Our eyes were blinded, our ears deafened, with the roar and glare.

The clouds above, the ocean beneath, seemed verily to have taken fire, and several times I saw forked lightnings dart upwards from the crest of the waves, and mingle with those that radiated from the fiery vault above.

A strong odour of sulphur pervaded the air, but though thunderbolts fell thick around us, not one had touched our raft.
By two o'clock the storm had reached its height.

The hurricane had increased, and the heavy waves, heated to a strange heat by the general temperature, dashed over us until we were drenched to the skin.

Curtis, Dowlas, the boatswain, and the sailors did what they could to strengthen the raft with additional ropes.