340
LIFE
AND
VOYAGES
OF
[BOOK
XV.
a furious tempest, in an unknown sea, and often exposed to the awful perils of a lee-shore. It is wonderful that such open ves足 sels, so crazed and decayed, could outlive such a commotion of the elements. Nowhere is a storm so awful as between the tropics. The sea, according to the description of Columbus, boiled at times like a caldron ; at other times it ran in mountain waves, covered with foam. At night the raging billows resembled great surges of flame, owing to those luminous particles which cover the surface of the water in these seas, and throughout the whole course of the Gulf Stream. For a day and night the heavens glowed as a furnace with the incessant flashes of light足 ning ; while the loud claps of thunder were often mistaken by the affrighted mariners for signal guns of distress from their foundering companions. During the whole time, says Columbus, it poured down from the skies, not rain, but as it were a second deluge. The seamen were almost drowned in their open vessels. Haggard with toil and affright, some gave themselves over for lost ; they confessed their sins to each other according to the rites of the Catholic religion, and prepared themselves for death ; many, in their desperation, called upon death as a welcome relief from such overwhelming horrors. In the midst of this wild tumult of the elements, they beheld a new object of alarm. The ocean in one place became strangely agitated. The water was whirled up into a kind of pyramid or cone, while a livid cloud, tapering to a point, bent down to meet it. Joining together, they formed a vast column, which rapidly approached the ships, spin足 ning along the surface of the deep, and drawing up the waters with a rushing sound. The affrighted mariners when they be足 held this water-spout advancing towards them, despaired of all human means to avert it, and began to repeat passages from St.