Mozambique, generally meet with violent ſtorms. The gradual fall of the mercury in the barometer to the amount of eight lines, whilſt the north-eaſt winds blew from this gulph, gave us a preſage of a ſtill more violent hurricane. The clouds contained ſuch a ſuperabundance of electric matter, that though our conductors helped to draw off a portion of it, the lightning frequently ſtruck into the water at the diſtance of a few yards from our veſſel. A gale from the eaſt, which brought back fair weather, was preceded by a riſe of two lines in the mercury of the barometer. On the 1ſt of March, the ſea was ſwelled to ſuch a height by this gale, that we often loſt ſight of our conſort behind the billows. This veſſel, ſeen at the diſtance of two or three hundred toiſes, preſented a magnificent ſpectacle; ſometimes it appeared buried in the waves; again it emerged, and mounted to the very ſummit of the ſurge, ſhewing a great part of its keel above the water.
3d. As the ſwell abated, we knew that we had ſailed beyond the mouth of the channel of Mozambique; for, although the wind continued to blow with nearly the ſame violence as on the preceding days, the ſea, being ſheltered by the coaſts of Madagaſcar, became very tranquil. We ſaw a prodigious quantity of the fucus pyriformis, the
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