ten o'clock
The place was uninhabited , though , far back , from the lofty mountains of the interior , we could see several columns of smoke arising , showing the position of mountaineer villages . It was then ten o'clock in the morning , and Poore , feeling certain that in this part of the coast there were no native villages , determined to go ashore , and do a little prospecting . -LRB- I must mention that , owing to light weather and calms , we had been obliged to anchor where we had to avoid being drifted on shore by the fierce currents , which everywhere sweep and eddy around Rook Island , and that we were quite twenty miles from the place where the copper lode had been discovered . -RRB- Taking with us two of the native seamen , Poore and I set off on shore shortly after ten o'clock , and landed on a rough , shingly beach . The extent of littoral on this part of the island was very small , a bold lofty chain of mountains coming down to within a mile of the sea , and running parallel with the coast as far as we could see . The vegetation was dense , and in some places came down to the water 's edge , and although the country showed a tropical luxuriance of beauty about the seashore , the dark , gloomy , and silent mountain valleys which everywhere opened up from the coast , gave it a repellent appearance in general . Leaving the natives -LRB- who were armed with rifles and tomahawks -RRB- in charge of the boat , and telling them to pull along the shore and stop when we stopped , Poore and I set out to walk .