vanced a very few miles in this Bay before we were entirely becalmed; we furl'd our fails, as being of no ufe to us, while we lay in this mot difagreeable fituation, more detefted by the failors than the most violent tempeft: we were alarmed with the lofs of a fine piece of falt beef, which had been hung in the fea to freshen it this being, it feems, the ftrange property of fals water. The thief was immediately fufpected, and prefently afterwards taken by the failors, He was indeed no other than a huge fhark, who, not knowing when he was well off, swallowed another piece of beef, together with a great iron crook on which it was hung, and by which he was dragged into the fhip,

I fhould fcarce have mentioned the catching this hark, though fo exactly conformable to the rules and practice of voyage-writing, had it not been for a strange circumftance that attended it. This was the recovery of the ftolen beef out of the shark's maw, where it lay unchewed and undigefted, and whence being conveyed into the pot, the tleh, and the thief that had ftolen it, joined together in furnishing variety to the ship's

crew

During this calm we likewife found the maft of a large veffel, which the captain thought. had lain at least three years in the fea. It was ftuck all over with a little hell-fish or reptile called a barnacle, and which probably are the prey of the rock,fih, as our captain calls it, af ferting that it is the finest fish in the world; for which we are obliged to confide entirely in his tafle; for, though he struck the fish with a kind. of harping iron, and wounded him, I am conwinced, to death, yet he could not poffefs him

felf of his body; but the poor wretch escaped to linger out a few hours, with probably great tor

ments.

In the evening our wind returned, and fo brifkly, that we ran upwards of twenty leagues before the next day's [Fuefday's] Obfervation, which brought us to lat. 47 deg. 42 min. The captain promised us a very fpeedy paffage thro' the bay; but he deceived us, or the wind deceived him, for it fo flackened at fun-fet, that it fcarce carried us a mile in an hour during the whole fucceeding night.

Wednesday. A gale ftruck up a little after funrifing, which carried us between three or four knots or miles an hour. We were this day at noon about the middle of the Bay of Biscay, when the wind once more deferted us, and we were fo entirely becalmed, that we did not advance a mile in many hours. My fresh-water reader will perhaps conceive no unpleasant idea from this calm; but it affected us much more than a ftorm could have done; for as the irascible paffions of men are apt to fwell with indignation long after the injury which first raised them is over, fo fared it with the fea. It rofe mountains high, and lifted our poor fhip up and down, backwards and forwards, with fo violent an emotion, that there was fcarce a man in the fhip better able to ftand than myfelf. Every utenfil in our cabin rolled up and down, as we fhould have rolled ourselves, had not our chairs been faft lafhed to the floor. In this fituation, with our tables likewife faftened by ropes, the captain and myself took our meal with fome difficulty, and fwallowed a little of our broth, for we spilt much the greater part. The remainder

of our dinner being an old lean, tame duck roafted, I regretted but little the lofs of, my teeth not being good enough to have chewed it.

Our women, who began to creep out of their holes in the morning, retired again within the cabin to their beds, and were no more heard of this day, in which my whole comfort was to find, by the captain's relation, that the fwelling was fometimes much worfe; he did, indeed, take this occafion to be more communicative than ever, and informed me of fuch mifadventures that had befallen him within forty-fix years at fea, as might frighten a very bold fpirit from Were undertaking even the fhorteft voyage. these indeed but univerfally known, our matrons. of quality would poffibly be deterred from ven-. turing their tender offspring at fea; by which means our navy would lofe the honour of many a young commodore, who at twenty-two is bet ter verfed in maritime affairs, than real feamen are made by experience at fixty. ̧

And this may, perhaps, appear the more extraordinary, as the education of both feems to be pretty much the fame; neither of them having had their courage tried by Virgil's defcription of a ftorm, in which, infpired as he was, I doubt whether our captain doth not exceed him."

In the evening the wind, which continued in the N. W. again freshened, and that fo brifklý that Cape Finisterre appeared by this day's ob ferration to bear a few miles to the fouthward, We now indeed failed or rather flew, near ten knots an hour; and the captain, in the redundancy of good humour, declared he would .. go to church at Lifbon on Sunday next, for that he was fure of a wind; and indeed we all firmly

believed him. But the event again contradicted him; for we were again visited by a calm in the evening.

But here, though our voyage was retarded, we were entertained with a fcene which as no one can behold without going to fea, fo no one can form an idea of any thing equal to it on fhore. We were feated on the deck, women and all, in the fereneft evening that can be imagined. Not a fingle cloud prefented itself to our view, and the fun himfelf was the only object which engroffed our whole attention. He did indeed fet with a majesty which is incapable of defcrip tion, with which, while the horizon was yet blazing with glory, our eyes were called off to the oppofite part to furvey the moon, which was then at full, and which in rifing prefented us with the fecond object that this world hath offered to our vifion. Compared to thefe the pa geantry of theatres, or fplendor of courts, are fights almost below the regard of children.

We did not return from the deck till late in the evening: the weather being inexpreffibly pleafant, and fo warm, that even my old diftem per perceived the alteration of the climate. There was indeed a fwell, but nothing comparable to what we had felt before, and it affected us on the deck much lefs than in the cabin.

Friday. The calm continued till fun-rifing, when the wind likewife arofe; but, unluckily for us, it came from a wrong quarter: it was S. S. E. which is that very wind which Juno would have folicited of Æolus, had Æneas been, in our latitude, bound for Lifbon.

The captain now put on his moft melancholy afpect, and refumed his former opinion, that he

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was bewitched. He declared, with great folemnity, that this was worfe and worfe, for that a wind directly in his teeth was worfe than no wind at all. Had we purfued the courfe which the wind perfuaded us to take, we had gone directly for Newfoundland, if we had not fallen in with Ireland in our way. Two ways remained to avoid this; one was to put into a port of Gali cia; the other, to beat to the weftward with as little fail as poffible; and this was our captain's election.

As for us, poor paffengers, any port would have been welcome to us, especially as not only our fresh provifions, except a great number of old ducks and fowls, but even our bread was come to an end, and nothing but fea biscuit remained, which I could not chew. So that now, for the first time in my life, I faw what it was to want a bit of bread.

The wind, however, was not fo unkind as we had apprehended; but having declined with the fun, it changed at the approach of the moon, and became again favourable to us; though fo gentle, that the next day's obfervation carried us very Jittle to the fouthward of Cape Finisterre. This evening at fix the wind, which had been very quiet all day, rofe very high, and continu ing in our favour, drove us feven knots an hour.

This day we faw a fail, the only one, as I heard of, we had feen in our whole paffage thro' the Bay. I mention this on account of what ap peared to me fomewhat extraordinary. Though he was at fuch a diftance that I could only perceive fhe was a fhip, the failors difcovered the was a fnow bound to a port in Galicia.