About midnight
These matters were talked over , and the captain proposed abandoning the jolly-boat altogether , and to take us into the launch , though there was not much vacant space to receive us . But the mate resisted this , answering that he thought he could take care of our boat a while longer , at least . Accordingly , the old arrangement was maintained , the party endeavouring to keep as near together as possible . About midnight it began to blow in squalls , and two or three times we found it necessary to take in our sails , our oars , and pull the boat head to sea , in order to prevent her swamping . The consequence was , that we lost sight of the launch , and , though we always kept away to our course as soon as the puffs would allow , when the sun rose we saw nothing of our late companions . I have sometimes thought Mr. Marble parted company on purpose , though he seemed much concerned next morning when he had ascertained the launch was nowhere to be seen . After looking about for an hour , and the wind moderating , we made sail close on the wind ; a direction that would soon have taken us away from the launch , had the latter been close alongside when we first took it .