Unable to control my own thoughts, I perforce allowed them to run fancy free, and whilst so engaged paid but little attention to the compass: intuitively easing the helm when the vessel pitched from the surging of the waves so as to endanger the spars, and occasionally when warned by the flapping of the sails raising the wheel to keep her off from the wind a trifle; until at length an unusually heavy sea, breaking over the ship and drenching the decks, awoke me from my reverie. Day had now began to dawn, and casually I glanced at the compass. Could I be assured that the direction in which the magnetic needle pointed was correct, or was it a mere phantasy of my overwrought brain! I rubbed my eyes, and looked again. Could it be possible, or was I in a lethargy, deceiving myself into a belief in the reality of a wished-for fact! I shook myself, and stamped my feet, now grown cold from inaction. Satisfied at length that I was in the perfect possession of all my faculties, I ventured to glance again at the needle, and then I received the fullest evidence that I was not deceived. I called the second mate to me. He at first could scarce credit it--but, there it was! The wind had hauled two points, and now was west-north-west, and we had a prospect of delivery from all our somber soliloquies. Hurrah! The captain was now called (he having gone below for sleep--the two preceding nights he had been upon deck until utterly worn out). He came up skeptical, but was soon a convert. “We cannot show much sail,” said he, “but we will venture a little more. Shake a reef out of each topsail. Loose the foresail.” (I had now been relieved from the wheel.) Still she did not go fast enough. “Loosen the jib and spanker.” No sooner said, than done. I sprang upon the bowsprit and out upon the jib-boom, skinning my hands fearfully, and receiving a severe blow upon the head from the jibsheet-block; both, at any other time, sufficient to make me groan with pain; but now they passed almost unnoticed. Without faltering, I cast the gasket off. The jib was foul. I had to lay out, and to overhaul the hoops. It was done. The jib gradually rose to its proper position. The sheet was then hauled aft by the strength of the entire crew; but still it was not sufficient. A powerful tackle was now attached to it, and with the aid of numerous arms (the captain, cook, and every one else assisting) it was brought flat enough, and thus secured. Arriving on deck, the clotted blood called my attention to my lacerated hands; but it was no time to complain. Half-a-dozen were so wounded. Our skins being dry, parched, and benumbed, the least contact with any hard material produced an abrasion; which, however, no one noticed: for the spanker was to be set, more reefs shaken out, and the staysails loosened.