noon
The difficulty was to ascertain the places in the hands of the republicans , for they might have possession of a town one day , and it might be taken from them the next . I was perfectly ready to fight , but I had no special wish to do so if it could be avoided ; and I was therefore glad to see our sails fill out with the steady breeze , and to find that we were dropping the boats astern . The corvette was still coming on , but she no longer gained on us ; and the wind still further increasing , we found that the _ Flying Fish _ was much the faster craft . We were compelled , however , to haul our wind and stand off the coast ; and soon after noon had run the corvette out of sight . This adventure delayed us . After standing off for some days , we hove to , keeping a sharp look-out . The next morning , having a good breeze , we again stood in towards the coast .