midnight
Perhaps much of the feeling of friendship shown to Channing was due to the fact that before he joined the _ Triton _ her captain had told his officers a story of his experiences in the West Indies , in which the officer of Marines was the central figure . Captain Reay had been sent by the senior officer of the squadron to demand the surrender of a fort on the Island of Martinique , when by an act of treachery he and his boat 's crew were made prisoners and confined in the fortress , where he was treated with almost savage brutality by the commandant . The frigate at once opened fire , but after four hours ' bombardment had failed to silence a single gun in the fort . At midnight it was carried in an attack led by young Channing , then a mere lad , and who , although two-thirds of his small force fell ere the walls were reached , refused to draw back and abandon Reay and his men . From that day Reay became his warm and sincere friend . ***** The best part of a year had passed since the _ Triton _ had sailed from Portsmouth , and now , with only the faintest air filling her canvas , she was sailing slowly along the shores of a cluster of islands , high , densely wooded , and picturesque . They formed one of the many minor groups of the beautiful and fertile Moluccas .