"Many vessels have been lost here." "We were saved by a miracle that time," said the sailor, who seemed inclined to talk.

"I was with a brigantine with wine for Marseilles.
That vessel was like a rock in the sea, she would not move with less than seven points of the wind in fair weather.

We afterwards went to Rio Janeiro, and it was two years before we got back." "So it was two years ago that you passed ?" inquired Ercole.
"Two years ago May or the beginning of June.

She was so low in the water that she would have swamped if we had tried to carry on sail, and with the sail she could carry she could make no headway; so there we were, hove to under lower topsail and balance-reefed mainsail and storm-jib, with a lee shore less than a mile away.

We recommended ourselves to the saints and the souls of purgatory, and our captain said to us, 'My fine sons, unless the wind shifts in half an hour we must run her ashore and save the cargo!' That is what he said.