midday
Then I sent them for ` ard to the windlass to assist in breaking out the anchor ; and it was not until the schooner was actually adrift that I permitted them to begin the transfer of their wounded from the _ Martha 's _ deck to the canoe . They displayed remarkably little consideration for the comfort and wellbeing of their comrades in the performance of this duty ; and indeed I have always been of opinion that had I been foolish enough to liberate Oahika before the others had been transhipped , he and his canoemen would have incontinently made off at top speed for the shore , leaving the others , sound and wounded alike , upon our hands and at our mercy . But I was careful to keep Oahika until the last , and it was not until the schooner was fairly under way and heading out to sea that I cast him adrift and permitted him to go over the side , which he did in a splutter of mingled wrath and fear , pouring out a long string of what were probably native curses as he seized the steering paddle and violently thrust the canoe off the schooner 's side . By midday we were bowling merrily away to the westward under every rag that we could set , and Roua Poua had sunk out of sight beneath the eastern horizon . Long before this , however -- in fact , the moment that they were safely aboard and comfortably bestowed in their bunks -- Cunningham had taken the three wounded seamen in hand ; and when he had done all that he could for them he came up on deck and reported to me . `` I am afraid , '' he said , `` that there is not much hope for those three , '' with a jerk of his thumb in the direction of the forecastle . `` Sullivan and Halpin have had their skulls cracked by blows inflicted with a war club , and their cases are very similar to that of the skipper , but worse ; while poor Glenn has no less than eleven spear wounds in his body , and though none of them is very serious in itself this heat makes me terribly afraid of gangrene .