16
FOUR YEARS’ RESIDENCE
when the dead-lights were shipped in the cabin windows ; their fears, however, could hardly exceed their danger, which was truly great. We had been obliged to anchor our vessel in the Downs ; but we had not been long in this position, before our alarm was excited by a sudden crash : one of our cables had snapped, and we were shortly forced to cut the other, to avoid being run down by an East India ship, which, in the gloomy darkness of the night, had come upon us unawares, and we were only warned of its approach by the shouts of its crew, and by the faint lights which now and then glimmered on its deck. We remained beating about the Downs, at the mercy of the wind and waves, during the rest of the night, and at the dawn of day succeeded, with difficulty, in making the harbour of Portsmouth ; where we will leave our indulgent readers, to take a cup of coffee, and some hot rolls, for our breakfast, as they come fresh from the land.