Page 147 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

128 SURVEY OF THE [cm.

the water being tolerably smooth, we let go
two anchors in three fathoms. She then
swung round, and we had no bottom under
the stern at eighty fathoms. Had the ship

fetched a few yards further to the northward,
or had the Captains vigilance slumbered for
an instant, nothing could have saved us from
destruction; and, with the impression of our
narrow escape still on our minds, we viewed
with some anxiety the precarious nature of
our anchorage. We were on the verge of a
steep bank or precipice, from whence, in case
our anchors had dragged, we should have been
again away with our bagala,—whether to
drift on other rocks to leeward, or to proceed
again on an unknown sea, with wind and sea

both increasing, was equally uncertain. The
scene will not readily be forgotten by those
who witnessed it.
Through the gloom of a dark night, yet
further increased by a musky haze, we could
perceive, towering far above the mast-heads
of the vessel, a huge perpendicular range of
mountains, against the base of which, appa­

rently within a few yards of us, the surf was
beating with that hoarse and sullen roar