midnight
Alexander believed it to be the hottest , dullest , and most depressing spot on either hemisphere . The merchants and other residents were astonished that Nicolas Cruger should send a lad of thirteen to represent him in matters which involved large sums of money , but they recognized young Hamilton 's ability even while they stared with some rudeness at the small figure in white linen , and the keen but very boyish face . When they passed him under the arcades , and asked him what ship he expected to heave in sight , he was tempted to say a man-of-war , but had no mind to reveal himself to the indifferent . He read from sundown until midnight or later , by the light of two long candles protected from draughts and insects by curving glass chimneys . Mosquitoes tormented him and cockroaches as long as his hand ran over the table ; occasionally a land-crab rattled across the room , or a centipede appeared on the open page . But he was accustomed to these embellishments of tropic life , and although he anathematized them and the heat , he went on with his studies . It was about this time that he began to indulge in literary composition ; and although less gifted boys than Alexander Hamilton struggle through this phase of mental development as their body runs the gamut of juvenile complaints , still it may be that had not his enormous energies been demanded in their entirety by a country in the terrible straits of rebirth , or had he dwelt on earth twenty years longer , he would have realized the ambitions of his mother and Hugh Knox , and become one of the greatest literary forces the world has had .