about
noon
`` If he do , we shall quickly have his head off , and cook some slices of his body for dinner . '' I do n't think he exactly meant what he said ; at all events , I must have been excessively hungry before I could have eaten any of the hideous creature , though its flesh might possibly not be poisonous . I believe , indeed , that even the natives , who eat nearly everything , would not have been inclined to feed on its rank flesh . As we had no wish to remain in the neighbourhood , we got out the oars and rowed lustily forward ; and a fresh breeze springing up at about noon , we ran on at a good rate , though not even at the fastest did we ever make more than four knots an hour . Our average was perhaps about two , which gave twenty-four miles in the day . This , considering all things , was not bad progress . We sailed on till nightfall , in vain looking for a landing-place , while between the trees we could distinguish nothing but water extending as far as the eye could reach .