In Such Terrible Tempests They Dreaded The Fire In Flashes Of Lightning, The Air For Its Fury, The Water For

Its mountainous waves, and the earth for hidden rocks and sands; where they expected safety in a near haven, often

Encountering danger, and therefore preferring to contend against all the other elements to avoid the land. In the midst of all these terrors there occurred another no less wonderful and dangerous, which was a water-spout rising from the sea on Thursday the 13th of December; which, if they had not dissolved by reciting the gospel of St John, had certainly sunk whatever it had fallen upon. This phenomenon draws the water up to the clouds like a pillar and thicker than a butt, twisting it about like a whirlwind.

That same night we lost sight of the ship called the Biscaina, but had the good fortune to see it again after three or four dreadful dark days. It had lost its boat and had been in great danger, being so near the land as to be forced to come to anchor, which it likewise lost by being obliged to cut the cable. It now appeared that the currents on this coast follow the prevailing wind, running westwards with the east wind, and eastwards with the west. The ships being now almost shattered to pieces by the tempest, and the men quite spent with incessant labour, a calm for a day or two gave them some relief, and brought such multitudes of sharks about the ships as were dreadful to behold, especially to such as were superstitious. Ravens are reported to smell out dead bodies from a great distance, and some think that sharks have the same perceptive faculty. They have two rows of sharp teeth in the nature of a saw, with which if they lay hold of a mans leg or arm they cut it off as with a razor. Multitudes of these sharks were caught by a hook and chain, but being able to destroy no more, they continued in vast numbers swimming about. They are so greedy that they not only bite at carrion, but may be taken by means of a red rag upon the hook. I have seen a tortoise taken out of the stomach of one of these sharks that lived for some time afterwards aboard the ship; and out of another was taken the head of one of its own kind, which we had cut off and thrown into the water as not fit to be eaten, and the shark had swallowed it, which to us seemed strange and unnatural that one creature should swallow the head of another as large as its own; this however is owing to the vast size of their mouth which reaches almost to the belly, and the head is shaped like an olive. Though some of the people considered these creatures as foreboding misfortune, and others thought them bad fish, yet we were all thankful for them on account of the want we were now in: We had been eight months at sea, so that all the flesh and fish we had brought from Spain was consumed, and owing to the heat and moisture of the atmosphere, the biscuit was become so full of maggots that many of the people waited till night before they could eat the pottage made of it, that they might not see the maggots; but others were so used to eat them that they were not curious to throw them away, lest they might lose their supper.

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