four o’clock in the morning
`` Let us put off the visit until our next trip , '' said Joe , laughing . `` Besides , my friends , unless I am mistaken , the wind has a slight tendency to veer a little more to the eastward , and we must not lose such an opportunity . '' The doctor threw overboard some articles that were no longer of use -- some empty bottles , and a case that had contained preserved-meat -- and thereby managed to keep the balloon in a belt of the atmosphere more favorable to his plans . At four o'clock in the morning the first rays of the sun lighted up Sego , the capital of Bambarra , which could be recognized at once by the four towns that compose it , by its Saracenic mosques , and by the incessant going and coming of the flat-bottomed boats that convey its inhabitants from one quarter to the other . But the travellers were not more seen than they saw . They sped rapidly and directly to the northwest , and the doctor 's anxiety gradually subsided . `` Two more days in this direction , and at this rate of speed , and we 'll reach the Senegal River . ''