Their rapid descent alone had informed them of the dangers which they ran from the waves.

However, the balloon, lightened of heavy articles, such as ammunition, arms, and provisions, had risen into the higher layers of the atmosphere, to a height of 4,500 feet.

The voyagers, after having discovered that the sea extended beneath them, and thinking the dangers above less dreadful than those below, did not hesitate to throw overboard even their most useful articles, while they endeavored to lose no more of that fluid, the life of their enterprise, which sustained them above the abyss.
The night passed in the midst of alarms which would have been death to less energetic souls.

Again the day appeared and with it the tempest began to moderate.

From the beginning of that day, the 24th of March, it showed symptoms of abating.