nine o'clock at night
The captain brought out a bottle of his favorite arrack , and he and I had a glass together -- in which , as I thought rather hard , Bowers was not given a chance to join us -- and then we went on deck and walked up and down for a while , smoking our pipes and talking about the weather and the prospects for the voyage . And it all went so easily and so pleasantly that I could n't help laughing a little to myself over my scare . I turned in early , for I was pretty well tired after so lively a day ; but when I got into my bunk I could not get to sleep for a long while -- although the bunk was a good one and the easy motion of the brig lulled me -- for the excitement I was in because my voyage fairly was begun . I slipped through my mind all that had happened to me that day -- from my meeting with Captain Luke in the forenoon until there I was , at nine o'clock at night , fairly out at sea ; and I was so pleased with the series of lucky chances which had put me on my way so rapidly that my one mischance -- my scare about the shackles -- seemed utterly absurd . It was perfectly reasonable , I reflected , for Captain Luke to carry out a lot of shackles simply as `` trade . '' It was pretty dirty `` trade , '' of course , but so was the vile so-called brandy he was carrying out with him ; and so , for that matter , were the arms -- which pretty certainly would be used in slaving forays up from the Coast . And even supposing the very worst -- that Captain Luke meant to ship a cargo of slaves himself and had these irons ready for them -- that worst would come after I was out of the brig and done with her ; the captain having told me that Loango , which was my landing-place , would be his first port of call .