the rocks, and as she rose—her bows drew beyond the shelter of the cove—the full blast of the sea-breeze caught her jib—and her head swung gain to leeward. ‘Help her with the foresail, comrades!’ I shouted. They had anticipated me—the Indian letting go the brails, and then helping the whites to draw aft the sheet. The sail surged and flapped so as to shake the schooner to her very keel, and the great sheet-block jerked madly to and fro with bounds which would have dashed through a strong wall. But still, though they could not yet master the canvas, the schooner was not insensible to its lifting power, and I felt her, as she rose with her broadside to a great clear sea, gather way, and start as it were from under me. There was just a moment of terrible suspense. The masts bent to leeward until their trucks were within a couple of fathoms of the lee promontory. You could almost leap on the great rough masses of wet stone, which lay close abeam, and then in a moment the schooner rose to another sea, all three sails now bellying to the wind, and once more hove clear of the land, although I saw through the clear water a glimpse of reef under our counter, which the keel must have scraped, and although the head of the mainmast actually tore away the projecting branch of a great prickly bush which was waving and dancing in the wind. We were drawing our first deep breath after our peril when I heard a great shout above me, and starting round, I saw between me and the sky the figure of a man standing with a gun upon the very verge of the precipice which formed the line of coast. He directly fired his piece, and set up a loud outcry to his comrades, three or four of whom directly joined him, and fired a volley at us which did no damage. So we jumped up on the taffrail rail, and waving our hats, gave them a loud cheer, and told them that if they wanted their schooner, they might swim after us, and then we would consider the matter. They made violent gestures, but the sea-breeze blowing so freshly, carried back their voices, and we knew not what they said. Carrying on as we best could with our ill-set sails, until we had made a good half mile offing, we luffed the schooner up into the wind, and with some trouble, got the canvas properly extended; then pulling the helm hard down, we got the jib-sheet to windward, and so lay to, dancing and surging merrily upon the sea.