The heat was overpowering; the vessel, lying in a dead calm, with furled sails and overweighted by the masts, rolled heavily: burning upon deck and wearied by the motion, I longed to bathe, and although we had no boat out, I dived into the sea from the bowsprit. All went well at first, and several passengers followed my example. I swam without looking at the ship; but when I came to turn my head, I saw that the current had dragged her some distance. The sailors, alarmed, had slipped a rope to the other swimmers. Sharks appeared in the ship's waters, and the men fired at them to drive them away. The swell was so heavy that it delayed my return by exhausting my strength. I had an eddy below me, and at any moment the sharks might carry off one of my arms or legs. On board, the boatswain was trying to lower a boat, but it was necessary to fix the tackling, and all this took time. By the greatest good fortune, an almost imperceptible breeze sprang up; the vessel answered her helm a little and approached me; I was just able to catch hold of the rope, but my companions in rashness were clinging to it; when we were pulled to the ship's side, I was at the extremity of the line, and they bore upon me with all their weight. We were thus fished up one by one, which took long. The rolling continued; at each roll, we were either plunged six or seven feet into the water, or hung up as many feet in the air, like fish at the end of a line: at the last immersion, I felt ready to faint away; one roll more and it would have been over. I was hoisted on deck half dead: had I been drowned, what a good riddance for me and the rest! Two days after this accident, we came in sight of land. My heart beat fast when the captain pointed it out to me: America! It was barely indicated by the crowns of a few maple-trees standing above the water. The palms at the mouth of the Nile have since indicated the coast of Egypt for me in the same manner. A pilot came on board; we entered Chesapeake Bay. In the evening a boat was sent on shore to fetch fresh provisions. I joined the party, and soon trod American soil.