about midnight
However , I got some ease by leaving my handkerchief to soak in the dew and then sucking it . Several times during the night I had got on to the upper poop -- the deck above the poop anciently termed the poop-royal -- and looked around me . But there was nothing to see , not a shadow to catch the eye . The breeze freshened somewhat about midnight , and the air was made pleasant by the musical noises of running waters . I fell asleep an hour before dawn , and when I awoke the early ashen line was brightening in the east . The birth of the day is rapid in those parallels , and the light of the morning was soon all over sea and sky . I turned to search the ocean , and the first thing I saw was a brig not above half a mile from the island .