That the man was new to the coast was evident, and my consolation was that he would be very soon sick of it and pretty well frightened before he even got on shore, for the weather was freshening rapidly, a fact of which he appeared to take no heed.  Not so the boat-boys, who were anxious to be off.  At last we started, and I soon had my revenge.  As we drew near the shore the rollers became higher and higher, and I perceived that my gentleman clutched the gunwale of the boat very tightly, and when the first wave that showed signs of breaking overtook us, he grew very white in the face until it had passed.

The next one or two breakers were small, much to his relief I could see, though he said nothing.  Before he had well recovered his equanimity, however, a tremendous wave approached us somewhat suddenly.  Appalled by its threatening aspect, he sprang from his seat and seized the arm of the patrao, who roughly shook him off.

“My God!” he cried, “we are swamped!” and for the moment it really looked like it; but the patrao, with a dexterous sweep of his long oar, turned the boat’s head toward the roller.  It broke just as it reached us, and gave us the benefit of its crest, which came in over the topsides of the boat as it passed by, and deluged every one of us.

I laughed, although it was no laughing matter, at the plight the liquidator was now in.  He was changed in a moment from the spruce and natty personage into a miserable and draggled being.  From every part of him the salt water was streaming, and the curl was completely taken out of his whiskers.  He could not speak from terror, which the boat-boys soon saw, for none are quicker than negroes to detect signs of fear in those whom they are accustomed to consider superior to themselves.  Familiar with the surf, and full of mischievous fun, they began to shout and gesticulate with the settled purpose of making matters appear worse than they were, and of enjoying the white man’s discomfiture,—­all but the patrao, who was an old hand, and on whom depended the safety of us all.  He kept a steady lookout seaward, and stood upright and firm, grasping his oar with both hands.  With him it was a point of honour to bring the white men intrusted to his care safely through the surf.

We waited for more than half an hour, bow on, meeting each roller as it came to us; and by the end of that time the unfortunate liquidator had evidently given up all hope of ever reaching the shore.  Luckily, the worst was soon to pass.  After one last tremendous wave there was a lull for a few moments, and the patrao, who had watched for such a chance, swiftly turned the boat round, and giving the word to the crew, they pulled lustily toward the shore.  In a few minutes we were again in safety.  The boat grounded on the beach, the oars were tossed into the sea; the crew sprang overboard; some of them seized the new arrival; I clambered on the back of the patrao; a crowd of negroes, who had been waiting on the beach, laid hold of the tow-rope of the boat, and it and we were landed simultaneously on the dry sand.