about
nine o'clock
These were not comfortable reflections ; they pressed on my mind even while engaged at my morning devotions . After performing , in the best manner I could , this never-ceasing duty , I ate a little , though I must admit it was with a small appetite . Then I made the best stowage I could of my effects , and rigged and stepped the mast , hoisting the sail , as a signal to any vessel that might appear . I expected wind ere long ; nor was I disappointed ; a moderate breeze springing up from the north-west , about nine o'clock . This air was an immense relief to me , in more ways than one . It cooled my person , which was suffering from the intense heat of a summer 's sun beating directly on a boundless expanse of water , and it varied a scene that otherwise possessed an oppressively wearisome sameness . Unfortunately this breeze met me in the bows ; for I had stepped my mast in the foremast , lashed it against the bottom of the top , which it will be remembered was now perpendicular , and stayed it to the mast-heads and dead-eyes of the top-mast rigging , all of which remained as when erect , though now floating on the water .