Three o'clock in the afternoon
Moreover , with the full return of my senses I became aware that , after all , my painful efforts had not been nearly so ineffectual as I had imagined them to be , the land being now appreciably nearer than it had been at daylight that morning , a few of its bolder details being now visible . And now once more I was sufficiently rational to take cognisance of the flight of time . I was not at all certain of my bearings , but I felt that the sun must certainly have crossed the meridian -- that the eternity of suffering through which I had passed could never have been compressed into a short half-hour or so -- and if I was correct in this surmise the hour must be somewhere about three o'clock in the afternoon . Three o'clock in the afternoon ! And the land still so far away that many further hours of toil and agony must be endured ere I might hope to reach it ! My brain reeled again at the mere prospect of it , and in a perfect frenzy of despair I resumed my paddle , crying aloud mad , incoherent prayers to God that He would either send me help in my extremity , or mercifully put an immediate end to my sufferings . Then another thought came to torment me : in something like three hours the sun would set , darkness would encompass me about , and if the sky should become obscured with clouds and the stars be hidden , how should I continue to find my way ?