about 6 A.M.
By the way , the very reefs that made those seas so dangerous served completely to protect my little island in stormy weather . The fury of the billows lost itself upon them , so that even the surf very rarely reached me . I was usually astir about sunrise . I knew that the sun rose about 6 A.M. in those tropical seas and set at 6 P.M. ; there was very little variation all the year round . A heavy dew descended at night , which made the air delightfully cool ; but in the day it was so frightfully hot that I could not bear the weight of ordinary clothes upon my person , so I took to wearing a silk shawl instead , hung loosely round my waist . Another reason why I abandoned clothes was because I found that when a rent appeared the sun blazed down through it and raised a painful blister . On the other hand , by merely wearing a waist-cloth , and taking constant sea baths , I suffered scarcely at all from the scorching tropical sun .