Page 25 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

THE DAWN OF THE EMPIRE 25

of lire whose radiance suffuses the scene with an unearthly
brilliancy. All the time the wind howls through the rigging
with a shrieking noise which deafens the ear and adds
another element of horror to impressions already fully
charged with fateful significance.
It was into such a scene as this that the two ships were
hurried on that eventful September day in 1591. For a
time they kept company, but on the evening of the fourth
day after leaving Table Bay those on the deck of the Edward
Bonavenlure saw an immense wave engulf the Penelope.
As from that moment her lights were no longer visible,
they drew the inference—correct as it proved—that she
had foundered with all on board. The Edward Bona ven­
ture continued to battle with the storm for four days.
Then an appalling catastrophe occurred which seemed
for the moment to have sealed the vessel’s fate. About
ten o’clock in the morning a flash of lightning, accompanied
by a deafening crash of thunder, struck the ship. Not a
single soul on board escaped the shock. Four men were
killed outright, “ their necks being wrung in sonder with­
out speaking any word,” as the graphic narrative of the
historian of the expedition puts it. As to the other mem­
bers of the crew, “ some were stricken blind, others were
burned in their legs and others in their breasts so that
they voided blood; while others, again, were drawn out
at length as though they had been racked.”
Happily this was the dying effort of the storm. In a
few days the conditions had so much improved that the
crew were able to rest and recover from the effects of the
lightning. A call at Zanzibar enabled Lancaster to take
on board a pilot who knew the East Indies. He is described
in the narrative of Edmund Barker, Lancaster’s sub-