midnight
We were still fixed immovably in the same place : all motive powers seemed to have forsaken the elements -- the sea was like a sheet of glass , the sails hung loose from the masts , and the men lay listless about , overcome with heat , and yawning in lethargy . It was impossible to keep me below . I required air to keep me breathing , and felt a strange melancholy relief from fixing my eyes on the very scene of my terrors . Every effort to occupy my mind was vain ; and I lay , for hours at a time , with my eyes fixed on the shore , piercing the deep , wooded hollows , following the faint traces of the savages as they disappeared among the thick trees , and investing every naked demon with all the characteristics of the followers of the mysterious midnight rites in which I conceived they engaged when the hour of their orgies came . I often saw individuals -- rendered gigantic by the magnifying medium of the thick vapour -- come down to the beach , and fix their gaze on us for a time , and then pace back again to the wooded recesses . Sometimes , when unable to sleep , I crept up from the cabin , and sat and surveyed the silent scene around me -- the hazy moon , throwing her thick beams over the calm sea -- the dark shadows of unknown birds sailing slowly through the air , and uttering at intervals sounds I had never heard before -- the fires of the inhabitants among the trees on the coast , that sent up a long column of red light through the atmosphere , and exhibited the flitting bodies of the naked beings as they danced round the objects of their rites . It is impossible for me , by any language of which I have the power , to convey an adequate conception of my feelings during these hours .