This Almost Unceasing
War Of The Elements Perplexed The Men And Reduced Them Almost To Despair,
So That They Were Continually Wet And Could Not Get Half An Hours Rest At
A Time, Always Beating Up To Windward.
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.
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