of clouds, ſurcharged with inflammable matter; and in the evening, the rain came in torrents, the firmament darkened apace, ſudden night came on, and the horrors or extreme darkneſs were rendered ſtill more horrible be the peals of thunder which rent the air, and the frequent flaſhes of lightning, which ſerved only to ſhew the horror of our ſituation, and leave us in increaſed darkneſs mean time the wind came more violent blowing on the ſhore; and a heavy ſea, raiſed all its force, united with it to make our ſtate more formidable.

"By day light on the morning of the twentieth the gale had increaſed to a furious tempeſt; and the ſea, keeping pace with it, ran mountain high; and at it kept invariably to the ſame point, the captain and officers became ſeriouſly alarmed, and alſo perſuaded that the ſouth-weſt monſoon had ſ(illegible text) which, if it were ſo, would render it abſolutely impoſſible for us to weather the coaſt. All that day, however, we kept as cloſe as the violence of the weather would allow us to the wind; but the ſea canted her head ſo to leeward, that ſhe ran more lee than head-way; and the rigging was ſtrained with the work, that we had little hope of keeping off the ſhore, unleſs the wind charged, which there was not now the ſmalleſt probability. During the night there was no intermiſſion of the ſtorm: many of the ſails blew into ribbonds; ſome of the rigging was carried away, and ſuch eruptions were made, that, before morning, every thing that could poſſibly be ſtruck was down upon the deck.

"About ſeven o'clock on the morning of the