Run too long and you will have an anxious time of it as I had once off the River Plate on my yawl the Falcon. A gale had sprung up, and as it was favourable for us, bound as we were for Bahia, I imprudently determined to make use of it instead of heaving to, and ran before it under trysail and storm jib. But it proved to be more than an ordinary gale and developed into a three-days Pampero—the hurricane wind of those latitudes. Very shortly so high a sea was running that I did not dare attempt to heave her to; so on we scudded for three days and nights, steering for our lives, and having a very bad time of it. On the second day we had a very narrow escape, for we were pooped by a gigantic wave and were in great danger of foundering. The following passage from my narrative of that cruise may serve as a warning to those who would run on when they had much better heave-to.
'It is generally observed that during a prolonged gale two or four rollers, far higher than any others, occur at long intervals, say of twelve hours, and it is no doubt, as a rule, one of such exceptionally lofty and breaking seas that overwhelms a vessel and causes her to founder. At four o'clock on this particular afternoon two such billows came right astern. I was steering at the time, and looking over my shoulder I perceived a huge wave of green water, with an ugly, over-curling, breaking crest, rapidly overtaking us. It seemed that it must of a
