about nine o’clock
Having paid my respects at the Admiral 's pen , I returned to Kingston . Most of the houses in the lower part of the town are surmounted by a small lookout , as it is called , like a little belfry , and usually furnished with one or more good telescopes , fitted with green blinds . It is the habit of the Kingstonians to resort in great numbers to those gardemange-looking boxes , whenever a strange sail appears in the offing , or any circumstance takes place at sea worth reconnoitring . It was about nine o'clock on a fine morning , and I had taken my stand in one of them , peering out towards the east , but no white speck on the verge of the horizon indicated an approaching sail , so I slewed round the glass to the westward , to have a squint at the goings on amongst the squadron , lying at anchor at Port Royal , about six miles off , then mustering no fewer than eighteen pennants , viz. one line of battle ship , one fifty , five frigates , two corvettes , one ship-sloop , four eighteen gun brigs , three schooners , and a cutter . All was quiet , not even one solitary signal making amongst them ; so I again scoured the horizon towards the east , when I noticed a very dashing schooner , which had sailed that morning , as she crept along the Palisadoes . She was lying up the inner channel , taking advantage of the land-wind , in place of staggering away to the southward through the ship-channel , already within the influence of the sea breeze , but which was as yet neutralized close in shore where she was by the terral . The speed of the craft -- the rapidity with which she slid along the land with the light air , riveted my attention .