four o'clock
There is something peculiarly soothing in this scene -- something in the soft light of the heavens , and in the dark and dimly-seen ocean , that induces a pleasing melancholy , a pensive tranquillity ; the low , gentle murmuring of the waves calms the mind , tranquillizes its angry passions and boisterous feelings , and brings on those dreamy reveries that contemplative people are so fond of indulging . It is then , when the `` grim-visaged '' ocean has `` smoothed his wrinkled front , '' -- when the winds of heaven are hushed to gentle airs , and the cloudless moon looks down upon the scene , tipping the crests of the lazy waves with silver , -- that the memory and imagination of the wanderer are busy ; it is then that the scenes of childhood and of manhood -- the forms of friends , more loved because sundered from them by thousands of miles of water and land -- all rise before him in original freshness and beauty . Isabella also proposed to her lover to accompany him in his middle watch -- that is , from midnight to four in the morning -- but I grieve to say , that she proved worse on these occasions than an old man-of-war 's man , not only `` standing two calls , '' but , in fact , not `` turning out '' at all . She made some amends , however , by coming on deck at four o'clock frequently , to witness that splendid spectacle , sunrise at sea , which is particularly glorious between the tropics , not only on account of the extreme purity of the air , but from the shortness of the morning twilight ; the sun rushing so suddenly from his salt water couch , as to come `` within one '' of catching the stars napping . On arriving at Macao , Isabella was doomed to undergo another separation from her beloved Morton , whose qualities of head and heart she had had sufficient opportunities of studying and appreciating during the voyage from Mexico , and in the daily and familiar intercourse of a merchant-ship 's cabin . As the Chinese eschew the society of foreign women even more rigorously than the children of Israel did that of `` strange '' ones -- and , taking this notion of theirs `` by and large '' in connection with their laws , and manners , and tastes , we think they are perfectly right -- Isabella was consequently landed at Macao , and placed in the care of a venerable and highly respectable Portuguese family , and after having arranged the means of as regular a correspondence as could be carried on in that country , where there are not quite so many mail-coaches and post-offices as with us , she saw with tearful eyes the whale-boat `` shove off , '' containing in its stern-sheets Morton , a Chinese custom-house mandarin , two Chinese pigs , a hind-quarter of Chinese beef , a Chinese river pilot , and sundry baskets of Chinese fowls and vegetables . Macao is beautifully situated upon a small island , near the mouth of the river Tigris , commanding a fine view towards the sea , and was , when I had the fortune to visit it , very clean and neat in its streets and the external condition of its houses -- a circumstance the more remarkable , as its inhabitants are Portuguese and Chinese , two of the dirtiest people on the face of the earth : to these , of course , numerous other nations and parts of nations may be added ; and among them , a very large proportion of the aristocratic and fastidious English , who prefer spitting in their pocket-handkerchiefs instead of the fire-place or the street ; all the Spaniards ; all the French in their houses , and food , and furniture ; all the Dutch in their persons ; all the Russians in every thing ; nearly all the Irish and Scotch ; and a very respectable modicum of my beloved countrymen , the Yankees , together with the greater part of the natives of the southern states , who , being nursed , brought up , and associating with negro slaves from the cradle to the grave , _ smell _ dirty , if they are not .