noon
The only attack to which I was subjected took place in the capstan-house , for so the place was called where we were bivouacked during the heaving down of the ship . I record it , not that my conduct under the disease may be imitated , but on account of the singularity of the access , and the rapidity of the cure . I had to tow , from Port Royal up to Kingston , a powder-boy , and , through some misconduct of the coxswain , the boat 's awning had been left behind . Six or seven hours under a sun , vertical at noon , through the hottest part of the day , and among the swamps and morasses , so luxuriant in vegetable productions , that separate Port Royal from Kingston , is a good ordeal by which to try a European constitution . For the first time , my stamina seemed inclined to succumb before it . When I returned to Port Royal , at about four in the afternoon , the first peculiar sensation with which I was attacked was a sort of slipping of the ground from under me as I trod , and a notion that I could skim along the surface of the earth if I chose , without using my legs . Then I was not , as is most natural to a fasting midshipman , excessively hungry , but excessively jocular .