ten o'clock
The high land was by this time well in sight all along our larboard beam , being certainly not more than forty miles distant ; and the circumstance that Carera was afraid of the shoal and determined to keep off it was greatly in our favour , since in order to clear Portland Rock , at its north-eastern extremity , we should have to draw even closer still in with the island . I was at first terribly afraid that some suspicion would attach to my comrade and myself as the authors of the error in the course we had been steering , but I was agreeably disappointed ; so far , indeed , was Carera from suspecting anything that he confided to us at breakfast -- to which we had invited him -- that , though he could not in the least account for our being so far to windward , he was most heartily glad of it , since we appeared to have the sea all to ourselves . He was still a trifle uneasy , however , at being so near the very stronghold and head-quarters of the dreaded British in those waters ; and when we all went on deck after breakfast , his first act was to order a hand aloft to the mast-head to keep a bright lookout . It was just ten o'clock in the forenoon , and the man at the mast-head was in the very act of descending the rigging -- another man getting ready meanwhile to relieve him -- when he uttered an excited exclamation which at once attracted all eyes toward him . `` Look over there , captain , broad on our weather bow . Do you see that turtle lying there asleep on the water ? '' Carera sprang on to the weather rail , and , steadying himself with one hand by the shroud whilst he shielded his eyes with the other , peered eagerly to windward .