It came on to blow very hard indeed yesterday afternoon at three o’clock, just as we had finished writing, and at four it became necessary to haul up the main-sail and foresail, though both were reefed. When the skipper sung out, “Clew up the main-sail,” I think that it was blowing harder than we ever saw it at sea. The captain said that there was more wind the other day in sight of Cape Horn; but I think that this was only to contradict. Whether or no, it blew a fearful gale, though the full strength didn’t last more than three hours, with, for a while, the worst snow and hail that we have had yet. The ocean seethed; big seas swept the decks fore and aft like cataracts every five minutes, and the ship, with nothing showing but the lower topsails, was bowed down before the blasts like a palm-tree in a hurricane. We thought that we were surely going to lose the main-sail through the fault of the wretched mate, who is of no use whatever in bad weather. It is necessary to observe extreme caution in hauling up any of the courses in a gale of wind, for the tack and sheet must be eased off just so, in order that both they and the clew-garnets shall be perfectly taut until the clews are right up to the yard. If not, the chance of losing the sails is exceedingly good. Well, the miserable man, in the midst of a tearing puff, let the main-tack get away from him. Instantly there arose a frightful slatting, and we expected to see the strong, new canvas whipped into ribbons, while the great, ninety-foot mainyard buckled and bent almost like a coach-whip. I hope never to witness such a sight again. The old man’s state while this was going on must be left to the imagination; and when a sea swept over the side, carrying almost every man on the clew-garnets and buntlines into the scuppers, we feared that his reason was going. After a hard struggle, though, the gaskets were put on the main-sail, and then the foresail had to come in. Here the mate, very properly, found something else to do, and Mr. Rarx, calm and perfect master of himself, slacked away the tack first; and when the weather-side had been hauled up, he did the same with the sheet, without the least show of exertion; he is a splendid seaman.