five o’clock in the evening
Three days passed . They neared Manaos . Twenty-four hours more and the raft would be off the mouth of the Rio Negro , before the capital of the province of Amazones . In fact , on the 23d of August , at five o'clock in the evening , they stopped at the southern point of Muras Island , on the right bank of the stream . They only had to cross obliquely for a few miles to arrive at the port , but the pilot Araujo very properly would not risk it on that day , as night was coming on . The three miles which remained would take three hours to travel , and to keep to the course of the river it was necessary , above all things , to have a clear outlook . This evening the dinner , which promised to be the last of this first part of the voyage , was not served without a certain amount of ceremony .