midnight
Utterly exhausted , he camped for the night on a hillock of moss that rose like an island in the swamp . After he had eaten he fed his fire with green boughs that raised a dense smoke . He lay on the leeward side where the smoke drifted over him and fought mosquitoes till a shift of the wind lessened the plague . Toward midnight he rigged up a net for protection and crawled into his blankets . Instantly he fell sound asleep . Elliot traveled next day by the compass . He had food for three days more , but he knew that no living man had the strength to travel for so long in such a morass .