noon
On turning to my log , I find that on the -- , at dawn , we unmoored ship , and under all plain sail ran out of the river of Sierra Leone . As soon as we were clear of the land we shaped a course for the mouth of the Sherbro River , a locality notorious for its numerous slave depots . On our way thither we chased several sail , but some of them got off altogether , and others proved to be either British cruisers , foreign men-of-war , or honest traders ; so that not a capture of any sort or kind did we make . It was for no want of vigilance , however , on our part ; early and late , at noon and at night , I was at the masthead on the look-out for a sail . I knew that if I did not set a good example of watchfulness , others would be careless ; for I held the responsible post , with all the honour and glory attached to it , of first lieutenant of the _ Gadfly _ . `` Mr Rawson , '' said the captain one day to me , in a good-natured tone , as I was walking the quarter-deck with him , `` you will wear yourself out by your never-ceasing anxiety in looking out for slavers . There may be some , but my opinion is that they are a great deal too sharp-sighted to let us catch them in the brig. We may chance to get alongside one now and then in the boats and up the rivers , but out here it 's in vain to look for them . ''