noon
At that , we put down our hands and scooped up some of the water to taste , and thus we discovered it to be brackish and quite undrinkable , at which I was amazed , until the bo ` sun reminded us that the canvas had been saturated for many days with salt water , so that it would take a great quantity of fresh before all the salt was washed out . Then he told us to lay it flat upon the beach , and scour it well on both sides with the sand , which we did , and afterwards let the rain rinse it well , whereupon the next water that we caught we found to be near fresh ; though not sufficiently so for our purpose . Yet when we had rinsed it once more , it became clear of the salt , so that we were able to keep all that we caught further . And then , something before noon , the rain ceased to fall , though coming again at odd times in short squalls ; yet the wind died not , but blew steadily , and continued so from that quarter during the remainder of the time that we were upon the island . Upon the ceasing of the rain , the bo ` sun called us all together , that we might make a decent burial of the unfortunate lad , whose remains had lain during the night upon one of the bottom-boards of the boat . After a little discussion , it was decided to bury him in the beach ; for the only part where there was soft earth was in the valley , and none of us had a stomach for that place . Moreover , the sand was soft and easy to dig , and as we had no proper tools , this was a great consideration .