Soon after the big sea--which I had hoped was a final effort of the terrible storm--the gale returned and blew in the opposite direction with even greater fury than before.

I spent an awful time of it the whole night long, without a soul to speak to or help me, and every moment I thought the ship must go down, in that fearful sea.

The only living thing on board beside myself was the captain's dog, which I could occasionally hear howling dismally in the cabin below, where I had shut him in when the cyclone first burst upon me.
Among the articles carried overboard by the big sea that smashed the wheel was a large cask full of oil, made from turtle fat, in which we always kept a supply of fresh meats, consisting mainly of pork and fowls.
This cask contained perhaps twenty gallons, and when it overturned, the oil flowed all over the decks and trickled into the sea.

The effect was simply magical.

Almost immediately the storm-tossed waves in the vicinity of the ship, which hitherto had been raging mountains high, quieted down in a way that filled me with astonishment.