For hours I lay awake, reflecting on my awkward situation, and striving to devise some practicable means to overcome the difficulties by which I was surrounded.
I awoke at a somewhat late hour the next morning, and heard the unwonted sounds of the wind whistling and howling around my domicile.

It was blowing a gale, the beginning of a hurricane.

I hastened with eager steps to the other side of the harbor, where I found everything in confusion.

The quays were thronged with people, and every man seemed busy.

Boats were passing to and from the vessels, freighted with men to render assistance; carrying off cables and anchors, and in some cases, where the cargoes had been discharged, stone ballast, which was hastily thrown on the decks and thence transferred to the hold, fears being entertained that as the hurricane increased, the vessels in port might be forced from their anchors, and wrecked on the rocks at the entrance of the haven, or driven out into the Caribbean Sea.
The vessels were thickly moored, and cables already began to part and anchors to drag.