About ten o'clock in the morning of the 25th August 1867
We pulled on shore , but , after exploring the island , it was found to yield nothing attractive to seamen except cocoa-nuts , with which our crew had soon supplied themselves as largely as they wished , and fish , which were abundant and easily caught , and of which they were soon tired . The captain , therefore , when he had recovered his sobriety and his courage , had no great difficulty in inducing them to return to the ship , and endeavour either to get her off or construct from her timbers a raft which , following the course of the winds , might , it was thought , bring them into the track of vessels . This would take some time , and I meanwhile was allowed to remain -LRB- my own wish -RRB- on _ terra firma _ ; the noise , dirt , and foul smells of the vessel being , especially in that climate , intolerable . `` About ten o'clock in the morning of the 25th August 1867 , I was lying towards the southern end of the island , on a little hillock tolerably clear of trees , and facing a sort of glade or avenue , covered only with brush and young trees , which allowed me to see the sky within perhaps twenty degrees of the horizon . Suddenly , looking up , I saw what appeared at first like a brilliant star considerably higher than the sun . It increased in size with amazing rapidity , till , in a very few seconds after its first appearance , it had a very perceptible disc . For an instant it obscured the sun .